But the morning of their departure, a stone-carved blood rune had been found at the home of one of the politicians involved. And Arrow’s sword had picked up a trace of surjusi.
So, there was no holiday. For now. Instead, there was another residence for her, the move easily accomplished as her bags were already packed, the vehicle gifted to her by the ‘kin fitting neatly into the parking space behind the cottage next to a compact workshop.
And instead of exploring the human world, and uninterrupted time with Kester, her days were filled with a seemingly never-ending search of buildings, not finding anything. Night after night was marred by interrupted sleep, the remnants of the nightmare never clear. And she had seen Kester perhaps three times, mostly with other people around them.
She found she was staring out of the window, eyes hot, and blinked, bringing herself back to the here and now. There was work to do.
“You studied the plans?” Zachary asked her.
“Yes.” She never knew how the ‘kin managed to get the plans, but for every residence and office they had searched, she had been given a copy of the building’s layout beforehand. This set of plans had been far more detailed. “And I also wondered about a hidden room.” She was no architect, to understand buildings by instinct, but she had seen enough plans now to know that something was not right with this set.
“Matt’s convinced of it. And really annoyed he can’t take part in the search.”
“How is Tamara?”
“Alright.” Zachary stared out of the window for a moment, tension clear. “The later stages of pregnancy can be difficult for us. She is more or less confined to their home.” They had a residence her in Lix, as well as on Farraway Mountain, Arrow knew.
“She will hate that.” Arrow liked Matthias’ mate, and knew enough about her to realise that the wide smile and easy, friendly manner hid a sharp mind and a typical shifkin need to be busy.
“She does. And Matt’s grouchy, too, as he’s staying with her.” Zachary’s tension vanished into a grin. “We’ve got her reviewing the plans and researching. Con and Will are being her eyes and ears outside. I think Tamara will have everything sorted before we do.”
“No doubt.”
“It was Tamara who found this place,” Zachary added.
Arrow lifted a brow. She had wondered who had made the connection, and how. A restless, determined Tamara answered both those questions. The ownership of the building had been hidden behind shell companies, traced eventually back to Norman Merkel, the disgraced mayor of Lix. Despite the efforts of the interrogators, none of the conspirators were sharing information. Not yet. It was only a matter of time. The humans were used to facing their own kind, who believed passionately in a fair justice system and no undue coercion of prisoners. They were now dealing with Erith and shifkin, who had a far more direct and, in many cases, brutal idea of justice.
“It was well hidden. Hopefully that means there’s something there. It’s in the same estate,” Zachary added, shaking his head.
The same estate. The one where his former mate had lived with her new lover for a decade. Where the Descendants had plotted to overthrow the Erith, practising unclean magic in an underground space the smell of which Arrow could still remember.
“Should we simply search the entire estate?” Arrow suggested, only partly joking. There had been too much connected with those human buildings.
“Tony’s working on it,” Zachary answered, not joking at all. Tony was the shifkin’s lawyer, one of the most formidable women Arrow had met. “Meantime, we’ve got access to the Merkel house. Matt’s had a team there since we found it, keeping an eye out.”
They were on one of Lix’ main streets now, four lanes of traffic moving freely in the early summer morning, Rose keeping pace with the other vehicles.
“How’s Kester?” Zachary asked. Not an idle question.
Arrow opened her mouth to answer and was interrupted by Paul.
“On your six.” The tension in his voice had Arrow’s immediate and full attention.
“Got it.”
“And twelve,” Zachary added, grim.
The relaxed atmosphere changed at once. Paul drew a matte black automatic weapon from somewhere at his feet. Zachary pulled a similar weapon from under his seat.
“Can you ward us?” he asked, voice calm.
“Yes.”
The car filled with silver as Arrow raised her wards, the light dimming as she sent the wards to coat the outside of the vehicle.
Not a moment too soon.
The vehicle shuddered as something hit it head-on. The engine cover flew up, blocking the view for a moment before it spun away, front of the vehicle filled with white as the airbags deployed.
Arrow cried out involuntarily as her wards flexed, pouring more power into them. Hold. Hold. Hold. Her glamour fell away as her eyes flared to silver, body tense with the effort.
Tyres squealed as the vehicle spun with the impact. Round and round, the world outside a sickening spin. Arrow’s seatbelt dug into her shoulder, pinning her in place. Rose was spitting curses as she fought with the driving wheel, twisted in her seat to see past the airbag, trying to hold them on the road.
“Another one.” Paul sounded nearly as calm as Zachary had.
Arrow pushed the wards out again, the silver power inside her welling up in response, seemingly endless, waiting and eager to be used.
The next strike shook the vehicle, the side beside Arrow flexing with impact, wards holding. They did not spin, though, finally coming to a stop.
Then the ‘kin were out of the vehicle, weapons up and ready, Arrow scrabbling to unfasten her seatbelt and follow them, ears ringing with the aftermath of so much magic use.
She made it onto the road surface just as the bullets started.
Wards.
Battle wards. Nothing should get in. Weapons could get out.
Wards up. Pushed out, covering the ‘kin. And a few, dazed, humans whose vehicles looked like they had been half-crushed by whatever had hit the ‘kin vehicle. A familiar-looking, blackened crater in the road surface where they had been driving. She remembered seeing similar damage on the road from Hallveran. A rocket launcher.
Someone had used a rocket launcher. In the middle of the city. Aimed at the Prime. And if she had not been in the vehicle with them, they would be dead. Her stomach twisted.
No time to think about that. She hissed as bullets bounced off her wards.
“Magic bullets,” she told the ‘kin, not sure if they would hear her. Ordinary bullets with a penetrative spell added. Designed to punch through most wards. Humans thought they were effective. They were against human wards. Not against an Erith battle ward. Each strike was a small point of pain, requiring extra focus to hold her ward, and more energy to defend against.
As well as the bullets and crack of gunfire, there was screaming from the nearby humans, squeals of tyres as other vehicles tried to stop and avoid more collisions. And in the distance, faint over the other sounds, the familiar wail of sirens.
“They’re too spread out,” Paul commented. The ‘kin were crouched behind a nearby vehicle, providing them with some cover against the bullets.
“Idiots,” Zachary muttered. “Covering fire,” he told the ‘kin. “Arrow, stay here and hold the ward.”
She barely had time to nod before Zachary had shifted, his human form blurring, transforming into a large, black wolf-like creature who sprang over the vehicle in an effortless bound, moving too quickly for Arrow’s eyes to track.
Rose and Paul had no such difficulty, rising slightly from their crouched positions, weapons ready, firing with steady, methodical bursts. Drawing the attention of the attackers.
Arrow focused on her breathing for a moment, holding the wards, the hiss of bullets fading under Rose and Paul’s counter-fire, and fading completely into screams of terror and pain and the unmistakable snarl of a shifkin fury.
“You alright?” Rose asked. The woman was kneeling in
front of Arrow, the side of her face coated with blood from a head wound, eyes glowing with power.
“Yes,” Arrow answered, years of having to show no weakness making the response automatic before her body and mind caught up with the word. She straightened and winced. “Ribs hurt a bit.”
“Being in a car crash will do that for you,” Rose nodded. She stood up, and Arrow realised that one of her thumbs was bent at an odd angle. Arrow must have made a noise as the ‘kin looked down and grimaced. “Air bags. Useful for saving your life. Bloody nuisance for fingers. All clear?”
This last directed to someone outside Arrow’s immediate sight.
“Zach’s got them all,” Paul answered. He sounded grim again.
Arrow pushed herself up, using the vehicle to assist, cataloguing minor injuries. Ribs. Shoulder. Headache.
The wards were still up. She walked, slowly, with the ‘kin across the now-empty road to where Zachary, back in human form, was lining up a row of what looked like a dozen bodies next to the vehicle they had been travelling in.
Not all dead, Arrow realised at once. Many of them were simply unconscious. A couple were lying with their heads at an odd angle from their bodies. All were dressed in an approximation of the close-fitting combat clothing that Rose and Paul were wearing. All were human.
The sword woke up as they approached the group. Not fully awake. Just enough to catch Arrow’s attention.
“There is a stone here,” Arrow told the others. She did not need to specify which stone.
“Thought there might be,” Zachary answered. “I recognise a few of them from Merkel’s associates.”
“Is this all of them?” Rose asked. She and Paul were standing facing out in different directions, weapons held so that they were ready to use.
“All the ones I could find. No rocket launcher, though.”
Even as he said that, a dark blot at the edge of Arrow’s vision caught her attention. She turned, wards rising in response to her alarm, and saw something small and black moving at speed towards them.
Everything went black.
There was a roar in her ears. Taste of copper in her mouth. Her whole body was sore. Toes to fingers. Aching. And the ground was moving.
“Arrow.”
Someone was shouting her name. Far too loud.
She blinked, vision blurred, and was blinded by brightness. There was a rounded shape above her.
“She’s awake.”
Why were they shouting?
Another blurred shape replaced the first.
“Arrow.” She knew that voice. Zachary.
She tried to sit up and hissed, falling back, blinking rapidly to clear her eyes. Her face was wet.
“Stay still for a bit. We’re safe.”
“What happened?” At least, those were the words she tried to shape, but the sound that emerged was unclear.
“Rocket launcher,” Zachary answered, somehow understanding her question. She blinked and her vision cleared. He was crouching beside her, hair in a wild tangle, blood at his ears and nose. “Straight at us. Your wards held. But we all got thrown about a bit.”
A bit. Arrow frowned. The Prime’s definition and hers might be quite different. She managed to sit up, wincing at the pain across her ribs, and blinked again. A bit, indeed.
They were up against the wall of an office building, the vehicle they had been travelling in across the other side of the street along with a scattering of black-clad bodies. Four lanes of traffic and a wide pavement away.
She sat up straighter, ignoring the pain, as she assessed the damage. The once-ordinary street had been turned into a battleground. The shifkin vehicle was battered, almost unrecognisable from the outside, panels twisted and bent. There were two large craters, blackened tarmac several times the size of the vehicle, in the road surface, several more vehicles showing damage, and bodies lying across the street. The humans that the Prime had captured. And others. Bystanders, easily identifiable by their bright summer clothes.
Everything seemed too bright, her vision flickering. Then she realised that it was the lights from the emergency services vehicles, parked a prudent distance from the blackened craters in the road surface, uniformed personnel moving slowly across the scene, checking the prone bodies as they went. Even as Arrow watched, one of the officers shouted, kneeling by one of the bright-clad bodies. Others rushed to join her. One alive, at least.
She blinked, damp on her face, and turned back to Zachary. He was looking at something past her shoulder. She followed the line of his gaze and found Paul lying on the ground, face twisted in a grimace of pain, Rose kneeling beside him, her face wet with tears.
“Broken back,” Zachary murmured, grief in his voice. Backs were difficult, Arrow knew.
“I need power,” she told the Prime, voice slurred. The well inside her was all but gone, barely enough to do what was needed.
“Where?”
“Soil. Ground.”
“Rose, let’s get the tree up.”
Arrow watched as the pair of ‘kin grabbed hold of one of the trees planted along the pavement. Even with two of them, even with their great strength, it took a huge effort for the tree to move. They pulled it mostly out and Zachary came back to her side, breathing heavy, and half-carried her to the hole in the ground.
It took several tries to get the necessary cut across her hand, blood dripping into the soil before she put the open wound against the soil.
The land might be buried under concrete now, neglected by humans, but it had been Erith once, and had lain untapped for years. The power was sluggish, slow to wake, and, for a long moment, Arrow thought it would not be enough. Then the trickle of warm fed back up through her arm, the well inside her filling up. More slowly than she would have liked. And there was not enough power to fill her completely. Enough for healing and defence. She hoped.
She struggled upright, using the tree to get to her feet, and staggered the few paces across to Paul, sliding down the nearest wall to sit beside him.
His breath was shallow, an odd twist in his torso showing where the damage was.
“May I?” Arrow asked, not sure if she was asking Paul or Rose. They both nodded.
She opened her second sight, putting one hand on Paul’s wrist. She was no healer, but there were things she could do.
The pulse under her fingers was light and rapid, Paul’s colours in second sight twisted and damaged. Dying. Not just a broken back. Internal damage. Far more badly damaged than she had thought. He should not be awake.
“I will give you a healing just now,” she told him, gathering power. “Try not to move.”
The silver power inside came to her call. Not enough to heal him completely. Enough to keep him alive.
She poured everything she had into Paul, every last drop of power, second sight fading as her power died, and came back to the first world to find the tension draining out of Paul’s body, Rose biting her lip.
“He will hold for a while longer,” Arrow told them, opening her bag and finding a healing potion. For a moment she wondered about giving one to Paul. But Erith potions and ‘kin did not always mix well. “Give me a moment.” She swallowed the potion in one hasty gulp and doubled over for a moment as the power coursed through her body, repairing damage she had not been aware of.
When she was back in the first world again, the well of power trickling back to life, she dug into her bag again, finding what she wanted. A small, dark piece of slate etched with a rune. She activated it with a word and tiny spark of power.
Kallish’s face appeared in the air above the slate almost at once. The warrior looked tense.
“Mage. Where are you? There are reports of gunfire.”
“And rocket launchers, yes. I am …” Arrow glanced up, looking for street signs. Zachary spoke the address, clearly enough for Kallish to hear. “There has been trouble,” Arrow added.
“Always around you. We are on our way.”
“Wait. Bring Orlis. One of the ‘kin
is badly injured, and there are innocents caught in this, too.”
“I will send Xeveran for him. We will be there soon.”
The connection cut.
“The Erith do not owe us,” Rose said, voice harsh.
“Orlis will not care,” Arrow answered, pressing a hand to her side and grimacing. Her ribs were still sore.
“Will he be ok?” Rose asked in a whisper, trembling, eyes on her mate.
“If anyone can help, it is Orlis,” Arrow told her. “Do not give up.”
“Stay there a moment,” Zachary told them, stepping away. A coil of power licked across Arrow’s senses. Zachary was angry. And loosening his power in a public space. That did not seem safe.
CHAPTER 3
There were humans, three of them, picking their way through debris and bodies towards the Prime. One of them was Deputy Chief Summerland, the other two unknown, one in uniform, one in a business suit. They were all taking in their surroundings with wide eyes, bodies tense as they walked. Anger or fear, Arrow was not sure.
“What is the meaning of this?” the man in the business suit demanded when they were in human hearing distance. “We will not have your internal conflict brought to our streets.”
Zachary stayed still, and silent, until they were within a few paces of him, then took one, deliberate pace forward. Arrow tensed. She could hear the low hum of ‘kin anger from here.
“Our attackers were human,” the Prime told the group, voice mild. Arrow was not fooled. Nor was Lisa Summerland. She swallowed, hard, and opened her mouth to say something.
“That’s your excuse?”
Arrow blinked at the venom in the man’s voice. Not Norman Merkel, the disgraced and suspended Mayor, but clearly someone of the same views.
She forced herself back to her feet. She dare not take another healing potion, but she had enough power in her to bring silver to her eyes and to move away from the wall. She walked the few paces forward to stand with Zachary.
“We were attacked without provocation. Three rocket launchers were fired. Two at the vehicle and one at us direct,” Arrow told them. “Your spy cameras around the street will verify this.”
Taellaneth Complete Series Box Set Page 116