by TR Cameron
“Oh? What do you know?”
The woman gave a lazy grin and paused before she replied. Diana used the moment to assess her. She wore a black tunic with intricate embroidery that ran down the left and right sides. This particular female was curvy, unlike other elves Diana had seen.
Definitely a head-turner.
The Drow wore what looked like leather pants and high boots that appeared to have been made the old-fashioned way. They glinted oddly in the light. Diana pushed aside her envy over the footwear as the elf spoke. “The male behind you is nervous. He has no magic, so he has every reason to be so.”
Diana felt Tony’s body tense.
“The woman, on the other hand, clearly does have magic.” She tilted her head to the side and her eyes lost focus briefly. “Magic that speaks of fire and heat. Elven magic.” Diana looked at Cara, fearing she would be upset at the knowledge being so casually shared.
I know I would have been.
Cara simply shrugged.
The Drow rose from her perch to face Diana with her full height and took a step forward. “And you, their leader, are different. Your power is a ferocious thing that comes in many flavors. You are one who bears watching.” She stepped back and extended her arms on either side as a thin smile blossomed over her face. “All of you are welcome in my shop. Anything you may need, I have. Or I can get, for the right price.”
She marshaled the wit to reply to the sudden change in attitude. “We have no time to browse at the moment, but perhaps we'll come back.”
The elf shrugged her shoulders. “As you please, Diana.”
She led the others toward the castle and looked back only once. The Drow leaned against the wall of her shop and the same confident smile played on her lips. Diana shuddered and faced forward again hastily. They took the next path that crossed to the main street and found themselves in an area filled with restaurants. Beings of all kinds sat at tables with food or drink before them, many of whom were involved in animated conversations. It created as jovial an atmosphere as they had seen since their arrival and relaxed her jangled nerves. Even better, their destination was in sight.
The remainder of their journey was smooth and uneventful. They arrived at the foot of the steps leading to the palace at the appointed time, and all three companions groaned in unison at the sight.
Diana shook her head. “Every day is leg day in this town.”
Chapter Twenty
She led the way up the shallow but seemingly endless steps at the front of the huge building. They swept out in a graceful curve at the bottom and narrowed slightly as they climbed. At the top, six people could easily walk side-by-side without jostling one another. The palace was white, accented only by a few variations in the form of off-white features in the stone. It reminded her of marble.
But marble doesn’t have that faceted glow.
It most certainly wasn’t local, in any case.
An ornate pair of double doors at least a story high stood before them, flanked by two figures in gleaming armor. Diana slowed, hoping to demonstrate that they weren’t a threat. A closer inspection revealed the guards to be elves with long hair in different shades of blond cascading down their shoulders from beneath the circlets they wore. Each gripped a tall spear in the hand farthest from the door. Their other hands hovered near the sword sheaths at their belts. Their bodies were encased in chain mail woven from a metal she couldn’t identify.
Quiet, Diana. This is not the time for a Lord of the Rings reference.
Her inner voice added a defiant, Mithril, in the appropriate accent, and she sighed inwardly.
The doors swung wide with no reaction from the guards. The emissary she’d met the day before stood beyond the opening and beckoned them through as the guards relaxed their pose. “Thank you for coming, Agent Diana Sheen. I am to take you to the lady directly.” He turned and strode away, apparently assuming they would follow.
The inside of the castle featured the same material as the outside, although every block was polished to reflect the soft geode-based lighting above. Paintings and tapestries hung on the walls, separated by intervals of bare stone. It reminded Diana of the gallery crawl only a few nights before. The event seemed much farther away than that, given all that had happened in the interim. The art ran the gamut from portraits to landscapes to depictions of presumably historical battles. She recognized some of the new creatures they’d encountered in the city. Others were completely alien. Elves featured the most prominently.
They turned the corner and entered a spacious throne room. The cavern’s purple glow filtered in from windows on the side and the transparent surface above. Support pillars rose at intervals to connect the floor and ceiling. A raised dais that supported a pair of ornate thrones was the room’s only other architectural feature of note. The smaller seat was empty, but the larger one held a Light Elf dressed in elegant finery and bedecked in jewels at her wrists, throat, ears, and brow.
Tony breathed a soft, “Wow,” from behind, and Diana silently agreed.
The emissary stopped them several feet from the base of the platform, then turned to address their host. “Lady Alayne, the human representatives you invited have arrived.”
The woman nodded. The unreality of the moment relaxed as she smiled and her expression conveyed warmth, caring, and a kind of purity that Diana couldn’t quite put her finger on. She expected to feel her bracelet chill to indicate the presence of illusion, but it didn’t. The woman’s personality was simply that powerful.
“I would like to formally greet you as the leader of the Kemana Stonesreach. From this time forward, unless you are informed differently by myself or my emissary, please consider yourselves welcome in this place. Do no harm, and no harm will be done to you.” They nodded solemnly in response. “Might I request the pleasure of your names and titles?”
Diana nodded and spoke first. “Diana Sheen, Special Agent in Charge of ARES Pittsburgh.”
“Detective Tony, Ryan, Agent.”
“U.S. Marshal Cara Binot, Agent.”
The lady rewarded them with a smile. “Thank you for accepting my invitation. As much as Ciannon enjoys amplifying the formal power the head of the Kemana holds, I am well aware that you could have declined.” The emissary scowled, and she laughed.
Diana smiled. Maybe this relationship wouldn’t have to be so rigid after all. “We appreciate your thoughtfulness, Lady Alayne. We would have requested a visit, but we’ve been a little busy since reaching town and didn’t want to presume a welcome.”
Alayne nodded her understanding. “That is appropriate.” Then, with a suddenness that surprised them, the edges of her mouth turned down. “The new prison in the city above—the Cube, I believe you call it—is causing trouble for magicals and non-magicals alike.”
She nodded. “It appears so. However, it is necessary.”
The elf’s head tilted to the side, her expression shifting between curiosity and skepticism. “Why?”
The question set her back on her heels. The truth was that she had taken the presence of the Cube as a given and never really considered why it was essential. She shrugged. “This area of the country is a particular hotbed of magic. Our data shows that this is the closest large city to the center of it, which makes putting the prisons here a logistically sound decision. Also, having it near an ARES bureau is a logical idea.”
“Why not in the country’s capital?”
Diana grinned. “No one wants to put that substantial a number of detainees in such close proximity to so many legislators, Lady Alayne. The politicians might corrupt the prisoners.”
Alayne’s laughter seemed almost to vibrate through the crystalline fixtures of the throne room. “Very well said, Diana Sheen.”
She hesitated, then decided to simply go ahead. “May I ask a question, Lady Alayne?”
The elf’s lips twitched, and she replied, “I believe you just have.” A small wave indicated the lady’s permission to proceed.
“What
do you know of the Remembrance?”
The lady exchanged a frown with her emissary and sighed. “Too much, I am afraid. In Stonesreach, we hear talk of their ideas. It is not Rhazdon, of course, but others trading in her beliefs. We are not sure whether they are true believers or are simply using her principles as a tool to gain followers and power. In the end, the distinction is largely irrelevant.”
Diana nodded. “That corresponds to our knowledge. We have identified a hierarchy with unknown members at the top overseeing others on Earth.” She tried to keep the note of hope out of her voice. “Do you know what their goals are?”
Lady Alayne shook her head, and the gems that dangled from her ears swayed in time to refract the purple light. The sight made Diana wonder.
Can you wear power stones and always carry a refill of magic with you?
Her musings were interrupted as the lady spoke. “We understand they are seeking artifacts and presume it is with the goal to distribute them amongst their followers to increase their magical capabilities. It is likely that these actions are meant as a form of preparation to initiate some act of importance to them.”
She nodded. “That sounds very much like what we believe, Lady Alayne.”
“If they continue as they have been, they will attempt to sow chaos wherever possible. We expect the monster attacks in Europe are connected, although we lack clear proof. Of course, the protests against the prison here are their doing.” She said this as if it was beyond question.
“Of course,” Diana conceded. “Do you know anything about the mysterious figures at the top of this organization?”
“Removed as we are from those on Oriceran, we are not privy to this information. We are only sure it is not a single leader, as it was in Rhazdon’s time, but a group with a shared purpose. Like Rhazdon before them, they embrace any follower, so long as they share their belief in the primacy of magic and possess the will to act toward that end.”
“It sounds like we need to get back to work, then. We were already reasonably certain that the event at the museum was part of this, but your words have removed whatever small doubt remained.”
The lady nodded. Her emissary stepped forward without instruction, and Diana remembered that she had a final question to ask. “May we have permission to finish the connection between the Kemana’s tunnel and the one from our facility you are doubtless aware has been reaching toward it?”
Alayne grinned in confirmation of that knowledge. “Granted. However, please connect beyond the outer door. It would not do for anyone coming through your tunnel to have unfettered access. In truth, the guard’s primary responsibility is not to keep visitors out but to send a warning ahead of those who enter.”
Diana nodded. “Thank you, Lady Alayne.”
“You are welcome, Diana Sheen, Tony Ryan, Cara Binot.” She nodded to each of them in turn. “Please visit us as often as you feel the need. We have no wish to see all the gains our people have made together destroyed by those with limited vision.”
The emissary hustled forward during their polite farewells and escorted them from the building, then vanished behind the closing doors.
Tony sighed as he peered out at the city. “So, about that elevator?”
Cara added a humorless laugh. “I didn’t see one, or any dragons for rental.”
Diana looked at the immense staircase on the opposite side of the cavern and exhaled. “Leg day has just become leg week, people. Start walking.”
Chapter Twenty-One
A chill wind rippled through the broken structures. They were gray with scorches of black, cracked and weathered by the years since their partial destruction. The stone remembered the battle of long ago, a conflict that ended in a loss for the followers of Rhazdon.
A crackling echoed from the collapsed forms and rebounded from the columns and pedestals that still remained, however decrepit they had become. An oval of energy formed in the air, then filled with darkness. The nominal leader of the Remembrance, first among equals, stepped through. The rift sealed behind him, and the wizard gazed suspiciously around the chamber. His wand was held low in a pale hand. Only the stones were present to greet him, and they were far from welcoming.
Dreven nodded in satisfaction and advanced toward the round basin set in the middle of the ruined courtyard. His dark purple robes ended an inch above the ground, and heavy, warm boots showed beneath. He used his wand to clear the littered path before him. Debris and dirt that had accumulated since his last visit swept easily aside under the force of his magic. When he reached the fountain, a swirl and flick of his wand gathered the algae, leaves, and other detritus that had settled in the water. The residue of the magical conflict from long before ensured that though it struggled, life would not gain a stronger foothold there than it already possessed. While they had not yet succumbed, the mottled trunks of the trees indicated clearly that they fought a losing battle.
Not unlike the humans.
A final twitch of his wand sent the collected debris elsewhere, leaving only clean liquid that shivered beneath the caress of the breeze.
He strode to his position at the northernmost point of the circle created by the fountain. The wind sifted his hair like wind chimes. The long braids he had tied it into were less pliable than his unbound hair would’ve been but still not heavy enough to resist nature’s force entirely. At the appointed moment, four portals appeared a notable distance from one another. Various beings stepped through each and crossed the distance to take their designated places around the fountain
A dwarf had arrived with a metallic clink that suggested armor under the robes and cowl that partially hid his face. He took his place quickly on the left.
Next in line stood a female Kilomea, whose bulk was larger than the greatest male of the species he’d ever seen. Her massive teeth and broad, bony forehead communicated a love for violence. The mammoth sword handle that extended over her shoulder confirmed her readiness to meet any challenge with force. She wore a perpetual half-grin that mixed confidence and condescension in equal measure.
An underground gnome stood beside her. This branch of the gnome species was rarely seen and seemed darker and harder than their servant cousins. The creature spoke infrequently, but always with significant insight.
He may be the most dangerous of them all.
Finally, the witch to his right arrived to close the circle. Her magic was fearsome, and her cruel beauty mystified her opponents until the moment at which she ended their existence. Rumor painted her as everything from a powerless gold-digger running a long con to an icon of pure evil who consumed the souls of those who crossed her. Even he was drawn by her elegance and had to constantly remind himself that power, and only power, mattered to the witch. Nods of greeting were exchanged—some neutral, some almost pleasant, but all sharing the hard edge of suspicion.
He swung his wand in an arc from left to right above his head, then another from forward to back, and a pinprick of light appeared high above at the intersection of the paths. It swelled in all directions to form a transparent semicircular shield that pulsed when it reached the ground. The barrier blocked the wind and would conceal them from magical eavesdropping. It also rendered the gathering invisible by cloaking the courtyard in an illusion of normalcy.
Not that anyone would come here to find us, anyway.
With the security measures fully in place, he finally broke the silence. “Welcome, my friends.” The Kilomea snorted at the designation and drew knowing smiles from the others. “It is a genuine pleasure to see you again. Without these regular meetings, my happiness would be but a shell of its former self.”
As always, sarcasm prevailed among them.
The dwarf rolled his eyes. “Oh, me as well. True joy.” No one else added anything, so Dreven spoke again.
“Today, we must discuss plans ahead and failures behind.” He paused briefly and the dwarf shook his head slightly. As the next in the circle, the Kilomea accepted her turn to speak.
; “Let us begin by speaking of failure, then. You did not capture the ambassador.”
The gnome added a quiet, “Indeed,” and the witch nodded.
Just as I expected.
“Let us begin there, then. I have invited another to inform us on this matter.” A rune sketched in the air with his wand pierced the protective shell enough to permit a portal, and a circular gesture brought it into being. His underling stepped through. Further gestures banished the rift and resealed the barrier. “My subordinate was in charge of the effort to secure the ambassador. I thought it best we heard from him directly. Do explain, Nehlan.”
The elf shivered. Dreven had deliberately failed to warn his minion about the chill temperature that permeated the battle site.
Petty, perhaps, but he’s earned it.
He nodded encouragement, and Nehlan suppressed his trembling to speak clearly. “The plan was a good one. It should have succeeded. However, an unexpected variable intervened.”
Dreven’s lips twitched at the illusory features that had replaced the council’s true faces. He hadn’t concealed his own since he had nothing to fear from his subordinate. The elf thought he was clever with his bunker, his poison fruit, and his stolen power, but Dreven could and would end him at any time he felt the urge.
The dwarf’s voice was low and gravelly as he spoke first. “What was this unexpected variable?” he asked scornfully.
Nehlan shuddered. “A group of human meddlers more powerful than most we’ve seen.”
The Kilomea growled. “Then you should have killed them all before they had the chance to interfere with the ambassador’s capture.” The elf flinched reflexively from her anger.
Nehlan straightened his spine, and a look of contempt drew his lips down as he met the hulking brute’s eyes. “We attempted to. The result was that one of your people now languishes in a human prison. Perhaps I simply trusted the wrong person. Or the wrong species.”
The aggressive female moved to take a menacing step forward as a ferocious glare settled over her illusory face. “I will show you how I deal with my inferiors, tiny elf.”
