The Lethe Stone (The Fae War Chronicles Book 4)

by Jocelyn Fox

  Tess smiled half-heartedly. Robin narrowed his eyes at her. “Thinking serious thoughts,” she admitted under his skeptical gaze. “I was just thinking that I have this feeling of expectation. This feeling that Luca will walk around the corner or the twins will burst into the practice yard and raise havoc. That I’ll see Elwyn conferencing with Vell.” She shrugged. “I remember the feeling from when my father died. It goes away eventually.”

  “That doesn’t mean it’s particularly pleasant,” said Moira, taking a swig from a flask.

  “Never said it was,” replied Tess. “Only that it will fade.”

  “The pain fades, but the loss will be there forever,” said Robin in his somber voice, staring down at the sharp edge of his blade.

  “The loss will be there forever,” agreed Moira, and to Tess’s ears it sounded like the solemn conclusion to a recited prayer.

  “Shall we see if they can find anything useful for us to do back at the palace?” said Robin after a long moment of silence.

  Tess clambered to her feet and brushed the dust from her legs. “Maybe we can convince Maeve to lift the restrictions on the Queens’ company working in the wards.” They began walking back toward the palace, their shadows lengthening as the sun progressed toward the western horizon.

  “Well, I don’t know if I want to be that useful,” deadpanned Robin, and the two women chuckled as they threaded their way through the once great city, ruined statues gazing down on them with sightless eyes, the wind brushing through cavernous empty buildings, moaning quietly behind the stone walls.

  Chapter 8

  “I don’t exactly live by myself,” cautioned Ross as she pulled onto the interstate, glancing in the rearview mirror to catch Duke’s eyes.

  “If you’d be more comfortable setting us up in a motel, I’ll figure out how to pay you back,” he replied without hesitation. “I just need to get these guys somewhere safe and figure a few things out.”

  “No,” Ross said quickly, changing lanes to pass a slower driver. Merrick grabbed the handle above his door, his face pale as Ross pushed the needle of the speedometer over eighty. “It’s fine, we have a three bedroom and Vivian is gone right now, but I’ll have to talk to her before she gets back.”

  “Right,” said Duke, taking another set of Luca’s vital signs.

  “How is he?” she asked.

  “Respiration shallow and pulse is fast, and he’s still clammy. Shock, like you said before.”

  “There’s another blanket under the seat.”

  Duke carefully shifted Luca’s weight and reached under the seat, his questing hand finding one of her ubiquitous brightly patterned Mexican blankets that appeared at festivals and lazy days on the beach. He shook it out from its neat folds and draped it over Luca. It only covered down to the ulfdrengr’s knees, but it was what they had. Luca wasn’t shivering, like most in shock did, but Duke wondered if the Northerners ever felt cold. Did their bodies even react to it like he expected of humans?

  “Better?” Ross asked, her eyes flicking up to the rearview mirror again. He’d forgotten her habit of making eye contact even if a person was in the back seat.

  “Better than nothing,” Duke said honestly, a thread of frustration thickening his drawl.

  Ross frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  “Realizing that I know jack shit about these guys’ physiological markers and systems,” muttered Duke, his mind running at full speed through the knowledge that he’d learned as a medic. How much of it was applicable and how much of it was garbage when it came to the Fae?

  “Hey,” she said in a firm voice, “we’ll figure this out together, okay?”

  He nodded.

  “I will help as much as I’m able, though I’m not a healer and I haven’t encountered the ulfdrengr when they are wounded,” said Merrick, his knuckles still white as he gripped the overhead handle.

  “This is your first ride in a car, huh?” said Ross as she passed a truck towing a speedboat on a trailer. Merrick gazed with interest at the other vehicles and the passing signs.

  “Yes,” the Vyldgard navigator replied. A slight sheen of sweat glistened on his pale skin. “It is very…enclosed.”

  “You could have ridden in the truck bed if you’d preferred. Sometimes May likes to ride back there on short trips.”

  Merrick frowned and glanced through the rear window to the truck bed. “I don’t think that would have been an advisable solution, given our speed.”

  Ross narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you sure you’re not Vulcan?”

  “Vulcan?” Merrick looked over his shoulder at Duke for help with the unfamiliar word.

  “He’s not Vulcan,” Duke answered for him. “He’s Fae.”

  “Fae,” repeated Ross blankly. “Like faeries and legends kind of Fae?”

  “Something along those lines.”

  “You’re still going to have a lot of explaining to do after we put out the fires,” Ross said under her breath. A convertible cut in front of the truck, forcing her to slam on the brakes. Duke’s shoulder crashed into the back of her seat but he managed to keep Luca from hitting his head or sliding entirely off the back seat, and Merrick closed his eyes, bracing himself with his elbow against the window. Ross punctuated her tirade of full-volume curses with a middle finger directed at the balding driver of the convertible as she passed him in the other lane. Her oaths decreased in volume until she muttered a few more to herself and then sighed. Merrick opened his eyes and seemed relieved that everything was much the same as when he’d closed them. Silence settled over the truck cabin for a moment. Then Merrick tilted his head, his silvery eyes contemplative. He glanced at Ross, observed her for a moment and then slowly unwrapped his fingers from around the grab handle, settling his hands in his lap.

  “Who is May, and why would she enjoy riding in the bed of the truck?” he asked, pronouncing the foreign words with delicate care.

  Ross smiled briefly. “You’ll meet May soon. She’s the third roommate. And she likes riding in the bed of the truck because she’s a dog.”

  “That makes much more sense,” said Merrick thoughtfully. “I didn’t know that mortals still kept hunting hounds.”

  Ross laughed, which seemed to startle him. “You really did drop out of medieval times, didn’t you?”

  “I…no,” replied the navigator in surprise. “From what I understand, time is fluid between our worlds, but it’s much the same. I don’t believe that there is a significant…”

  “It was a joke,” said Duke, smiling a little despite his worry for Luca. “Kinda like I thought I’d been dropped into Valhalla when I popped out in your world.”

  “Valhalla?” Ross arched an eyebrow.

  “There were warrior women on flying horses, okay? It was all very Final Fantasy.”

  “Was Quinn with you? That would be his wet dream,” she said with a chuckle as she took an exit off the highway. “We’re about five out.”

  “Yeah, Quinn was having a nerdgasm the entire time,” drawled Duke. “Totally his thing…armor, swords, dragons, the whole nine. We didn’t actually see the dragon,” he clarified. “They just told us about the hunt.”

  “Oh, you didn’t actually participate in the dragon hunt. I see,” said Ross with mock sincerity. “That makes much more sense.” The truck hit a pothole and Merrick’s hand jumped reflexively toward the grab handle, but he set his jaw and put his hand back in his lap. Ross turned the truck again from the main road onto a smaller two lane road much like the one on which the gas station had sat. Gnarled oak trees reached their limbs over the road, branches trimmed away from the power cables. The lush green of riverside land overflowed in places, long grass spilling onto the shoulder of the road, a riot of greenery climbing up around the tree trunks and the mailboxes that stood along the road every hundred feet or so.

  “Still technically Cairn,” said Ross, “but it’s a little closer to the city.”

  The city, of course, meant New Orleans. They’d spent a few nig
hts of drunken debauchery in the Crescent City on his predeployment leave. It was a city of memories for them. He’d proposed in the gardens of Jackson Square over a year ago, the scent of camellias and honeysuckle heavy and sweet in the humid air. The ring hadn’t been large, Ross had never liked flashy. She preferred classic and understated when she chose to wear jewelry. He glanced at her hands on the wheel but couldn’t see if she still wore the ring.

  The crunch of gravel beneath the tires cut into his thoughts as Ross pulled the truck into the driveway. The small house sat a few hundred yards back from the road, shielded by a few large oaks dripping with Spanish moss. Like most houses on the edge of the bayou, it sat on cinderblock stilts, nothing like the elegant, stork-like legs of the summerhouses that looked out over the lake by the city, or stood by the shores of the Gulf. Just enough that if the bayou heaved a couple of feet of muddy water toward the road, the little house wouldn’t be flooded, except maybe in a hurricane. In a hurricane, pretty much everyone was screwed anyway, so Duke didn’t quite understand the expensive houses built on soaring twenty foot poles. But people with money to burn would do what they pleased. Ross threw the truck into park, jammed down the parking brake with her foot and reached over to release Merrick’s seatbelt. He gingerly extricated himself from the belt, watching it automatically retract like one would watch a snake slithering across the ground.

  “Let me put May into the guest room quick before you come in,” Ross said, jumping out of the truck. She crossed around the front of the truck and opened Merrick’s door as well, a small part of her empathizing with him. She couldn’t imagine being thrown into a world where everything was strange and new, though she could grasp at the sensation from her experience overseas. That was as close to another world as any, she supposed. “You got him?”

  “Yep, we’ll handle it,” said Duke. Merrick leapt out of the truck and then stumbled, his usual poise deserting him as he caught himself, swaying. Duke watched him warily. Apparently it wasn’t only Luca having trouble with the mortal world. Merrick took a few breaths with his hands braced on his knees and then clenched his jaw in determination. He caught Duke’s look of concern and raised his chin challengingly, daring Duke to comment. The wiry medic shook his head slightly and filed the observation away for later.

  Luca stirred as Duke carefully shifted him. Merrick managed to open the back door of the truck’s cab. The ulfdrengr jerked and tried to lever himself upright, only Duke’s quick shielding of his head preventing him from knocking himself out on the ceiling.

  “Easy, big guy,” Duke said. “I really don’t want to fight you in the back seat of a pickup truck. Brings back some bad memories.”

  Luca coughed and swayed, his surge of motion receding as he sat on the seat. “Where am I?” His blue eyes were bloodshot as he took in his surroundings.

  “Someplace safe. The house of a friend,” said Duke. “How are you feeling?”

  “Like I fought a cave troll and lost,” said the ulfdrengr, tugging experimentally on one of the loose seatbelts and tapping on the glass of the open door’s window. “What is this?”

  “It’s a truck. I’ll explain more later, but I really want to get you inside so I can make sure you’re good to go.” Duke watched Luca cautiously. From the other side of the ulfdrengr, he heard the sounds of Merrick retching, but he couldn’t see the Sidhe navigator. “If you can walk, that’d help us out.”

  “Stop staring at me as though I’ll keel over at any moment,” said Luca hoarsely, smiling a little.

  “Well, that’s what already happened, so…” Duke shrugged. “It’s tough to carry you, man.”

  Luca chuckled. “I’ll try not to inconvenience you further.”

  Duke opened his door and hopped to the ground, circling around the back of the truck. He got there just as Luca climbed down without flourish or fanfare, his face set in concentration. Merrick straightened and unceremoniously wiped his mouth.

  “You’re looking green around the gills,” Duke commented. “Just try not to barf on the carpet inside. Ross hates the smell.”

  Merrick swallowed and nodded gamely. “I take your expression to mean that I look terrible, which is an accurate reflection of how I feel.”

  “You aren’t alone in that,” said Luca. Duke shadowed the big warrior as he began walking toward the front door of the little house.

  “It took me a few days to adjust when we got thrown through,” said Duke, “but the worst of it was over after the first few hours.”

  “There are things in your world that are poison to us,” said Merrick, following behind them. “I’m not sure that it’s quite the same.”

  “Valid point,” conceded Duke. “Do you know exactly what you should avoid?”

  “Iron, for the Sidhe,” grunted Luca, reaching the small wraparound porch. He eyed the four steps for a brief moment, then heaved himself up the incline.

  “It’s better now that I’m not in the…truck,” said Merrick.

  “Well, shit, we just put you in a metal box for that ride, didn’t we,” said Duke.

  “It had to be done.” Merrick paused at the top of the small flight of steps, taking several deep breaths. He’d lost the sickly green tint to his pallor, but sweat still stood out on his forehead.

  “All set, Ross?” called Duke through the screen door.

  “Yeah, bring them in,” came the reply.

  Merrick reached for the handle of the screen door and then drew his hand back quickly as if burned. “I can’t…touch it.”

  “I got it,” said Duke, looping two fingers through the wrought-iron handle of the wood-frame screen door. Many houses in this part of Cairn were over a century old, and vestiges of the past appeared in small details…like a nostalgic handle on the screen door.

  “Iron won’t kill ulfdrengr,” said Luca, “but something…something is not right with me.” He looked pained as he said it, as if admitting his weakness bothered him more than the physical cost of being thrown into the mortal world.

  “We’ll figure it out,” Duke replied in his calmest, most encouraging medic voice. Luca placed a huge hand on his shoulder.

  “I have no doubt,” the ulfdrengr said. “I’m certainly glad we have a friend and guide in this strange world.”

  “You did the same for me,” Duke said, the gratitude in Luca’s voice making him uneasy – if he couldn’t help, that gratitude would make him feel guilty as hell. “Now get your big ass inside before you pass out on me again.” Luca chuckled and moved past him into Ross’s house. Duke followed, closing the screen door carefully behind him.

  Ross had already set her emergency bag by the couch. Duke motioned the other two men to take a seat. They both took a few more steps into the house, but remained on their feet, their eyes exploring the details of the first human dwelling they’d ever seen. Duke closed the front door behind him, turning the deadbolt and hearing the satisfying click as it slid into place. Ross frowned at him as she emerged back into the open main room of the house.

  “You expecting unwelcome visitors?” she asked, a crease marring her forehead. She looked at the three of them and when Duke didn’t answer, she continued, “Shoes off. I’d prefer you don’t track swamp mud all over the floor.”

  “Just like you, to be worryin’ about mud on the floor when I’m tellin’ you about other worlds,” Duke drawled in an undertone as he complied. Luca and Merrick both pulled off their boots with varying expressions of bemusement and forbearance. Duke set all their boots in a row by the doormat. “There. Happy?”

  “It’s a start,” Ross said blithely, arching an eyebrow. She wrinkled her nose. “After the initial assessment, all three of you need a shower. You smell like a pack of wet dogs.”

  Merrick smelled himself surreptitiously and Luca merely grinned his wolfish grin.

  “The couch is secondhand anyway,” she said. She pointed to it. “Sit.”

  Luca glanced at Duke and chuckled as he obeyed the much smaller woman’s command. Ross didn’t even
reach Luca’s shoulder, Duke himself had to look up to meet the ulfdrengr’s eyes, and he was taller than Ross by a few inches. But he’d seen a lot of people make the mistake of assuming that her stature and beauty limited her capabilities. They’d been set straight in a hurry.

  Merrick remained standing, silently surveying the room. The house was decorated with an artistic flair – colorful tribal rugs from far-flung lands covering the hardwood floors played counterpoint to a sleek dark ladder that had been converted to a bookshelf, and edgy framed prints hung at intervals on the walls. Some of the artwork was from local tattoo shops, mostly pin-up girls with a military theme, but a few reprinted advertisements from the Roaring Twenties hung on the walls as well, interspersed with antique travel posters enticing travelers to exotic destinations. The front of the house had been remodeled into an open floor plan, no walls separating the main living room from the dining room and kitchen. A narrow hallway led back to what Duke assumed were the bedrooms.

  Ross had busied herself taking Luca’s blood pressure. The ulfdrengr watched her with thinly veiled curiosity, and Duke heard her explaining the basics of the device to him in a low voice. For all her prickliness, she was a damn good medic. A damn good person. He felt his heart give a strange lurch as he watched her.

  “Would you mind taking off your axes before my couch gets ripped?” she asked as she pulled the blood pressure cuff off of Luca’s arm. Luca obligingly took his two axes from their loops on his belt, handing them to Duke. Merrick grudgingly unbuckled his sword, sheath and all, and Duke stowed the weapons in the little closet by the door, out of sight, but still easy enough to reach if they needed them. Trust Ross to put the men at ease and get them to take off their weapons without a word of argument. He kept the knife he wore on his belt. Ross was more than used to his state of perpetual readiness for a violent confrontation.

  “Mind if I take a look around back?” he asked, reaching for his boots again. He should’ve thought about a perimeter check before taking them off, but everything was upside down in his head. Better make that right, he told himself firmly. Other people were depending on his ability to make clear-headed decisions. He couldn’t let the reunion with Ross distract him to the point of clouding his judgment.