by Sara Hanover
“Not the Society.”
“I may be in the Society, but I don’t represent them, nor do they represent me,” Carter answered flatly.
Steptoe folded his arms over his chest and continued to simmer but quietly.
“That,” said Hiram, “must bring us up to point seven or eight in your notes. Germanigold has returned to her nest.”
“Yes. Well, I don’t know for sure, but that’s where she was headed. The way things have been happening lately, I can’t guarantee where anyone ends up.” I put a tiny asterisk next to my last note, and debated the wisdom of telling them about Malender. Since Goldie and Evelyn had been involved, it seemed wise, even though I had no way of knowing if Evie had even noticed or if Germanigold would tattle on me.
I made a decision and cleared my throat. “Also, I had a run-in with Malender after leaving Silverbranch.”
“You seem all right.”
“I am. He wanted to scare me, and he did. He also wants me to convince the professor that he can aid in the restoration ritual.” That last I related very reluctantly. But I could be fairly certain Malender would check up to see if his message had been delivered and what the answer might be.
“Does he now, that pompous prick.”
Hiram sat upright. “Language!”
The professor blustered an unintelligible word or two before lapsing into silence.
Carter asked quietly, “What happened?”
“A downpour hit the area. It didn’t seem natural, but I thought maybe Silverbranch’s defenses had set it off, particularly because I’d taken Goldie and made a run for it. Judge Parker suffered an unfortunate blow to his head in the process, got tangled up and gagged when we did.”
Carter put a hand to his chin, hiding his mouth, but the professor choked a laugh out. “Buzzard deserved it.”
“Looking back on it, I realize I might have made an enemy I shouldn’t have. Poor timing. Anyway . . .” I lost track for a moment.
“Rain,” prompted Hiram.
“Lots and lots of it. A tree came down across the road, and my car spun out and then into it. I got thrown out—”
“No seat belt?”
“I had one on. It just didn’t work right, and then Malender collared me.”
“What did he look like?”
“Same as always. Beautifully handsome. Leather and lace. Angry. Not so much of that icky cloud around him, maybe because of the rain, maybe not. He didn’t get wet, but I did.” I paused, remembering. “He warned me against meddling. And said the professor needed him. Told me he was Fire. And he killed a deer. Disintegrated it into ashes, right in front of me.”
“He needed the energy,” the professor offered.
“Yes. But he also turned his weakness about into a scare tactic against her. He needed to feed, had to, but did it in such a way as to menace Tessa. Cunning,” Carter observed, his face tightly neutral.
Hiram stood. “The beast demeans us all.”
“He’s not whole,” the professor told him. “Gods help us all when he is.”
I thumped my pencil on the table like a gavel. “Beside the point.”
They all looked at me again. “Malender gets a negative on his offer, but we’re still on the clock to find that ruby. What we need to know now is what enemies of Hiram might have taken the Eye or known that Goldie had it and where she might have secured it? Or is it obvious the elves might have taken it to influence their court case?”
“The Eye has little significance, lass, if Malender comes to rule the world.”
“But he isn’t even close now, and your problem is. Solving it might even deter him, if it keeps the Clans from squabbling. Is there a possibility he could have been the one who took it?”
“Not likely, lass. He’s not got the strength. If Germanigold had it secured, it would have been mightily warded.”
“Back to enemies, then. Or her family.”
Hiram stared at me a long moment before sitting down. “We Dwarf clans get along fairly well. Always have. The Timber men can get a little fractious from time to time, but we have many allies.”
I put Timber at the top of my list. “Who else?”
“The Society,” growled the professor and put his chin up belligerently as Carter made a dissenting noise.
“Okay.”
“There are harpy nests that might,” added Hiram.
Steptoe shot a glance at me and then back at his plate. He gathered it up, stood, and began to clear the table.
I wrote down, “Other harpies.”
Hiram pursed his lips. “I cannot think of much more.”
“The accused elves, as Tessa mentioned,” offered Carter.
The professor added, “Yes, they might, indeed, although I admit to being unfamiliar with any current felonies. They like shaking up alliances.”
“And how would you know if it was an elf tribe? An elven Mafia, so to speak?”
“You wouldn’t, not easily. They’re sneaky that way. I’ve heard some tales of a very powerful boss around here, but I don’t remember if he was an elf or not.” Steptoe returned from the kitchen. “Noodles are covered and on the counter. I just put a lid on the pot and put it on a backburner.”
“Good. Mom will want to eat when she gets home.” If she wasn’t home soon, I’d have to remember to put the pot in the fridge. I circled “elves” on my notepad. “Are there any elves around here?”
“You met one of them yesterday. Or, half-elf. Maxwell Parker.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
WICKED THINGS
I DISTINCTLY REMEMBERED the judge, and he hadn’t had any black feathers on him, or if he had, he’d disguised them. Steptoe cleared his throat as he watched me; I shook my head ever so slightly. I didn’t want to discuss what he’d found, not yet. I have faith in all the guys, but I was beginning to realize they, being what they were, had lives and possibly grudges that stretched far beyond my years. I wrote down Maxwell Parker on my list.
“Anyone else I need to add? Griffons? Dragons? I think a dragon would be cool, but we need to be really cautious dealing with it.” I searched around the table.
“Harrummph. This is serious business.” Hiram wagged an eyebrow at me.
“I know. I just keep finding out new stuff and it seems surreal. If we think Parker is our suspect, will we have to deal with the Society, too?”
“Stay away from the Society,” the professor told me gruffly.
“I agree.”
I blinked from the prof to Carter. The two of them in agreement? Stranger and stranger. “I will unless they provoke me, how’s that?”
The professor did not react, but Carter frowned at me. “Provoking goes two ways.”
“Are you suggesting moi might cause trouble?”
“I think you’re capable of all sorts of trouble. In the name of good, of course, but worrisome nevertheless. That’s why we’re all here, to support and contain you.”
I wrinkled my nose a little. “So what’s our plan, then?”
“Investigate the elves,” answered Steptoe. “Carefully. Very carefully.”
“All of them?”
“Likely. But one will probably shake out the moment we begin t’ clean the chimney.”
Carter cleared his throat as if he thought to add something, but when I flicked a glance at him, he gave a near imperceptible shake of his head. Maybe he’d tell me in private, later.
I looked down at my list and added something to the bottom, before turning to Hiram. “And I have a request. You’re probably going to say no, but I would like you to consider it for a day or two before you give me a final answer.”
The redwood patio chair creaked under him as he shifted in it, as if bracing himself. “And that would be?”
“Germanigold would like to return to your Hall, briefly, to retrieve what th
ings she has left there, and to give her condolences to you and the clan.” She hadn’t suggested any such reasons for the trip, but it seemed the best way to get her in for Morty’s journals, and if he said yes, she’d agree with the way I’d framed it. Possibly.
He opened his mouth and then closed it sharply. “As you request, I’ll think on it a day or two. My first reflex was in the negative, lass, but I know you mean us no harm. Goldie, on the other hand . . .” and he let his voice trail away.
I wrote “maybe” after my last input on the page. I’d wait a few days before nudging him again, then I’d have to figure out how to get in touch with Goldie. I looked up.
“When’s a good time to search for elves?”
“Full moon.”
“Wouldn’t that be . . . werewolves?”
That drew snorts from around the table. “You’ve been reading too many books.”
I could feel the heat on my cheeks. How was I to know? They hadn’t laughed at dragons. In fact, the professor sat looking downright lost in his thoughts. “It won’t be a full moon for a few weeks. Next choice?”
“The merest crescent of a moon.”
Talk about extremes. I had thought elves might be exhibitionists. Now it sounds like they might be shy. “That will work, too?”
“If you have the right bait.”
Carter put his hand over on Hiram’s arm as if to shut him up. I quirked an eyebrow at him.
“Nobody is suggesting that Tessa . . .”
I narrowed my eyes. “That Tessa what?”
Male voices suddenly fell quite silent. “Seriously?” I scanned the table. “You’re thinking I might decide to be bait? Think twice. I have no intention of running into Maxwell Parker again. He looks the type to insist on getting revenge, and I know I haven’t a tenth of the firepower he must have, even if Steptoe gave me all the flash-bangs in the world. Would salt even work on him?”
“Not likely.”
“See? I’d be outmatched.”
“Not necessarily against the full-blooded elven. They have an . . . erm . . . unicorn quality about themselves. So to speak.”
I threw my pencil on the table next to my notebook, glad I had decided on old-fashioned paper and graphite instead of my laptop. There was enough energy flying around the table that it might have fried my computer. “Unicorn? Maidens? OMG. You went there? I’m not going to dignify that remark, and if anyone says anything else even remotely near the subject, I’m going to sic my mother on them.”
Someone gasped, and the rest went quiet again.
My scorn swept the room. “How else can we find the elves?”
Looks got traded back and forth. Nobody spoke for what seemed an eternity until Carter ventured.
“They’re inveterate gamblers.”
“Oh?”
“They like the adrenaline high and many of them have deep pockets.”
I scratched my hairline near my temple. Not that I wanted to fall into the same trap as Aunt April and my father, but that could be more workable. I couldn’t return to the Hashimoto casino, because that empire, country club and all, had fallen into probate hell after they disappeared from this earth, and too many ghosts roamed there for me to be comfortable. Most particularly not with Joanna’s shade stalking me for vengeance. There were a few Indian casinos not too far out of town. One on the Potomac had just opened up to a big fanfare. The food got rave reviews. Problem there: minimum age was 21. Although I could accompany someone.
“What kind of games?”
“Card games and slots. A few like to watch the races.”
Horses. That made me think of the horse hair we’d found binding the one black feather, and an even dimmer memory of a horse’s whinny across the water at the beach. Elven rider? A highwayman, of sorts, traversing the roads between my world and his? That sounded almost romantic.
“Don’t even think it.”
I smiled. “All right, I won’t.” Not anymore. The thoughts had already passed through my mind and been decided upon: Aunt April, it’s time to spend a quality evening with your grandniece. I didn’t think she’d mind. I checked my phone when it vibrated. Mom texted that she was heading home, and I realized I hadn’t finished that last class assignment. College was pretty much an independent enterprise for me, but I liked to keep up and, as mothers will do, she did ask from time to time. “I guess we scatter and see what we can find out and, guys, trade information? I am doing this job for Hiram, but not really, because we’re all doing it to help him and the Broadstones, right? And you’ve appointed yourselves to take care of me, so we all seem to be in this together.”
The room filled with the noise of scraping chairs and hard-soled shoes shuffling about, except for me and Brian who both wore sneakers. Scout went from hand to hand, licking fingers in good-bye, and stood with me at the door as I waved good night.
Hiram trailed the group. I put my hand out and caught him by the elbow.
“Aye, Tessa?”
“Seriously. Why me?” He waggled ginger-red eyebrows. I shook my head. “Don’t go looking innocent now. Why did you ask me to find the Eye? Almost anyone at the table tonight is more qualified.”
“Not really, although it might possibly seem that way to you.”
“Hiram.”
He stared at his work boots for a moment. “You have the stone. I thought, but I can’t be sure, that it would be attracted, greatly, to the Eye wherever it is.”
“Was it before?”
“I haven’t ever seen a maelstrom stone and thought any tales told of it were fables, but here you are, and there it is.” He looked now at the palm of my hand as I let go of his arm.
“So you thought I might have an advantage.”
“Aye, and we need all the benefit we can find. It’s an important relic, the Eye, and although many have never seen it, the fact that it exists has kept a number of troublemakers in line.”
“So you can’t just bluff that you have it.”
“It casts an aura that is unmistakable when in use. Again, few have seen the Eye, but its touch can’t be overlooked.”
“Well. All right then.”
He nodded and gave my shoulder a squeeze before going out to his SUV.
It got quiet and stayed that way the rest of the evening, even when my mother came home. Mom seemed a little too tired to make scintillating conversation, so we just hugged and went our separate ways.
Until a little after midnight when I awoke to hear Scout standing at my bedroom window, nails scratching at the sill. He made little, mournful whimpers that I could barely hear but almost broke my heart anyway. When I joined him, his tail whacked against me, but he wouldn’t look away. He watched something down below in the backyard. Night pressed in, with purple shadows and little in the way of moonlight. Streetlights didn’t throw their illumination past the house and driveway, so I couldn’t see much. I didn’t want to look. I didn’t want to see if Malender had been following me at school and then to the house, or maybe the Society judge, or someone else I couldn’t imagine. I wanted my home to be safe.
Scout nosed at me.
“What is it?”
He whined again and pawed at me.
“You want to go out?”
His ears went down and stayed close to his head. No, he didn’t want to go out, but then he nudged my hand emphatically. “But you have to go.”
He sneezed.
Interpreting one-sided conversations is not easy after being roused from the deepest sleep I’d been in for weeks. I couldn’t even remember dreaming. I scratched the side of his neck, just under his collar. “This doesn’t seem like a good idea.”
He looked up at me, big caramel eyes begging.
“How about I push you out the back door and you go out alone? You can report back to me.”
He showed his teeth.
“Oh, no. You don’t show those teeth at me, mister.”
Scout hung his head.
“Jeez. All right, big baby, I’ll go with you. But first, I’m putting on pants and shoes.”
He jumped on the bed enthusiastically while I more or less dressed. The glass panes at the window had been cold, so the temperature had dropped. In a few weeks it would dip to freezing, playing with the idea of snow, but it rarely did, although people could hope. Scout, who usually charged downstairs at breakneck speed, came down at my heels sedately. At the back door, we both stood a few moments, hesitating.
I tapped his hard head. “Sure we have to go out there?”
He leaned against me, but he put a paw up and held it against the door frame, pushing.
Hard to misinterpret that one. I looked around and found a long and hefty flashlight, one of those that could crack the average skull wide open if you decided you had to, good batteries in it or not. I wanted it for the weight, not the light. I balanced it in my hand. Tested it. And, by golly, the batteries were okay. Double-threat. “It seems we’re good to go.” I turned the doorknob.
The door glided open, still smelling of the WD-40 we’d put on the hinges weeks ago. I almost wished we hadn’t and that the eerie noise of rusty joints moving would scare whatever it was out of our yard and back where it belonged. No luck.
Scout stayed glued to my right leg. The dew had come in and settled about on the grass but didn’t sparkle, the drops just reducing the hem of my chinos to a soaked mess in about six strides. I wanted to flick the flashlight on, but we needed the element of surprise. I heard a tiny rustle and looked down to see Scout flattened, belly to the ground, and crawling toward the garage. I still couldn’t see or hear anything, but he had. That did not reassure me.
Lilacs bordered the rear fence and still had plenty of foliage. I went to join them, Scout creeping with me. The side door to the garage banged in its frame and anger shot up in me. We were being burgled. Someone was clearing out the garage!
I thumbed on the flashlight and charged the tiny wooden building. “Stop right there. I’m calling the police.”
Steptoe turned around in my spotlight, raised his shaking hands, and froze. I halted in place.
