I blinked, staring stupidly at the world around me, and especially at the cage.
“How did you do that?” I asked.
“I’m a realm walker, remember?” Cassiel responded.
Yeah, but. “The cage. How did you move the cage? I’ve been around realm walkers. Moving inanimate objects is different.” Then it hit me. He had opened a rift. My drool-worthy Nephilim was no ordinary realm walker. He might have been a bit deficient in swordsmanship and slow with his lightning attacks… Lightning? From his hands? I needed to stop judging his magic by Elven standards. He was only half Elf.
Three different types of mages traveled between the realms. First, and most common, were the realm walkers—mages whose magic could part the veils. Portal mages could not only realm walk but also command the great portals. A whole army could travel from one realm to another through a portal. Then there were those they called Traders. They couldn’t open the portals, but they could haul large items through the veils. They were mostly responsible for all the larger items one saw in the magic markets.
“Do you know where we are?” he asked.
“Somewhere northeast of Prague,” I said, taking my phone out of my pocket and calling Selinger. A quick look around showed that we were well away from the city out in farm country. We stood in the middle of a recently-harvested grain field. I talked to the Icelandic mage and gave him an estimate of where we were. I didn’t doubt he could find me using the same method I’d used to find Valinir. If Erinir and Altinir had me under their roof and didn’t contrive a way to track me, I would seriously doubt their competence.
Although there was an unusual number of airplanes and helicopters in the sky, I didn’t see any smoke plumes or magical displays. We had been gone for two days, so perhaps the battle was over.
A car showed up about an hour later. Selinger and three other mages got out and walked across the field toward us.
“What have we here?” Selinger asked, as he walked around the cage. “Have any of them been awake?”
“No,” Cassiel answered, “but I can tell that they’re breathing. At least one of them is injured.” He pointed to a man with a bandage around his thigh.
“I assume it’s Dralf magic,” I said. “I saw the man I think is Mondranar at the place where we found the cage.”
Selinger nodded. He and the other three mages arranged themselves at the cardinal points surrounding the cage. After a few moments, he started to chant an incantation while sketching a rune in the air. When he finished, the next mage chanted and sketched a different rune. That continued with the other two mages.
All of them raised their hands in the air, and the runes floated from them to converge over the cage, where the runes merged. All four spoke the same Word. A flash of light turned into a waterfall of light running down over the cage. I watched as the light rippled over the bars, and then ran into the ground beneath it.
When all the light was gone, Selinger stepped forward, put his hand on the lock, sketched another rune, and spoke a Word. The metal of the lock dissolved into dust, and Selinger yanked the door open.
“Let’s get them out of there,” he said, entering the cage and picking up the wounded man. He carried the man out and laid him on the ground.
“I’m a healer,” Cassiel said and knelt down by the man. He used his knife to cut off the bandage and rip the man’s pant leg, revealing a gunshot wound.
I watched in amazement as Cassiel held his hand over the wound and pieces of metal discharged from the man’s flesh. Cassiel caught each piece and transferred it to his other hand. When he was evidently satisfied that he had all the bullet fragments, he tossed them aside and put his hands on the man’s leg above and below the wound.
Cassiel chanted an incantation, and as he did, the man’s leg straightened, and the wound began to close. After five minutes, the wound was healed, with only an ugly scar to show where the man had been shot.
The Nephilim took a deep breath, leaned back, and sat down hard. “His leg was broken, and he’s lost a lot of blood. Kellana, do you have a healing potion in your bag of tricks?”
I pulled out a small bottle and handed it to him. He held the Elf’s head up, pried open his mouth, and dribbled the potion in. When it was all gone, he let the man’s head down to the ground.
“That’s all we can do right now,” Cassiel said. “He’ll sleep through tomorrow. If we can give him some kind of nourishment, it will help.”
He tried to stand but failed. I reached under Cassiel’s one arm, and Selinger put his hand under the other, and we pulled Cassiel to his feet.
“Now, let me see to the others,” Cassiel said. He inspected each of the men, then said, “They’ve been spelled. I think we can probably break it, but we might be better off finding a less conspicuous place.”
He held out his hand, and a lightning bolt flashed past me. I turned in time to see the bolt hit a Human and five Vampires who had just materialized in Earth’s realm.
“I think I agree with you,” Selinger said. He started to pick up the wounded man, but I stepped forward.
“I can carry him. I think we’d be better off if you and Cassiel covered us.” Considering that Cassiel could hardly stand, I was amazed he had the power to zap those Vampires.
Selinger nodded. The other three mages each picked up a sleeping Elf, and we carried them all back to the car on the road at the edge of the field.
Elves are not small people, and even the large Mercedes that Selinger and the others had arrived in couldn’t carry us all. Selinger made a call, and sometime later another car drove up carrying only the driver. It was a tense wait, but no other adversaries appeared.
I didn’t know where we were going, and I didn’t care. I fell asleep in the car almost immediately. When I awoke, we were still driving through farmland, but when I looked inward and checked my location against the world, it revealed we had traveled for almost three hours and were on the other side of Prague. Sometime later, the cars pulled into the yard of a large farmhouse, and several Elves came out to meet us.
The unconscious men were carried into the house and disappeared up a set of stairs. An Elven woman who introduced herself as Elminira hustled Cassiel and me into the kitchen, where she fed us a wonderful feast of sausages, fruit, and vegetables bathed in an Elven cream sauce. Afterward, I wandered about until I found a sitting room and fell asleep again in a comfortable chair.
When I next awoke, I found Valinir leaning over me with a smile on his face.
“Good morning,” he said. “Or, rather I should say good evening. Elminira is fixing supper, and she suggested that you might like to bathe before dinner.”
I struggled to sit upright and took an inventory of my state. Aside from hair tangled into a bird’s nest and clothes that had enough dirt to plant potatoes, I had a crick in my neck and a general feeling of having been used very roughly.
“That sounds like a grand idea. How are you?”
“I survived, due to your timely intervention. Other than a lump on my head and a few scrapes and bruises, your friend Cassiel tells me I’m all right. Come, I’ll show you to the bath.”
He led me upstairs to a bedroom with a large bathroom attached. I could see steam rising from the water in the tub. An Elven gown lay across the bed.
“Elminira said for you to use that while we wash your clothes,” Valinir said.
Without a thought, I stripped to my skin and headed to the bath. I glanced back at Valinir as he bent to pick up my dirty clothes and saw a scar on his neck. That brought me to a halt.
“They fed on you.”
He gave me a sheepish smile. “On all of us. Sweet blood is not to be missed, I guess. The upside is I don’t think they had any plans to kill us.”
“I hope it gave them indigestion.”
Valinir laughed. “Go on with you. Get yourself clean and presentable. Dinner in about forty-five minutes.”
I sank into the hot water with a sigh that probably could be heard in Midgard
. The water was scented with lavender. Soap and shampoo sat on a shelf within reach. Humans had a lot of ideas about what heaven was like, but right then I was sure I had found it.
My toes and fingers were wrinkled by the time the water started to cool. I washed my hair and got out of the tub. A quick spell dried my hair, but I had never found a spell that would brush it out. By the time I finished fighting the knots and snarls, it was time for dinner, so I just left my hair loose instead of braiding it.
Voices guided me to the dining room, where I found almost two dozen Elves and one Nephilim. All of the men leaped to their feet when I entered the room, and Cassiel pulled out the one empty chair for me to sit next to him. Comparing him to the Elves, I decided that he was comelier than any of them. I understood completely why his Elven mother fell for an Angel. I grabbed hold of my libido, strangled it, and shoved it deep into the hidden recesses of my mind. It had been years since I had to control my hormones, but that was not the place to let them run loose. Every man at the table would have been affected.
Over dinner, Selinger told us the battle on Earth had ended with the withdrawal of the few Vampires left alive. At least one realm walker had pulled the survivors back to Transvyl. Then Valinir told us of his and his companions’ capture. They had walked through the veil into an ambush of both magical and Earthly weapons. The four mages were surrounded and fought for hours until their strength began to wane. When their shields faltered, Mondranar and his mages promised them life if they surrendered.
“I think there’s an Earth saying about discretion being the better part of valor,” Valinir said with a laugh. “We knew the chances of rescue were far greater if we were alive rather than dead, so we agreed to Mondranar’s terms.”
“So, what do you plan to do now?” I asked.
“Well, this sortie didn’t work out as planned,” Selinger said. “We don’t know what Mondranar is doing here in Prague, but Valinir confirms that the Dralf is hunting that Dragon’s egg.”
“I can also confirm that Mondranar doesn’t know if it’s here,” Valinir said. “He questioned me extensively, including using a very foul-tasting potion, to try and find out what I knew of it. I’m afraid that he now knows of your existence as well,” he nodded at me. “And he also thinks there’s a Dragon in this realm hunting it.” He took a drink of his tea and chuckled. “Actually, I might have learned more from him than he did from me.”
I turned to Cassiel and gave him my best raised-eyebrow look. “Any comments?”
He winked at me. “I think Mondranar has learned more than he ever dreamed to know about Woods Elf magic.” He took a deep breath. “Göndul and I inspected the Caucasus villages that were burned on Samhain. It certainly looked like a Dragon attack.”
“Perhaps that is where we should be looking for the egg,” Valinir said.
“Not necessarily,” Selinger said. “That’s probably where the Dragon crossed the veils into this world, but the Dragon and the egg being in this realm at the same time may be a coincidence. Dragon eggs have been stolen and transported to other realms before, but I know of no instance where a Dragon has gone looking for a lost egg. They lay clutches of three, usually, and that would mean the mother abandoned two eggs to search for one.”
“Or someone stole all three, and this is where she is searching,” I said. “We know of one egg, but what’s to say there aren’t more? We saw a full clutch of dragonet eggs, and Mondranar probably has those that survived. If, as Cassiel says, he can use a dragonet to search for the Dragon’s egg, we still need to find the Dralf and put him under surveillance.”
Later that night, one of the Elves drove Cassiel and me to Josef’s shop in the city. Valinir said he would come the following day.
Göndul met us at Josef’s back door. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been worried sick.” She threw her arms around Cassiel’s neck, hugged him tight, and kissed him on the cheek. Disappointment flooded through me.
“I’m tired,” I said and took myself up to my room after telling Josef I would fill him in on our adventure in the morning.
Sitting on my bed, I felt the kind of despair I hadn’t felt in a very long time. I had been alone since Carolyn died. The first real friend I had made since then, Isabella, the jaguar shifter, had her own life out in Colorado. We stayed in touch, although I hadn’t seen her in months. But Cassiel had stirred something in me, something I hadn’t felt in decades. I had dated men occasionally, but no one had touched my heart and stirred my soul until I met him. I had only known him a couple of days—actually, I didn’t really know him—but I had allowed myself to hope. Seeing Göndul greet him had blasted that hope like one of his lightning bolts.
I was lonely, I admitted to myself. Maybe I should spend some time at the Alfenholms. It certainly looked as though Imora had found someone. The flirting Valinir had attempted with me in Iceland stopped once we got to Ireland.
Chapter 14
I rose before anyone else and was in the process of making breakfast when Göndul appeared in the kitchen doorway.
“Need any help?”
“Not really.” I looked around. “You can set the table for four.” I indicated the cupboard where the dishes were kept. “Coffee or tea?”
“I don’t suppose you have dalesh?” she asked.
“Sorry, no. Josef is Human.”
“Coffee, then.” She began setting the table, and I put a mug of coffee in front of her. “Cassiel cautioned me not to thank you for bailing my ass out the other day,” Göndul said. “I guess it’s some kind of Elven cultural thing?”
I stopped what I was doing and grinned at her. “Yeah, it is, but I’ve been living among Humans for so long that I’m over it.” I checked on the frittata and went back to cutting up fruit.
“In Elven society,” I continued, “saying thank you is considered a payment, a reward. In our situation, it would imply that I stepped in, not because it was the right thing to do, but because I wanted to be rewarded, to put you under an obligation to me. You try to square the ledger by thanking me—offering a sort of payment. Thus, our interaction is turned into a transaction. Instead of accepting that I’m a nice person, you’ve accused me of being a mercenary.” I stopped what I was doing and turned to her. “Does that make any sense to you?”
“I guess. In a weird, twisted sort of way,” she said.
“Yeah, well, a lot of races think Elves are weird and twisted,” I said with a chuckle, grabbing an oven glove and pulling the frittata out of the oven.
“Oh, no, that’s not what I meant at all!”
I took pity on Göndul and gave her a smile when I saw the horrified look on her face. “I know you didn’t. I actually don’t know of any races outside the Fae who think that way. We are just very wary of obligations.” I began serving the food onto plates. “Can you please call the others? Breakfast is ready.”
Later, Josef asked the question I was itching to ask. Humans have no constraints on being nosy.
“You must forgive me, my dear,” Josef said to Göndul, “but I am very curious as to why you’re seeking a Dragon’s egg.”
She bit her lip and looked to Cassiel, who had sort of frozen in place at the question. He glanced at me, and I cocked my head, leaning forward attentively.
“You can’t just let that sort of thing fall into the wrong hands,” Cassiel said.
“Oh?” Josef leaned back in his chair, cradling his coffee cup in both hands. “And why not? I mean, you just decide such things, and fly off to save the world from itself?” He turned to me. “I think that’s rather noble, don’t you, Kellana?” He winked at me, then turned back to his other guests.
“I assume you have someone who plans to pay you for all your trouble,” Josef said, “or are you wildly wealthy from all of your travels through the realms? How much can you sell a Dragon’s egg for?”
Cassiel and Göndul squirmed a bit, their eyes looking everywhere except toward Josef and me. Of course, I would never have put a guest on the spot
like that, but I was thoroughly enjoying their discomfort.
Josef turned to me. “Do you plan to sell the egg, Kellana?”
“Oh, no. The Elven clan lords are financing my search. My understanding is they plan either to destroy the egg or to transport it back to Draegar.”
“And you trust them to do as they say?” Josef persisted. He had known me a very long time, and I knew that twinkle in his eye quite well.
“Of course,” I said. “Elves can’t lie.” I shrugged. “I don’t know if any other races are like that. Humans, of course, lie about everything. Are Angels capable of lying, Cassiel?”
“You’re putting me in a very awkward position, Josef,” Göndul said.
He stared at her without speaking, and I realized he was deciding whether he should kill her and her companion. There was a strong possibility he could do it. I knew if he tried, he expected me to back him.
“You know that an Elven battle mage will be here shortly,” I said.
“I think we have to trust them,” Cassiel said to Göndul. “What she says about Elves is true. They can’t lie without damaging their auras and their magic. Even an evil Elf, such as Mondranar, will avoid lying at all costs.”
Göndul took a deep breath, turned to Josef, and said, “How long have we known each other? About thirty years, isn’t it?” When Josef nodded, she continued, “My father is Human, and my mother is Aesir from Valhalla.”
I knew the Aesir and Vanir controlled several realms, including Asgard, Valhalla, and Vanaheim. They were closely related to Elves, though usually they were shorter and stockier.
“My mother is a realm walker, and my father was a warrior in Vanaheim with latent magic he never realized,” Göndul continued. “I never knew my father. I was raised in Valhalla and trained there as a Valkyrie. When I reached my majority, I traveled to Earth and entered a university here to learn about Humans, my father’s people. I met Josef about thirty years ago, and shortly after that I met Cassiel.”
She got up and refilled her coffee. When she turned around, she asked, “Have you ever heard of the Paladins?”
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