Huntress Clan Saga Complete Series Boxed Set: Books 1-6

by Jamie Davis

  Quinn finished her glass and was in the process of pouring herself another from the decanter when Aurora returned.

  “It’s very good, isn’t it? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what it was when you first arrived. It was foolish of me to not realize you didn’t know the custom for a meeting like this one. It would never do to serve spirits or anything that could cloud the mind when meeting with a person of equal rank like this.”

  Quinn started to say thank you and stopped. “Wait, you think of me as equal in rank? I’m not a princess or anything like that.”

  “You’re a clan leader, a proven warrior, deemed worthy by a dragon egg, and the potential embodiment of an ancient prophecy. I think that qualifies, don’t you?” Aurora’s eyes glinted with amusement.

  Quinn wasn’t sure if the Fae was teasing her. After a few seconds, she decided the princess was being sincere. She nodded. “Thank you then. Is that the book?”

  Aurora held up a small leather-bound book about an inch thick. Its size surprised Quinn. For something like this, she had expected a magnificent volume full of prophecies.

  The princess flipped open the book, revealing pages of handwritten lines in a language she didn’t recognize. Even some of the alphabet looked alien. From the way the other woman traced her hands down the pages, the text moved from right to left instead of the opposite way, as in English books.

  After flipping through a few more pages, she stopped. “Ah, here it is. I knew I’d written it down.”

  Aurora leaned forward, holding the book so Quinn could see, even though she couldn’t read it. The lines of script had doodles of flowers and what looked like hats and dresses in the margins.

  “This is my journal from when I was younger. One of my instructors was always going on about this prophecy and the arguments about what it meant.”

  “Why is there a disagreement? A translation should be straightforward, right?”

  “The two are translations of a translation, a copy of a copy if you will. The final copy will not be as true to the original as the first copy was. Each additional copy down the line will be slightly different, no matter how careful you are.”

  “Well, let’s go back to the original, then,” Quinn said.

  Aurora shook her head. “The original is not of this world. It came from a single page of a book in the demon realm. Long ago, a rebel escaped with a copy of it and brought it to the Fae on this world, claiming it was the secret to foiling plans to take over the Earthly plane.”

  “You said, ‘long ago.’ When was this?”

  “Sometime around 1300 BC if I remember my instructor’s ramblings about it.” She glanced at the text on the page and continued, “Here it is. He was the court mage to Queen Nefertiti when a nearly-dead demon spawn, the half-human child of a man and a female demon, stumbled from the central passage of one of the great pyramids near Giza.”

  Aurora read on, flipping the page. “Guards brought him to the court of Nefertiti, and he was interviewed by the queen’s advisors, who tried to understand his fevered ramblings. He died soon after he was discovered, but they managed to recover the scrap of parchment he clutched and decipher the text written there.”

  “Why the two versions if they had the original parchment?” Quinn asked.

  “The queen’s advisors had two differing interpretations. One ascribed the prophecy to champions to come sometime in the future who would help gather the Fae under a single ruler once and for all. The other, tendered by a few of the human scholars in the council, said it referred to mankind, not the Fae. They thought it meant it would be the leader of a select group or clan of humans who would ultimately defeat the final incursion of demonkind.”

  Quinn asked, “I know what my version said. What was the version the Fae mage came up with?”

  Aurora glanced down at her notes and frowned. “Since you don’t speak Fae, I’ll have to translate the archaic tongue to English for you.”

  She considered the page for a few seconds, then said,

  “At the end will come the ones who were lost.

  They will restore that which was broken.

  Rebuilding the brotherhood.

  Melding them under the last conqueror.”

  Quinn shook her head. “The two don’t sound like the same thing at all. Your version doesn’t even talk about defeating the demons.”

  “Of course not,” Aurora said, eyebrows raised in shock. “We couldn’t reunite under a single ruler if we destroyed our cousins from the netherworld.”

  Quinn nearly spluttered ambrosia through her nose. “’Cousins?’ What does that mean?”

  “Oh, dear, you don’t know, do you.” The princess sighed and closed the book in her lap. “The Fae and demonkind were one race before a war split the two factions and banished the losers to the lower planes. Ever since, they’ve tried to find a way to return and cast out their oppressors. The prophecy speaks of that return and of the possibility that our two factions might someday reunite.”

  “What about that conqueror part? That sounds ominous.”

  “There are those among the Fae who assume we will ascend to control this plane someday.”

  Quinn didn’t like the sound of that. She didn’t press the issue with the princess, though. What would be the point? She’d come to find out what Filippa was up to with Avery and Gemma. At least, she now knew a little about what was driving her to interfere with Quinn and her friends.

  Standing, Quinn smiled at Aurora. “Thank you for taking the time to explain all this to me. It’s given me a lot to think about.”

  “I’m always happy to make time to assist you, Quinn. I think there are many important matters hinging on your decisions right now.”

  Aurora rose and walked Quinn to the front door. Zephyr, who had followed them, pulled it open and held it as Quinn stepped through to stand on the stoop.

  “Take care of my dragon egg, dear. I have my calendar marked for when you can bring it back to me.”

  “I’ll make sure it is safe and sound. Don’t worry,” the Huntress said.

  Quinn headed down the steps and back toward the bus stop. She had a lot on her mind and more questions now than when she left. It was time to make a plan for what to do next.

  Chapter Eleven

  It was lunchtime when Quinn arrived back at O’Malley’s. She’d hoped to slide through the busy lunch crowd without being seen and go find Taylor in the back rooms.

  No such luck.

  “Quinn,” Avery called. “Over here.”

  Forcing herself to smile and hide the anger she held inside at the information she’d found about Filippa, Quinn walked over to the bar. Avery sat on the stool in front of a pub burger that set Quinn’s mouth to watering.

  “Taylor said you went shopping.” Avery glanced down at Quinn’s empty hands. “Didn’t you find anything? Maybe I can come with you if you go back out this afternoon. Shopping sounds fun, and I’d love to help you find whatever you were looking for.”

  “I’m not sure I’m going back out. It wasn’t all that urgent.” Quinn scanned the crowded club. “Have you seen Taylor, or maybe Clark and Naomi?”

  “Your friend is back in her computer lab. I just found out you call her the tech witch. That’s spectacular. It defines her from top to bottom.”

  “That’s sort of the point,” Quinn said. She couldn’t resist a snarky addition. “It’s what a nickname does, after all.”

  “I know that, but it’s not something Gemma does. Giving a colleague a nickname is something that seems so friendly, personal. Gemma never does anything without a purpose. There’s no room in her plans for that sort of frivolity.”

  “That’s a shame.” Quinn tried to keep her answer short and looked around, avoiding making eye contact. She figured if she didn’t engage with the other girl, she’d lose interest and let Quinn go find Taylor and the others.

  “I know!” Avery exclaimed, her eyes bright with excitement. “You can give me a nickname. It would be perfect coming from you
.”

  How about two-faced? Quinn thought. She held the forced smile on her face and said, “That’s not the way it works, Avery. A nickname comes from something specific, from a particular thing you do at a certain time that stands out.”

  “Of course. I only thought you might… Well, never mind. I suppose it will come in its own time.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Quinn replied, happy Avery was letting that particular thought go. She was so strange. As a warrior, she was incredible, something Quinn hated to admit. But in social situations and in one-on-one conversations like this, she was like a little kid. She remembered what the girl told her about how Gemma had trained her in isolation growing up. Quinn almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

  “Hey, look, I’ve gotta go find Taylor. You should finish that burger before it gets cold. We’ll be back at the training tomorrow, don’t forget.”

  “I don’t think so. Gemma has something she and I need to do.”

  “Oh?” Quinn asked. Avery had mentioned something earlier about Gemma’s plans. “What’s that?”

  “Ummm, I’m not sure.” Avery looked away. “Just something Gemma has to do while we’re in town. That’s all.”

  Quinn knew the other girl was hiding something. It increased her suspicions about their involvement with the missing werebadgers. She had to get to Taylor.

  “Ummm, yeah, that’s good,” Quinn said. “We’ll have another day off. Enjoy your lunch.”

  Quinn left Avery sitting at the bar and wove through the tables to the door to the storerooms. A quick jaunt down the long hallway took her to Taylor’s workroom. She poked her head inside to see if her friend was there.

  Taylor was hunched over the table they had set up for the VR system, working on something. Miranda’s ghostly form hovered beside her, intent on what the tech witch was doing. They both looked up when Quinn peeked in.

  “Hey, how’d your ‘shopping trip’ go?” Taylor asked.

  Quinn glanced at Miranda and said, “I found part of what I was looking for, but now I need your help with, uh, some online shopping.”

  Miranda smiled. “Goodness, you two are the worst at keeping secrets. I can tell you’re up to something. First of all, you hate shopping, Quinn. You talk about it all the time. What were you really doing all morning?”

  Taylor tried to cover. “No, she really had to get some stuff. I told you.”

  “Taylor,” Miranda said. “One of the things I most adore about you is how painfully honest you are. You’re the worst liar I’ve ever seen.” Miranda turned back to Quinn. “Come in and close the door, then tell me what you’ve really been up to.”

  Quinn came in and pushed the door shut, deciding she had nothing to lose. “I went to visit Princess Aurora downtown. I had questions for her after I learned there might be a connection between Avery’s sudden arrival here and Filippa.”

  Miranda’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? That can’t be good.”

  Taylor nodded. “Exactly. That’s why Quinn had to go and find out what she might be up to.”

  “Have you told your mother or Clark?” Miranda asked. “They’ll want to know if something is up.”

  Quinn shook her head. “They only want to prove I have the training to be a better Huntress than the new girl in town. If I’m going to bring this to them, I need more than a casual mention of that Fae backstabber in a single conversation. That’s why I went to Aurora. I’m glad I did because I ended up uncovering a whole other thing we have to worry about.”

  “What’s that?” Taylor asked.

  “There’s another version of the Huntress prophecy, one that has important implications for the Fae.” Quinn went on to explain what she’d learned from Aurora.

  When she finished, she shrugged and said, “That’s why I need to figure out what Gemma’s here to do with Avery. It’s not whatever she’s telling Clark and Naomi. It has nothing to do with challenging me. I need to know the real reason before I can go to them.”

  “You should give them more credit,” Miranda said. “They’ve been around a lot longer than you have, and I’m sure they know all about Fae trickery and what Filippa’s capable of.”

  “I don’t think so,” Quinn shot back. “Clark’s got a blind spot where Filippa’s concerned, given his history with her, and I still don’t trust Naomi. That’s why I’m hoping Taylor can help me investigate my suspicions and get more evidence about what Gemma and Filippa are up to.”

  “What about Avery?” Taylor asked. “She’s got to be involved, too.”

  “Maybe,” Quinn replied. “But I don’t think she’s in on the whole plot. She’s a worse liar than you are, and I don’t think she’s aware of how treacherous Gemma and Filippa are.”

  “You flipped your opinion of Avery pretty fast since the last time you talked to me about her.”

  “I don’t know, T,” Quinn said. “There’s a lot about her that’s so sheltered. She just does whatever Gemma tells her to without question. That’s a problem, but I don’t think she’s as guilty as the other two. I need to find out for sure, though, so what do you think?”

  “I do like to unravel a mystery. Miranda? We could use your knowledge of magic and Fae influence.”

  Miranda thought about it for a few seconds and nodded. “I will help, but only if you promise to take whatever we find out to Clark and Naomi. Deal?”

  Quinn and Taylor replied in unison, “Deal.”

  “Well, then,” Miranda said. “Where do we start? You must have some thoughts, Quinn.”

  “I do. First, we need to search for anything about the Fae version of the prophecy. There must be a Baltimore connection somehow, or they wouldn’t have come here.”

  “That’s a bit of a stretch,” Taylor said. “Didn’t you say this happened like three thousand years ago?”

  “Yes, but the Fae might have been on this continent back then and left something behind, or maybe they brought something with them when they arrived with the rest of the settlers who built the city.”

  Taylor sat down in the chair behind her triple monitors, pulled the wireless keyboard into her lap, and started typing. “Let’s see what we can find out. Tell me the Fae version of the prophecy again so I can enter it, then we’ll see if we can backtrack it to Fae language keywords to search.”

  “When did you learn to speak Fae, T?” Quinn asked.

  “I didn’t, but I was able to load a translator program and, with Miranda’s help, used a spell to add magical and mystic languages to the database. We should be able to do a search using that.”

  “What? There’s a Fae version of the internet?” Quinn queried.

  “There is. It’s located on the dark web, of course, but that won’t stop me.” Taylor grinned. “What’s the version of the prophecy you got from Aurora? Try to be exact. It could make a difference.”

  Quinn recited Aurora’s version to Taylor while her friend entered it. As soon as she finished speaking, Taylor went to work. At one point, she stopped tapping and started chanting rhythmically while she wriggled her fingers over the keyboard.

  When the tech witch finished chanting and started typing again, Quinn asked, “Was that a spell?”

  “Yeah, there’s a whole part of the web hidden from even the best human hackers. Miranda and I found it by accident when we were doing some of the work to get the new VirSync gear integrated into our homemade system. I used a magical password spell to get me in. Now we can start searching for Fae keywords. First, though, I need to reverse-translate what you told me in English.”

  Quinn watched as the tech witch did her thing. The three screens now had a blue-green glow emanating from them as lines of code, images, and text flashed by. Some of the graphics depicted various creatures from the supernatural realm. A few she recognized, but many she didn’t, highlighting how much she still had to learn about this world full of mythical creatures.

  It took Taylor about twenty minutes to get the translation to the Fae language completed. The runic alphabet on the screen
was illegible as far as Quinn was concerned.

  “Don’t worry,” Taylor assured her. “I did the reverse-translation a second time using a different translator. It came out very close to what you told me to begin with. I think it’s as close as we’re going to get.”

  “So, now what? You start searching using those weird letters and words?”

  Miranda nodded. “Taylor should be able to use the magical interface to comb through the Fae records we’ve found so far, as well as potentially uncover others. There’s a lot we don’t know about yet, I’m sure.”

  Quinn sat down in a nearby chair where she could see the monitors. “I guess I wait, then. I don’t want to wander around out there. I might run into Clark or Naomi. With my luck, they’d decide to run me through some training bouts to give me extra incentive to beat Avery the next time we meet.”

  Taylor laughed. “Like you need anyone to make you more competitive than you already are.”

  Quinn smiled. Taylor knew her better than anyone else. “Keep your eyes on the prize, please. I want to find out what Filippa’s up to.”

  “Yes, Mistress Huntress, ma’am.” Taylor turned back to her work, chuckling.

  Quinn settled back and let Taylor and Miranda work. The amount of help Miranda offered as Taylor ran her search surprised Quinn. Although she thought this would be more tech than magic, and outside of the ghost’s expertise, Miranda offered Taylor a lot of little tweaks and insights as she worked through the process.

  It took Taylor and Miranda the afternoon and well into the evening to finally start yielding answers to what Quinn hoped to find. While they were working, she took a chance and snuck out to find Juni, who was in the kitchen. She arranged to have snacks and drinks brought in every few hours while the tech witch worked.

  Taylor got distracted when she dug into a project like this. She often forgot to eat or drink anything except for the occasional energy drink. With the leprechaun’s help, Quinn managed to get her friend to eat a patty melt and some fries. Later, they brought her some hot wings, and she nibbled on those as she continued her deep dive into the Fae web.