“The Elven Guard told me they were looking for agents of the Dark Court for most of the last year. I’m guessing now that you are one of those agents?”
Sal refused to be sidetracked, “They were looking after you were kidnapped and they were alerted to such agents being present. But who told you that it was Dark Court elves who kidnapped you to begin with? What do you know about the Dark Court?”
“Sal-“
“You said you wanted to help me,” he said, hoping she could be persuaded to tell him whatever she was hiding and fearing that she simply wouldn’t. It wasn’t as if he had any means to force her.
She closed her eyes and sighed, then bit her lip, “Sal.”
“Did he tell you? When he kidnapped you before?” Sal said, wondering if Ferinyth could possibly have been that stupid, and what that would mean for them now. How much could he have told her? And what had she told the Guard?
“Salarius!” she said, more forcefully. “Let me say something. No when I was kidnapped the first time no one told me anything that mattered. All he cared about was hurting me, and I wasn’t in a position to fight back.”
Sal relaxed slightly confident that at least he wouldn’t have to break it to his father that they’d been compromised to any degree with the Guard. That would be an unpleasant conversation. He went and sat down at the edge of the hearth, on the raised area where wood could be stored. After a moment Allie continued. “Screw it, you know what Sal? You know how I knew he was Dark Court? I was born in the Dark.”
He felt his mouth falling open in shock, and he gaped at her helplessly for a moment. “You…you are Dark Court? You?”
“Yes. Try not to sound so surprised. I was born into it, in a Holding that is primarily Dark. Obviously I’m cross-born although I didn’t choose the Bright Court either. I like living in Ashwood.”
“Wait…wait a minute,” Sal said, desperately trying not to panic. “You are that human witch’s granddaughter. That’s why you had the book my father wanted.”
“Yes, my father’s mother’s book.”
“Your father’s –“ he felt nauseous. “You’re sitting there telling me that your mother, your elven mother, is Dark Court?”
“Yes,” she said quietly.
“You couldn’t have told me this yesterday? You think I give a shit about your connections to the Elven Guard compared to this?” Sal said covering his face with his hands. “Who is she? What clan? Is she still alive? How high ranking is she?”
“Calm down Sal,” she said trying to sound soothing but he was in no mood to be soothed.
He glared at her, “If you are Dark born then you know what it means. You think my father wants you badly enough to go to war with another Dark Court clan? Gods you dumb…argh…if you’d just said this at the start, even Ferinyth wouldn’t have touched you.”
Allie glared back at him, “He didn’t give me much chance to say anything, and what difference does it make that I’m Dark Court, besides that it means I know about it? Know what it means to live in it.”
“If you know, then you have to understand what it means for us to have taken you,” Sal said, wondering if she’d intentionally set them up.
“It doesn’t mean anything except that I have a basic knowledge of the Dark Court,” she said, her voice and posture stiff. “And I can’t see any reason why I should have told you, or anyone else.”
Sal stared at her long and hard, trying to figure out if she was actually that naïve or if she was diabolically clever. His head was starting to hurt. “If your mother – your elven mother – is Dark Court, even if she is lowly placed and not influential, then taking you could mean big trouble for us. We are after all only a group of males. It’s one thing for us to have kidnapped some unimportant halfbreed or mixed blood, even a full blooded Light Court elf. But if you have ties to the Dark Court, if you are counted among the Dark Court…how can you not realize this matters? Clans go to war over this shit.”
Allie frowned looking uncertain. “I married into the Light Court, whatever else I have going on. I haven’t talked to my mother in almost 30 years. I’m hardly going to call her now to say I’ve been kidnapped. Besides, doesn’t this all just make me look, you know, weak? That reflects badly on me.”
“Sure,” he agreed, rubbing his forehead, “and that’s exactly why it’s a problem. Your clan can’t have that appearance of weakness, so they have to do something to address it. Which means either ransoming you back or killing us all. And which one depends on who your clan is and how connected they are, who your mother is, how offended she is that we took you at all, things like that. You should already know all this.”
She was still frowning looking down now, “Well, I was raised with my human family for the last 30 years. I left my mother’s Holding when I was a child. I get the broad strokes of how the Dark Court works, but obviously not the finer details.”
“Obviously,” he said. “This is such a mess. I can’t just let you go now, but we need to figure out how much this is going to complicate things.”
“It isn’t because I’m not telling you anything else,” she said resolutely.
“Allie, be reasonable,” he said, desperate. “I have to know how bad this is to know what to tell my father and when.”
“Sal, I told you this so you’d know how I knew what I knew about the Dark Court, but I am not giving you any information that might let you contact my mother. Under no circumstances do I want her involved in this.”
“You’d rather be held prisoner until your child is born and then be tortured for information?” he said, refusing to believe she was serious.
“Yes, I prefer that to having my mother know about any of this.”
“You’re mad,” he said simply.
She made a face at him, “You don’t understand-“
Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. Sal started violently at the sound, standing and crossing the room then stopping abruptly. Cormac was out hunting, and Anna was upstairs cleaning. He looked uncertainly back at Allie, then at the door. A second knock sounded, louder and longer than the first.
He stepped towards it.
*********************************
Jess watched Bleidd breaking the trail ahead of them as they wended their way through the woods, and tried to pinpoint what was different about the other elf today. It had been nagging at him all morning but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. So he watched the other elf moving ahead of the group, head up, shoulder’s back, emanating cheer, and he wondered.
There was a slight tingling and low hum from one of the pouches on his belt and he quickly called a halt, gesturing for the others to join him. Reaching into the pouch he pulled out a padded bag and from that withdrew a small mirror, dark, framed in silver with a fluorite crystal at each corner. He pressed his thumbs on each side of the mirror and focused a little bit of his personal energy into the surface, which blurred and then showed the image of Zarethyn sitting in his office. Jess repressed a smile Much better than a human cell phone and easier to use he thought as the scrying mirror adjusted its focus. I don’t know why humans always act so proud of their mechanical devices when we’ve been using magic to do many of the same things for much longer.
His brother’s voice spoke clearly from the little mirror, sounding no different than if he’d been standing there, “I have news.”
“About our investigation?” Jess asked, as the rest of his squad leaned closer.
“Indeed,” the Guard Captain said. “We have apprehended the person who killed the man found in the parking lot of Allie’s store.”
Bleidd stepped closer as Jess nodded, “That is good news.”
“It is complicated news; the human police are not pleased since the culprit is Fey and beyond their Law,” the Captain said, unperturbed. “That did put him fully within our jurisdiction however and since the charges included not only the murder of a human but complicity in kidnapping a member of the Elven Guard we were author
ized to question him as needed before executing him.”
“He was lesser Fey?” Brynneth asked.
“Yes, an Urisk. He had been banished from the Holding several years ago for killing a rival in a duel. According to our file he had several disciplinary incidents with the Guard prior to that as well, for fighting.”
Jess inclined his head in a shrug but honestly he was surprised. Urisks were usually gentle and passive beings, known for their shy temperaments and pacifism. The idea of an Urisk who habitually got into fights was strange. He wondered how such a being had managed to stay out of trouble for any amount of time in Ashwood. As if echoing his thoughts Bleidd said, “Odd that he didn’t have any run ins with the police or Guard while he was in the bordertown.”
“We’re still working on tracing all his movements while he was in Ashwood,” Zarethyn said. “But we suspect after being banished he was smart enough to avoid detection, whatever he was doing.”
“I trust he revealed something useful when he was questioned?” Jess pressed.
“He was hired by the Dark Court agent you uncovered and killed last year. Since the job he was paid for was never completed that agent’s partner approached him several days ago to collect on the debt. He named the same elf that Aliaine named, Salarius, confirming that he is the Dark Court agent we had been searching for. You have been authorized to capture him if possible and kill him if necessary when you find them, as well as any others allied with him. The Queen will not tolerate any Dark Court presence in her Holding.”
“Understood,” Jess said.
“He also told us that Salarius is not a trained mage but used some untrained magic to render Aliaine unconscious. You will need to be on guard against that. He knew nothing of any means to keep a person from using magic, nor did he know where Salarius was taking her, beyond into the Holding,” Zarethyn said.
They each looked at Bleidd who was frowning. “If he is untrained he should not be able to use spellcraft but it’s possible he has some ability that was never formally taught. If he has managed to teach himself any high magic then he may be very dangerous indeed.”
“We should assume that is the case then and proceed with caution,” Tashlin suggested.
“I agree,” Jess said reluctantly. “Bleidd is there anything you can do with your skill that could aid us?”
He looked thoughtful, then nodded slowly. “Yes, I think there is. It’s not something I would want to maintain for the long term but it should be manageable for several days at least and would prevent any lower level mage from using a spell to render any of you unconscious. If they are at a master level or above though, I could not swear to its efficacy.”
“Understood,” Jess said, “do what you can. It will be a tactical advantage for us if he thinks this trick of his is unknown and tries to use it.”
“Clever,” Zarethyn said, nodding. “and potentially very good strategy. The Urisk could tell us little else about this elf except that he was young, so proceed on your hunt but use caution. Have you had any difficulties so far?”
“Minimal,” Jess said. “We encountered a rogue group of trolls earlier but they fled when they saw us. And we also ran across the fresh tracks of a large catshee but no direct evidence of the creature itself.”
“Be on your guard as you go then. The Wildlands should not be underestimated.”
“Understood,” Jess nodded, and the mirror went dark. He placed it back in its protective bag and then into his belt pouch before turning to his squad. “Bleidd what do you need to do to protect us magically?”
The elven mage contemplated the question for a moment. “I can cast a spell directly on you that will divert any weak spells cast against you into the earth. Or I can set the spell on a physical object. Anchored that way the spell will last longer and have more strength.”
The other three nodded. Jess said, “That would seem the wisest course then. Have you any thoughts on what object to use?”
“It would be best to choose something that you would always have on you, whether you are in uniform or not. Otherwise it matters little what the object is.”
After a moments consideration Jess removed one of his wedding rings, the one Allie had given him which he wore on his left hand. He handed it over to his spouse and watched as Bleidd held the ring cupped in his palms and chanted something. For a moment the ring seemed to reflect a light blue light, then it was back to its normal appearance again. Wordlessly Bleidd handed the ring back and Jess returned it to its usual place. He felt the slightest tingle of magic in that finger as the ring slid into place, then nothing.
Looking curious Brynneth took off a pendant and handed it over to be spelled as well. Bleidd repeated the procedure on the silver talisman, and then after handing it back to the healer a final time on a ring Tashlin gave him. Once that was all done Jess nodded to the group, “We are as prepared as we are likely to get but I will not deny under the circumstances I am glad to have an adept mage with us. We’ll proceed as we have been, following Bleidd’s lead towards Allie’s location, but with all caution.”
“We are being watched,” Tashlin said calmly, moving his left hand slightly towards the woods.
“Yes,” Brynneth said, “several of the Makiawisug have gathered around us.”
Jess grimaced slightly, “A complication, but inevitable. It is difficult to travel the Wildlands and not draw the attention of the native Fey.”
“Should we acknowledge that we know they are there?” Bleidd asked, keeping his eyes on Jess, but trying to study the small shadowy shapes in his peripheral vision. He had heard of the Makiawisug, one type of Fey who had been native to this area before the Sundering, but they avoided the bordertown and the Holding and stayed in the Wildlands where they still had some autonomy, so Bleidd had no experience with them. From the stories he had heard secondhand he gathered they were very like the Yunwi Tsunsdi who lived around his previous King’s Holding, after the Sundering, but he wasn’t sure how the Guard here approached them. His own King had been quite harsh towards the native Fey, believing like all lesser Fey they explicitly fell under his rule and should therefore fall into line with the elves’ Laws. The native Fey generally disagreed.
Jess shook his head slightly. “That would be difficult, and accomplish little. Our presence is drawing their attention because it is unusual, the faster we can move through their territory the better. Even if we tried to reach out to them it is unlikely they would speak to us, and the Queen prefers we leave them in peace.”
Bleidd tilted his head, even more curious now. “Queen Naesseryia does not view them as her subjects?”
“They are not her subjects,” Brynneth said simply. “Any more than the humans of Ashwood are. They were simply unfortunate enough to be here when our world merged with theirs, and have been trapped since then in these areas that are neither human ruled nor part of the Holding.”
“It does make one wonder,” Tashlin said, spinning his newly spelled ring on his finger, “what their version of Fairy was like before ours overlayed it.”
“From what I understand,” Jess said, carefully watching the figures in the trees as they talked, “it was not like Fairy at all but a different sort of thing altogether. A thinness in mortal earth where magic pooled and gathered naturally.”
“Some of the highest mages have theorized that it was these thin spots where Fairy broke through here, creating the Holdings as they are now,” Bleidd said, wanting to share what little he did know about the subject.
“Unfortunate, if true, for those Fey who were already here,” Tashlin said.
“Indeed,” Jess agreed. He gestured for the others to begin walking again. “But nothing we have any influence over either then or now. And our lingering here is probably making them nervous. Let us move on.”
The group resumed its earlier course through the snowy forest, slightly more on edge now that they knew they were being watched.
Chapter 6 - Saturday – Afternoon
Allie stoo
d and turned as Salaruis went to answer the door, knowing that whoever it was, it wasn’t Jess or Bleidd. Not that she expected them to knock on the front door when they arrived, but she would have felt them if they were that close, and she didn’t. What she did feel was a skin-crawl-inducing blend of anticipation and repressed rage.
It wasn’t much of a surprise when he opened the door and said, “Hello father.”
“Salarius,” the elf standing on the threshold said, his voice rivaling the weather for its chill.
Allie felt her heart sinking, realizing that now she was in real trouble, and she physically sank with it, sitting back down into the chair again. Sal’s father stepped into the small building with a disdainful look, as if even entering such a humble place was beneath him. He wore a heavy fur cloak, which Sal was quick to take, a light blue tunic, dark grey pants, and knee boots. Like his son he had brown hair, but where Sal’s eyes were a bright hazel that always seemed expressive to Allie, his father’s eyes were a flat brown. Soulless she thought repressing a shudder.
Behind him were three other men, one elf and two lesser Fey. The elf was about the same height as Sal, slightly taller than Allie, with light brown hair and green eyes that took in the building’s interior thoughtfully. Allie sensed nothing particularly bad or good from him. The other two were trows: grey eyes and hair, grey clothing, glowering demeanor. She had known trows growing up; although they could belong to either Court they were often employed by the Dark Court as bodyguards and enforcers, because they were very fast and strong but not necessarily very smart. She racked her brain frantically for what she knew about their weaknesses but all she could think of was that they didn’t like sunlight and they had the same aversion to iron that many of the other Fey had. Not especially helpful.
Dark of Winter: A Between the Worlds novel Page 12
