by Patti Larsen
No longer. If I wanted to fight him, I had to go through his people first.
Damn. It. All. To. Hell.
And I'd been worried, the very first time I'd seen the mirror shard, when I'd been freed from the stronghold prison. Remembered thinking I should ask about the fragments, about how the mirror worked. Why didn't I say something to Mom then?
As usual, my vampire sent, you are beating an undead horse.
Sigh.
In case you've forgotten, my demon sent, we'd just freed your mother from the Brotherhood and barely avoided being burned at the stake. We had a lot on our minds.
We are all at fault if any are, Shaylee sent. Now, can we please focus on what we're to do about it and drop the sorrow show?
I snorted out loud. Everyone stared at me like I'd shot their dog. “Ego pep talk,” I said. Yeah, that made them more confident. Now I saw real worry in their faces.
“When the North American Council first discovered the stronghold,” Eva said, crisp and angry, “the Steam Union did nothing to stop you because we assumed it would remain safe in your hands.”
Hang on. “Discovered?” Wasn’t it the home of the Enforcers? And a prison.
Knew that one personally.
Mom shook her head, but not at me. “Until this point,” Mom said to Eva, “we didn’t think the stronghold was a target. Why would we?”
Eva’s scowl darkened her face, making her look older. “You truly have no idea what you occupied,” she said.
Mom stilled, body a statue. “Explain.”
The Steam Union leader let out a massive sigh. Relented a little. “I should have been more proactive,” she said. “I’m sorry, this is hardly your fault.”
Mom continued to stare at her. We all did.
“In case you’ve missed it,” Eva said in tone so dry I instantly wanted a glass of water, “the stronghold is a power source.”
Oh. Crap.
Mom nodded slowly. “In a way,” she said, tilting her head as if trying to process something on her own. “But yes, I do see that.”
“No,” Eva said, “you obviously don’t. How much of it have you explored?”
Mom glanced at Pender who had finally managed to pull himself together.
“In the three hundred years we’ve lived there,” he said, as if he made the discovery himself, “we’ve barely scratched the surface of what the stronghold—and the plane around it—have to offer.”
Eva nodded sharply, as if to affirm what she already knew. “Whoever made that place,” she said, “it wasn’t any of us.”
Meaning.
The maji.
Pender shook out his cloak and fixed Mom with a steady stare.
“I will raise an army at once,” he said, “and retake our stronghold.”
Didn’t he just hear what Eva said? Not his.
Maybe mine?
Mom didn't say anything. Looked at me instead.
And I... had no choice. Shook my head.
Her shoulders sagged a fraction. “I won't throw good Enforcers after the dead, my friend.” She hugged herself a moment before dropping her arms, face flashing from fear back to steady and calm. “We have no defense against the Brotherhood.”
“But we do.” I was surprised to hear Eva speak up. And, from the startled but happy look on Piers's face, so was he.
Mom turned to the Steam Union leader and nodded once. “I had hoped we could ask for your assistance,” she said.
How proper. So clean and diplomatic. And yet, I knew if Mom let go, if we dissolved as a group into despair as Pender had, we'd be lost.
Rigid control it was.
Though I knew it was a good thing Eva was on our side, her explanation didn’t give me nearly enough satisfaction.
She turned to her tall, handsome son before I could ask more questions. “Go home,” she said. “Assemble the Union. It's time we took a stand against the Brotherhood.”
I was almost pissed at him for the surge of satisfaction on his face. Would have been if his expression didn't darken into fierce joy.
“Yes, Mum,” he said. And dove through a wall of black without another word.
I knew how awesome it felt to be able to act at last after being held under tight rein for so long, so I hardly blamed him for his reaction. And, hopefully, with the help of the Steam Union, the Brotherhood wouldn't keep their possession of the stronghold for long.
“Are you saying the maji created the stronghold?” I needed to know what she knew.
Eva didn’t look at me. “We're not certain,” she said. “But we do know if the Brotherhood now have possession, they also are in control of a vast source of power.” She held up her hands before I could attack her with another question. “Here’s all I know,” she said. “Our scholars tracked our occupation of the stronghold for almost a millennium. Then, we were kicked out. By whom? No idea. Or why, for that matter. The records are light—apocalyptic light.” I could only imagine what that “kicking out” looked like that there were so few accounts left behind. “But shortly after that, the Steam Union and the Brotherhood split into their two factions.” She finally looked up, met my gaze. “Our power was greatly diminished, our people fewer in number than our enemy. Again, there is nothing in our histories to tell us what caused the chasm. But it exists to this day, a fundamental breach between sorcerers.”
The Light and the Dark. Holy, hang on a sec. Up until that point, they were one.
Was their rift the beginning of the prophecy I now chased down toward the very stronghold plane the Brotherhood took into their possession?
A shiver ran down my spine at the implications of these threads of fate running for so long, through so many conflicts. But it made sense, in a way. And helped explain further why Belaisle wanted the place. Not only to control the battlefield, but as a source to feed his sorcery.
So. Not. Good.
“Did the maji kick you out?” But what motivation would they have to do so? And yet, as far as I knew, they were the only ones capable of defeating the sorcerers.
Eva spread her hands before her. “As I said,” she let them fall to her sides, “I’ve told you all I know.”
“When we first found the stronghold,” Pender said, voice so soft I almost missed the fact he spoke, “it was by accident. We uncovered a coven site, found a mirror shard.” His anger had run out of him, despair trying to find its way back in by the trembling of his lower lip. But he went on, tone growing in strength. “The stronghold fought us, fought our magic. It took many years for it to accept us. To welcome us and allow us to live within it.”
I remembered Gram’s insistence I not use my power inside the walls. Now I wondered if it was less to keep the Enforcers we evaded from knowing I was there than to prevent an attack from the stronghold. I’d felt the protections in the place, knew Eva’s assessment of it as a power source was very true.
“Does that mean the stronghold might fight back against the Brotherhood?” Charlotte’s eyes lit with wolfish tones. “It could do our job for us.”
But Eva was already shaking her head. “They lived there once,” she said. “And witnessing what we just did,” her shudder was mirrored by the rest of us, “their use of power didn’t trigger an adverse reaction.”
Too bad. I would have loved to see the roles reversed.
The wild magicks suddenly settled around me, limp ribbons of grieving power. I welcomed them, let my egos soothe them even as Demetrius reached for me again—
—this time I left everyone else out of it as I looked through his eyes. Saw Belaisle standing over the broken machine, the same one I destroyed on the top of the Coterie Industries tower in Miami.
He gloated over it, the parts scattered through some kind of workshop.
“You were right to think they would bring it here, my lord.” One of Belaisle's bullies looked around, a hulking mass of a man. So odd the small, slender leader of the Brotherhood liked to keep giants around him.
“Of course,” Belaisle said, la
ughter in his voice. “How could they resist? And, in doing so, they fell right into my plans.” He touched the twisted metal that had been the base of one of the crystals. “Once I could track the Enforcer doing the research through the touch of my power, it was simplicity to find him and watch him. And take back the shard and the power that is ours.”
The Enforcer he killed. Pender called him Talcort. A scientist? Who made his own trap. So the machine was never meant to succeed, was instead a lure to me to create a beacon inside the stronghold for Belaisle to follow.
Despair woke inside me despite my best efforts. I thought I'd landed a blow against Belaisle. Instead, I gave him exactly what he needed.
How could I defeat someone who could outthink me so far in advance?
“And kill him.” The larger sorcerer laughed. “Mortok said he pleaded for his life and gave up the key willingly.”
Demetrius hissed in my mind, went dark—
—left me alone in my body again, still draped in the traumatized wild magicks, but with every pair of eyes in the room staring at me.
I had to tell Mom. Pender. Hated to, but had no choice.
The Enforcer leader's shoulders bowed so low when I finished explaining what I'd just seen I thought he might fall to the ground again.
“Miriam,” Sunny's grim expression flared with spirit magic. “What do you want us to do?”
Mom's hesitation only lasted a moment. “We must end conclave,” she said. “Send everyone home. Now that we know what the Brotherhood came to do, I doubt the others are in danger. But we must deal with this immediately.”
Meira's knee-jerk reaction to that plan matched mine to a “T”.
“We can't,” she said.
“We concur,” Niamh said, making me wonder who wore the pants in their particular Sidhe royal family. “The purpose of this conclave was to uncover those inside the Brotherhood's influence.”
“That goal hasn't changed, Mom,” Meira said. “I think it's even more important now than ever, considering what we just witnessed.”
“Margaret Applegate is our main target,” Eva said, nodding her agreement. “Freeing her, if such a thing is possible, will at least remove their influence over the witch nation if not help us,” nice of her to think in plural terms, “retake the stronghold.” She bowed her head to Pender. “For the Enforcers. Of course.”
And other equally important reasons. Like me needing access to the last battle site. Something I’d failed to share up to this point.
Oops. My bad. Though I really wasn’t looking forward to the reaction coming after my little announcement.
“The big fight Ameline Benoit and I are supposed to have with Belaisle?” I loved blurting. Had all kinds of great things about it. Like shocking the hell out of everyone so they didn’t start yelling at me right away. “That's where the maji prophecy seems to think it's going to happen.”
Eva blanched, gray eyes snapping with anger. “You planned to share this information at some point without being asked?”
Oh no, she did not. “I've been a little busy channeling a crazy dude,” I shot back. “Give it a rest.”
She shook her head, but backed off.
“So,” I said, “anyone want to venture a guess as to why the stronghold is so important for the final shebang? Is it just for a power source? Because, from what I know, Belaisle controlling more power shouldn’t matter in the end. No armies, no fancy footwork. Just a little cage match tied to the prophecy and maji and all that juicy stuff.”
Eva looked lost, then angry again. “I’m missing vital information, it seems.”
Sucked to be her.
Took all of five minutes to reciprocate with Eva and share everything I knew. Her look of frustration turned to shock and then worry as I finished up with the whole prophecy mumbo jumbo.
I had a feeling her opinion of me just took a nose-dive. At least where my involvement with her son was concerned.
“The important thing is we keep this to ourselves at this juncture.” Sunny slipped her arm around my shoulders as if to protect me from the stunned and anxious Eva Southway. “If word were to reach the general population of witches the stronghold has fallen to the Brotherhood, we could face mayhem.”
“Agreed,” Mom said. “We can just be thankful our regular exchange and training programs with the other Councils were suspended in June in preparation for conclave. The Enforcers we lost were ours alone.”
Pender jerked as though she'd poked him with a red-hot stick. “My order has been silenced,” he said. “I've already seen to that.”
Poor Pender. “No one is saying those under your command will speak out of turn,” Mom said, coming to his side, laying a kind hand on his arm. “Very well, if this is the consensus. We carry on as though everything is fine. For tonight.”
“While working together,” I shot Eva a glare, “to make sure by the time this conclave is over, the stronghold is back in our possession.”
“And the Brotherhood has been removed—their influence or their persons—from all of magickdom.” Mom’s grim tone matched my mood exactly.
And my desire to rid us of the Brotherhood. Imagine that.
The Steam Union leader looked like she wanted to argue for some reason. Was she having second thoughts? I just dared her to cross me.
Piers's mother or not, she wouldn't survive the outcome.
“And if we are unable to reclaim the stronghold?” Someone had to say it. I was just glad it was Uncle Frank and not me.
Mom's shoulders twitched at the exact moment Pender's did.
“I won't accept that option,” Mom said.
Neither would I.
***
Chapter Twenty Five
I sat, knees jiggling, as the gathering of conclave attendees settled into their seats, chattering and smiling, laughing and talking around me. Clueless. While my stomach flip-flopped like a suffocating fish.
Shenka squeezed my hand, even her practiced smile tight around the edges.
Sassafras crouched in my lap, ears down, whiskers sagging.
Of course I told them. As soon as I walked through the door into our little quarters the night before, the pair of them pounced on me, demanding to know what happened.
I almost forgot the wild magicks, now burrowed under my clothing, hiding, their sorrow infectious as I filled the pair in on the latest disaster. Sassafras's soft moan joined Shenka's gasp of horror, the Persian slinking into my lap to press his face against my stomach as his grief shuddered through him.
“He killed them?” Shenka's eyes flooded with tears, dark skin shining with tracks of moisture as she let them fall, unheeded.
The Lawrence twins came to sit silently on one of the low couches, listening, absorbing, hugging each other as I finished the story.
Shenka stood, began to pace. She'd clearly adopted my favorite past time when agitated. “Miriam is right,” she said. “We have to end conclave.”
But Estelle shook her head. “No,” she said. “We must do what we came to do.”
“The stronghold can wait,” I said. “And as tragic as the loss of those Enforcers is, we have to try to stay logical about this.”
Me? Logical? Maybe I'd finally snapped. Lost my heart or something. Because I couldn't bring myself to feel anything past numb.
None of us slept much and, though I was used to going a few nights without rest, my immortality making it easy for me, the rest of my party wasn't so lucky.
Silent and grim, the twins chose to eat breakfast in the pavilion, but I insisted Shenka and Sassafras come with me.
And pretend at normal. Because, that was what Mom needed us to do.
I hadn't heard a word from Piers, and any attempt to connect with my mother was blocked. She had to be working, focused. Still, I could have helped.
Right. By alternating between moping in stunned unfeeling and thrashing around in fury.
Deluded much?
At least I had Shenka and Sass to lean on, to keep me focused. It
felt so wrong to have the rest of the conclave carry on as though nothing happened. Because, to them, nothing had. Meira's grim nod to me as she took her seat, paired with the equally dark looks of her entourage, told me she'd filled them in on last night's events.
The Steam Union contingent, still minus Piers, looked equally as out of sorts, though to be honest, Eva never did show much emotion, so I hoped her attitude wouldn't be seen as unusual.
Sunny and Uncle Frank were naturally absent, but Chambrelle’s nod to me, soft tilt of her head, told me they'd informed her of the pertinent details.
Only Mom looked calm, politely cheerful, as she took her seat at the head of the Council's box just as the carol of trumpets announced the opening of the second day of conclave.
Margaret Applegate's grinning triumph registered right on time. I held my breath, hating what was coming next.
Wishing Mom would speak first. Pissed she insisted on allowing Applegate to out what happened last night.
It was our final decision, made together, though I still thought it was a terrible idea.
“If we appeal to the conclave in a position of weakness,” Mom said, “we only give the Brotherhood an opportunity to show us as weak. But if Applegate brings it up, I’m hoping we can, instead, appear to be dealing with it instead of desperate.”
Everyone nodded, thought it was a great way to go.
“Mom,” I said. “That’s a lot of hoping.”
“Regardless how it comes out,” Mom said, hands on my shoulders, face close to mine, “it’s coming out, Syd. We might as well see what the Brotherhood might reveal through their delight at our loss rather than try to put a cork in something that’s already happened.”
Grumble. Mumble. Sigh.
***
“I've received word,” Applegate said, bringing me back to the frustration of the present, voice carrying through her magic, “there was an attack on the Enforcer stronghold last night.” The entire gathering fell deathly silent as Mom's pleasant smile remained intact.
She didn’t comment, nod her head, anything but keep that smile firmly fixed on her face.
