"It's a noble name among the Trolls. But because I come from that family, and I'm a Pathfinder, I am not eligible for the throne. Blood is both a boon and a curse." He crossed his arms over his chest. "The mix of my mother's Risi blood with that of a Troll of the Bounderfoot family makes my blood very strong. Hypothetically, if I were to become king and mate with another Risi, our child would be even stronger at magic than I am."
"And if you wed a Troll?" I had to ask.
"That child would be even stronger still, because of the magic of the Trolls." He looked at both of us. "Centuries ago, the Nisse roamed this world, what we call the Greater Kingdom or the Dreamlands. There was fighting between our peoples, such as Troll verses Purs or Risi verses Jötunn. But these small skirmishes were kept in check. Until it was discovered the Trolls were breeding Risi for specific powers. They wanted to create a new Nisse race with the powers of all the other races. A Nisse who could be a prophet, control nature, curse, cast stone, fight—" He shook his head. "No one knew they were doing this until their armies stormed Windhold, the castle at the heart of our kingdom."
"Windhold?" I felt a tingle when I said the name. My Elementals stirred.
"It's the Risi home. These soldiers looked like Nisse, but they were so much stronger. They fought like berserkers from the south. The other races were no match, and for a hundred years the Trolls ruled the kingdom with the Risi by blood."
"I thought you said the Trolls were the mages, the healers, or like a peaceful race."
Brahms nodded. "They are now. But not then. Back then they believed magic was might, and their goal was to become strong enough to overtake the Greater Kingdom."
Bastien leaned against the SUV's passenger door. "I take it this did not happen?"
"One of the families in the new Troll armies, the Windsongs, didn't like what the Trolls were doing. The use of so much magic and might took its toll on the ley lines, draining the Faerie's four kingdoms. The Faerie ruler, a King named Oberon, met with the Matriarch of the Windsong name and…” Brahms lifted his shoulders. “They created a child who would prove to be even stronger.”
“They created a child…between a Risi and a Faerie?” I blinked. I don't know why I found that odd. I knew a guy whose father was human and his mother a Faerie.
“Not just any of the Faerie kind. But a Leanan Sidhe. The strongest, most beautiful and devastatingly powerful of their people.”
Wow.
"Satar Windsong challenged the Trolls' rule by the blood of this new addition to his family, which started a war between the Risi and the Trolls. The other classes stepped away and gave support to the side of their choosing." Brahms gave us a sideways smile. "Windsong won, but with heavy casualties. Many Nisse died. Of all classes, the hardest hit were the Risi."
I didn't say anything.
"Windsong's people met with the Purs, who acted as mediators, and they came up with the Quest, a means to change the blood of the throne every time a new King was needed. The Purs made it so the throne could never be made into an ultimate power."
"Mon Dieu," Bastien said softly.
"The Trolls and the Risi had to put a stop to the massacres. There was so much hatred directed at them for what they did. All in the name of power." He gave a short sigh. "So the Quest is there…but it is a failure."
"Because of the need of a Dragon's heart?" I said this, trying really hard not to betray that I knew where a Dragon was. But there was something bothering me. “Which…doesn’t make any sense.” I held up a finger. “Hear me out. Why a Dragon Heart? I’m assuming this whole peace thing happened a long time ago. And from what I’ve learned, there aren’t any more Dragons. So why use their heart? I mean, that’s just setting the future up for failure.”
“When the Quest was formed, Dragons were more prevalent.” Brahms ducked his head. “This was indeed a long time ago.”
“But weren’t there only like…five Dragons?”
“Five Elemental Dragons,” Brahms said. “There were always Dragons. Offspring without the magical capacity of the Elementals. The legends were the Elementals weren’t always Dragons, but those chosen by the God Mother to carry Her might,” Brahms said. “I don’t believe the Purs ever believed such a strong and powerful race of beings could ever die out.”
Bastien leaned forward. “Then it is failure, no?”
"Yes. There are no more Dragons. They are all gone. So the Quest will be the end of us if Windsong is truly dead."
"We should go," Bastien said and opened the door for me to get in.
I put a hand on Brahms's shoulder and squeezed. "We'll find the truth."
The Nisse nodded before he moved to stand in front of the SUV. Bastien got in on the driver's side.
I watched as Brahms held out his hands at his sides and threw his head back. He screamed something into the wind, but I couldn't understand what he said. The air in front of him bent and twisted as if it were made of water and ripples were being created.
All of my Elementals appeared at once, but in small form, each big enough to sit along the SUV's dashboard and watch as the gate formed.
They spoke in my head, all of them chattering happily about actually moving through a Risi gate. Apparently, this was Disney for Elementals.
A flickering, moving circle of words rotated around the edge of the gigantic hole as it spread out, and I thought I could see a street through the opening. Brahms disappeared from view, and Bastien and I jumped out of the car and ran to the front. He'd collapsed in a heap in front of the grill. Bastien pulled him up and he was semi-conscious. He had warned us that the gate would zap his strength for a while and he'd need sleep and food to recover.
And since we were heading into New Orleans, food was not an issue.
I RECOGNIZED the Cairn the moment the special effects of Brahms's gate disappeared. It was the Cairn in Gypsy Gardens, the one beside the cabin on Arden's property. We sat still for a few seconds, Bastien and I. Watching him, I knew he was communicating with the pack through his link, which meant they would be arriving soon.
There wasn't any way around doing a bit of demolition to the stones and small grape vines around the Cairn as Bastien eased the SUV out of the protective circle. I mentally promised to come back out and fix what the tires pulverized. He slowly drove down the short two-rut path to the cabin, a two-room nestled next to a copse of hardwoods, and parked.
I ran to the cabin while Bastien lifted Brahms out of the back. Finding the key under the mat, I unlocked the door. After a glance inside, I saw Arden had replaced everything, from the sheets to the rugs, and had restocked the shelves with canned goods and put some basics in the fridge. I grabbed bread, condiments, a pack of roast beef and some Swiss cheese and started making a sandwich before Bastien had Brahms on the bed.
I'd seen Crwys on that bed and the memory chilled me. Being within miles of him had re-established something I hadn't realized was missing.
A connection to him. I smelled him on my skin as I rubbed my nose with the back of my hand. There was a hint of cologne in the air. He was close, and my body and soul craved him in a way I could never crave Bastien. Crwys and I were destiny locked…or that was the phrase that kept coming up in my mind. There would never be anyone else for me.
And if he rejected me for abandoning him…well…I'd been alone before. I could do it again.
"He is awake," Bastien said as he came toward me. I smashed one side of the sandwich down on the other and started making a second. "Is it normal for such a power to exact such a toll?"
"It can," I said as I worked. I was also sensing something else around me.
Arcane.
And a lot of it. But it wasn't the usual type of stuff. This felt more like the stuff I'd encountered when I first touched Brahms. "Bastien, can you sense anyone else near the cabin?"
He lifted his face and sniffed the air. "Non. But if you are worried the Risi are near, I'm afraid I could not smell them."
I smashed another sandwich together. "You mean
there's actually a race you can't scent?"
"The Nisse smell like the forest. That is what I smell now."
“So…is the scent real strong? Like…are you smelling a lot of forest?”
“Oui.”
"So they're nearby."
"Or they've already come and gone, no?"
Yes. I would have to agree. I handed the plate with the two sandwiches to Bastien and poured two glasses full of sweet tea from a jug. Bastien helped Brahms sit up to eat.
My senses were on overload. And it wasn't just the presence of that odd Arcane. There was something else altogether in these woods now. Something I'd barely scratched the surface of all those times I'd been out here. A hint of some flavor I'd never been able to pinpoint before. I'd always just assumed it was how wood smelled.
But this smell…it had life to it. And it had memory. And just as I felt an odd stirring in the world around me, all of my Elementals appeared in the room, fanning out in an attack formation.
Guys? I asked all of them.
Belenos, my Salamander, spoke for them, -The forest is alive! It's coming here!-
I didn't know what to make of that statement. I looked at Bastien. Brahms had consumed half a sandwich, and Bastien was eating the other one. He'd also noticed my Elementals and set the food down. He went to the window and looked out. He said something in French that didn't translate for me. Something I was sure was deep Cajun.
When he ran to the door, so did I. We both stood there in the morning light, watching the woods in front of the cabin. The view was a clipped one, with thick bayou woods shrouding the cabin. What we didn't expect to see were the trees, bushes and scrubs …moving.
It was like something from a Froud nightmare. Several of the trees had sprouted arms and legs made of branches and were slowly doing this odd step-slog over the muddy ground in our direction. I would have said they looked like Ents…but they didn't. Ents I could digest and take in as some kind of delusional CG overload.
But this?
Bushes morphed into small animals with leaves for fur and twigs for legs. Some had longer leaves for wings that fluttered like butterflies, and all of them had beady yellow eyes. Large bird creatures swooped down and landed on outstretched branches. Their eyes glowed yellow as well. It was a flora army advancing on us, and it reminded me of another time when flowers came to life in a cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.
My Elementals filed out of the cabin and formed a barrier between the forest and us. My Unicorn, the representation of my Spirit, also appeared, a bright, indigo light against the shifting, moving green and brown.
The mud closest to the house, and just in front of my Unicorn, began to bubble and shift. She backed up, pawing at the dirt and kicking up grass and roots. The mud twisted and spouted up like a black fountain of oil, but it never spattered or sprayed anything around it. Instead, it moved back on itself, continuing to cycle as it grew thicker and taller until it shaped a rudimentary face. White stones flew off the ground and plopped in where eyes should be. A few loose pieces of bark popped off an approaching tree and formed a mouth beneath the eyes.
My Unicorn stepped back, as did my Elementals, until we were all crowded on the porch, surrounded by a haunted forest. Bastien moved to stand in front of me, and for once, I didn't protest. Instead, I half hid behind him. Magic against bad guys was one thing, but magic against nature? That's not something I'd ever encountered.
Bastien cursed again, and I felt his muscles tense. I knew it was costing him every ounce of his control not to shift.
I slapped my hands over my mouth when the bark on the towering, oozing water-mud spout spoke. Lady Darksome! "Blood must be pro-tect-ted. Blood will save us all."
Huh? I peeked out from the side of Bastien's arm. "What blood?"
"Elemental Blood…pro-tect-ted. Foul is the one who betrays the blood."
"Chérie, I do not like the sound of that," Bastien said in a soft voice. Then he tilted his head to the side. "We are not alone."
For a second, I wanted to point at the walking forest and agree we weren't alone. Then I realized he meant the pack. The Aces were here. I sent my feels out to see if I could touch them, since I wasn't part of the link anymore. Every attempt was bounced back at me.
Belenos abruptly turned and looked directly at me, hovering level with my face. -Tell the Wolves not to attack!-
A roar broke through the sound of shifting leaves.
Too late.
NINE
Crwys stood to the side of the horror. He kept his face unreadable. The other detectives, officers, and government officials weren't as successful, as some of them cried and others retched.
They stood on the north course at City Park Driving Range. Crwys had never been to this part of City Park, and after today, he never hoped to return. In the center of the course sat a new sculpture. Not one commissioned by the city or patrons of the arts, but one created by a magic far older and wilder than his own.
Captain Prescott had been right about the twenty bodies. What she hadn't mentioned was they were twenty bodies of children, differing in age, sex, and race. The only way he could describe it…it looked as if they'd all been tossed into a large pile seconds before they started to change into stone. All of them were calcified from at least the waist down. The smaller children on the bottom were completely turned to stone. Each of them was forever frozen in an act of horror, marked by their outstretched arms and terrified expressions.
"I don't know which is more haunting—" Levi said as he stood beside him. Ashur's voice came through in deeper tones. "The expressions of the stones, or of the ones still human."
"What does it matter?" Crwys balled his hands into fists. "This is ‘effed up. And this is not a Quest."
"I don’t believe this is what the Purs had in mind when they created the Quest," Ashur/Levi said. "Magic like this shouldn't be alive in this world. It shouldn't come through the veil like this."
Crwys understood what his old friend meant by the veil. It wasn't a physical thing anyone could touch, but a sort of dimming of senses, a gestalt of magic over mind that prevented humans from seeing what existed around them. This veil had been voted on and established long before Crwys even knew what a Nisse was.
And yet…here was a real, horrifying clue to what really walked around them. Quest or no Quest, this couldn't continue.
Crwys watched in silent horror as men in hazmat suits moved around the twenty-foot high sculpture, and he wondered how a pile of victims could jump so high. The truth was…they couldn't. He had to reassess his initial assumption. These kids were dropped from a high altitude and then transformed in media res.
In process.
Captain Prescott approached, wearing a sharp black suit, a stern expression, and a pale countenance. She motioned for the two of them to follow her and then stopped several feet away. "I need ideas."
"I don't have any at the moment," Levi said, no trace of Ashur in his voice.
Crwys stared at the monstrosity. "What does the CDC say?" He nodded to the people in hazmat suits.
"Nothing that helps us. Their supervisor said preliminary tests haven't shown a pathogen."
"A what?" Levi said.
Tas spoke up, "It's the first step in a chain of infection. It can be bacteria, or a virus, or even a fungus."
"Exactly," Prescott said, her hands on her hips. "And they can't find anything. Which is knocking out our theory of some kind of medical issue. I've asked them to send samples to Max to see what he comes up with. If he finds anything, he'll give you three a call." She glanced back and Crwys noted the pain in her face. She had two kids. "I can't explain this one, and there is no way this is going to stay out of the news. Even with a curfew being put into place, someone is going to leak this out there."
"We can always have a press conference if they do," Tas said. "Debunk it."
Prescott motioned behind her at the pile without looking at it. "You wanna try and debunk that?"
Levi spoke up, "Has anyone
reported missing children? Or was there a group of children, like this, out today?"
"We're making inquiries and trying to do it without raising alarms."
Crwys rubbed his bottom lip. "So you haven't received any missing persons? Nothing to account for twenty children?"
"No."
He moved away from the little clique up to the tape barrier the CDC had erected. A few of the hazmat suits tried to flag him down, but he glared at them and used a bit of his power to make sure they stayed the hell away from him.
Getting closer to the flesh-and-stone horror, Crwys felt something twitch. A familiar pressure just on the periphery of his draconic senses. He mentally stretched out his wings as he stood before the statue and closed his eyes. He didn't have to touch the thing to hear it, feel it, and smell it. It was ripe with the scent of blood, but not on a level available to humans.
And it wasn't human blood he sensed.
Blinking, he backed up, nearly stumbling. He was surprised when a hand gripped his shoulder and he turned to see Tas beside him. "You shouldn't—"
"This isn't what it looks like, is it?"
Crwys shook his head and grabbed her arm, leading her back to the edge of the tape. "No. It's not. And you shouldn't get so close to it."
"Why? It didn't harm you."
"I'm not…" He bit back his words. "You know I'm not human."
"Yes."
"This thing—" He turned and nodded at it. "I think I know where it came from, but I can't prove it. Not yet."
Tas looked at the statue. "This is Lethe's work, isn't it?"
He stared at her. She was perceptive, but then, Tas had come in to the aftermath of Eliza's death two months ago. "I think it is."
"Why do you think this?"
Crwys watched her. She continued to surprise him, not just with her intelligence but with her knowledge. He still couldn't pinpoint if she was a Witch or something else. Or just a very well-informed human, as Ashur suggested. "Lethe was shot with an arrow that nearly turned to her stone."
"Then you don’t think this is a part of that Quest."
"I don't. I don’t think any of these bodies are part of that Quest. I’m not even sure a Quest was really triggered. I'd have to see the other bodies close up again to know. But with what Riven and his mother told us…Quests are just that. They're Quests. An individual triggers one by agreeing or accepting something. What could twenty kids have agreed to or accepted here on the golf course? Nothing. This was deliberately done to these kids."
eldritch files 07 - elemental blood Page 6
