Siren's Call

by Cutter, Leah

  “Then why are y’all here?” Kai asked. “Why’d’ja make a special trip to see me?”

  “You’re very smart,” Jimmy said, smiling at her.

  Kai had a bad feeling about this. She had too much on her plate right now to deal with a case of puppy love.

  “I came because I wanted to see you,” he continued, confirming her fears.

  “So my mama disappearing was just an excuse?” Kai asked, her anger rising.

  “Convenient, yes?” the prince replied. He stood up. “Now, I would like you to show me the city. I want to start by going drinking on Bourbon Street!”

  “And why the hell would I do that?” Kai asked, leaning back on her chair. Could she actually throw him out the window? Would it hurt him if she did?

  Even if she couldn’t, she was certain Orlan could, and would be very happy to.

  Hell, even Papa—though he might enjoy it too much, hurting someone from Mama’s life.

  “So I’ll help you find what you’re looking for,” Jimmy said, still sounding far too eager.

  Kai had to ask, though she didn’t want to. She was already regretting it.

  “And that is?”

  “The missing sirens.”

  * * *

  Kai longed for earplugs. It wasn’t that the cover band was out of tune, but at least half the drunk crowd they played to was singing along to their ’80s rock ballads.

  Jimmy stood beside her, slamming another neon blue Jell-O shot, bopping his head to the music.

  Kai shuddered, knowing it would probably only be a matter of time before he tried dancing again. She took another drag on her soda water. Not that she couldn’t have matched Jimmy drink for drink, but someone needed to keep them focused.

  Or somewhat on track.

  Or something.

  Like they said in Texas, Jimmy was “fixin’ to” take Kai to the Summer Palace. When he got around to it. After their tour of every bar on Bourbon Street.

  Kai sighed as Jimmy called yet another waitress in a midriff-showing top and tight, tight shorts over for another shot.

  Just behind the waitress stood two familiar-looking young men in T-shirts and shorts, their black-rimmed glasses dark even in the dim bar, hiding their eyes.

  “Just one more song,” Jimmy said, distracting her.

  “Then we’ll go to the palace?” Kai asked. She was tired of being discreet.

  Jimmy looked over his shoulder as the song changed. “Sure,” he said.

  Kai suffered through one more song, complete with two solos, and being jostled by drunks, as well as feeling as though her ears were going to be bleeding by morning.

  Finally, the song ended and Kai was able to tug Jimmy out into the street.

  “Let’s go get some crawfish,” he suggested as they started down the street through the crowd. “Or a hurricane!”

  Kai shuddered at that word. “Why don’t we go where we’re supposed to be going?”

  “We’ll get there,” Jimmy assured her, grabbing Kai’s arm.

  She wouldn’t break his fingers. No. She had more control than that.

  At least he hadn’t tried holding her hand again.

  “Just one more bar,” he pleaded as they pushed through the crowd.

  “You said that the last time,” Kai accused him, but she let herself be tugged along. She’d never seen any tourist take such joy at every little thing, from the mime frozen on the ladder, to the bad cover bands, to the actual jazz they found at the tiny European bar tucked between the larger tourist bars.

  They ducked into another smoky club, with loud electronic music thumping through Kai’s breastbone. Just inside was a large bar manned by two cute, shirtless young men.

  It only took Kai a second to realize that this was a gay bar.

  This ought to be fun.

  Wasn’t two minutes before some blond twinky was pulling Jimmy out onto the dance floor. Kai almost warned him away—Jimmy danced as dorkily as he looked, all elbows and knees and no sense of rhythm.

  However, that was the one thing Kai had to give the prince. He genuinely had no fear or shame. Caleb would dance when asked, but he also practiced and was good at it. He wouldn’t step out onto a dance floor unless he could excel.

  Jimmy waved at Kai just as something pricked her awareness. She waved back, then casually glanced over her shoulder.

  The same two guys with the black-rimmed glasses had just come in the door.

  And they did not look as comfortable as the prince after they glanced around and figured out the type of bar they’d just stepped into.

  Kai picked up a beer from the bar and made her way to the dance floor, going the long way around, passing closer to one of the two guys.

  It wasn’t until she was within touching range that she realized he was xita.

  Shit. What kind of eyes did those dark glasses hide? And what was their nature, that they were so hidden?

  She had no doubt they were following the prince; they weren’t paying her any heed.

  And that was their mistake.

  Kai made her way toward the back end of the bar, out of sight of the two with dark glasses. She found exactly what she was looking for: two leather daddies drinking together. They were both big men, muscled and powerful. They wore black leather vests with chains across their chests, hats, and one was in chaps.

  After Kai handed her beer to the one with the mustache, she turned to the other. “Do you boys think y’all could help a lady out?” She fished a one-hundred-dollar bill out of her purse and held it up.

  That really caught their attention. “Always happy to help a lady,” replied the one with the mustache and the gray-green eyes.

  “My boyfriend and I, we’ve been having a good night. But his two friends, well, they need to find another party. They just…don’t appreciate the view. I was wondering if you could engage them while we slipped out?”

  “We’re on it,” the other replied with a wink, slipping the bill out of her hand.

  Kai went and collected the prince, who seemed happy to see her. While the two leather men were hitting on the guys with the dark glasses, distracting them, Kai slipped out of the door with the prince.

  “How about—”

  “No,” Kai said sternly. “We’re being followed. We have to get going.”

  “Followed? By who?”

  “More like a ‘by what’,” Kai said.

  “We should go, then,” the prince said, turning abruptly. “I don’t want to endanger you.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Kai asked, her anger easily flowing after the long night.

  “I’m not allowed to leave the court very often,” the prince said.

  “I can tell,” Kai said wryly.

  “I snuck out this time, without telling anyone. I thought it would be safe tonight!” Jimmy complained. “But maybe…maybe my father was right, and it’s never safe outside the court.” He paused, then continued. “We have…enemies.”

  Great. Fan-fucking-tastic. Now Kai was not only involved in throwing over the existing power structure of the Floating Court by challenging the priests, now she had another community of xita after her?

  Her night just kept getting better and better.

  * * *

  Of course, Jimmy took them off Bourbon Street, heading south, down to Royal, out of the tourist—and populated—areas of the Quarter.

  Quiet music played from an open window, the kind of smooth jazz New Orleans was famous for but Kai rarely heard. Automatic sprinklers had watered the plants on the balconies above them, filling the air with the fresh scent of wet earth. A few people still passed them in the street; a drunken couple leaning against each other as they staggered to their hotel, a neatly dressed man in a hat and vest over his jeans, carrying a guitar case, probably heading to a late-night gig.

  From behind came the clop clop clop of a horse-drawn carriage. The driver pointed out the LaLaurie Mansion—that horrible place where the mistress had tortured her slaves in the 1800s. K
ai didn’t like that corner. She wouldn’t say it was haunted by ghosts, but it had a dark aura to it that set her back up.

  She would never touch those walls.

  Just past the mansion, Jimmy opened what looked liked a private gate between two houses, holding it open for Kai.

  All the hair stood up on the back of Kai’s neck. She paused, blinking, trying to see in the absolute darkness.

  “Hurry,” Jimmy whispered.

  Kai pushed forward. After two steps, the passageway grew lighter. Dark brick lined the way, smelling old and feeling as ancient as the land itself. She wouldn’t have to extend her arms to touch both walls.

  Up ahead rose an impossibly steep staircase. While the plain stairs were made out of red-painted wood, the ornate railing was metal, and curved and swooped in an art deco style.

  “I think they’re behind us,” Jimmy said, brushing past Kai.

  She reached out and braced herself against the brick.

  Old. Old and old and old. Older than the city, the country. As old as the mud from which it was made.

  The bricks remembered being dirt, primordial ooze, reconstituted with plants and debris and the bones of small animals and dinosaurs. It didn’t hate the living. It was content, because it knew that all things would one day return to it.

  A hand drew Kai out of the dirt and she fell backwards, away from the wall.

  “What did it say to you?” the prince asked, his face alight with curiosity. “I know they talk, but they never speak to me.”

  “That they’re older than dirt,” Kai said, spitting out the dry, musty taste the encounter had left in her mouth.

  “Fascinating,” Jimmy said. “Someday you’ll have to tell me more.” He grabbed Kai’s hand in his cool, strong fingers and drew her toward the stairs.

  Kai’s anger loosened when she realized she could see better, now. The stairs weren’t as steep, or as high.

  But they still rose to a pitch black layer that Kai mistrusted.

  Down the pathway they’d just come, Kai heard the gate swing open behind them.

  Damn it. She didn’t have to wait to see who, or what, was behind them.

  Instead, she raced up the stairs, drawing Jimmy with her.

  Into the dark.

  * * *

  Kai didn’t like the sensation of falling, not one little bit. Didn’t matter if it was after the little lift that came at the end of swinging really high on the swing set in the park near her aunts’ house, or from some kind of roller coaster when she was bolted and strapped in.

  This was no different. Though it felt softer, more gentle than most falls, like she was slowed by clouds or cotton candy.

  The ending was more gentle than she expected; still, it jarred her insides and made her head snap hard, swinging her long ponytail forward.

  As Kai shook it off, she looked around. They stood at the top of a small hill. Twilight barely kissed the sky. Sturdy stone paths, wide enough for three abreast, led from the hill to the two other hills Kai could see clearly. In the distance lay a haze, with more hills hidden there.

  A romantic pagoda sat on top of the nearest hill, painted white and happy red, lit with white Christmas-tree lights.

  A dark set of buildings crouched on the other hill, encircled by a large stone wall.

  Beautiful rivers ran between the hills, with charming wooden bridges. The grass looked like a perfect carpet, soft and springing and Kai would bet no annoying ants or insects scurried between the blades.

  It looked like something out of a painting.

  Then Kai looked more closely.

  It looked exactly like something from a painting—that watercolor scroll she’d seen in the reception of the Floating Court.

  Were they now inside the painting? Or was the painting a way of showing exactly what was going on here?

  The prince didn’t look happy.

  “What is it?”

  “The palace. It’s…withdrawn.”

  “What do you mean?” Kai asked, though she understood at some level. Those gates felt sullen even from this distance.

  “The Summer Palace is always supposed to be open,” the prince said, gesturing toward set of dark buildings. “Welcoming! Many of the towers and pagodas sit on a lake, connected by fanciful bridges. The palace doesn’t sit alone and isolated like that, all enclosed in cold walls.”

  “Is it because the priests are holding the sirens there?”

  The prince nodded. “I wasn’t sure this was where they were.”

  “What?” And after he’d dillydallied around on Bourbon Street for so long, he wasn’t even sure this was the place?

  “I was pretty sure. But now, seeing it, yes. It’s a prison. It’s never been a prison before. And—” The prince stopped, frowning. “It’s too close to your world. Normally, the Summer Palace floats even higher, above the Floating Court.”

  Kai didn’t even want to try to understand the physics of this place. “So where do you think the Taoists are holding the sirens?”

  Jimmy grimaced. “I’d bet it would be one of the audience halls. Even they wouldn’t desecrate a temple room.”

  Kai wasn’t too sure, but she’d follow Jimmy’s lead. They started down the hill, side by side.

  “I spent a lot of time here as a child,” the prince said after a bit. “I’d race up these hills, then roll down them.”

  Kai had never seen this much green in one place when she’d been growing up. “Sounds idyllic.”

  “Sometimes it was,” Jimmy said wistfully. “But it was also lonely. The court—we—don’t have many children.”

  Kai had never had that problem: There had always been a passel of kids to get into trouble with.

  The night got darker, the closer they got to the gates. Kai was already starting to miss easy-going Jimmy, as the prince grew more solemn and stood stiffer and taller, colder and more formal.

  “These walls—they used to be for show. So you could climb up them and watch the soldiers or the acrobats perform. They’re not to hold back an army.”

  Built from gray blocks, the walls towered over Kai’s head. If they could spit at her, they would. They didn’t suffer any way to cross them. The gates were made from solid black iron. Kai couldn’t even see a crack where they met in the center. She also couldn’t find a handle, a keyhole…hell, not even a buzzer.

  “How do we get in?” Kai asked.

  The prince glanced behind them.

  Kai sighed. They didn’t have any time, did they?

  “We don’t,” he said. “I can’t help you anymore. My father would kill me.”

  “You’re his only heir,” Kai pointed out, hiding her hurt. “And as you said, there’s not a great chance of another coming along soon.”

  The prince just shrugged. “He’s patient. He’d just grow another.”

  Grow?

  Kai did not want to know.

  “So how do I get in?” Kai asked. She wasn’t a ninja, she couldn’t scale the wall. Probably even an army of ninjas couldn’t scale those walls.

  “You need a talisman,” the prince said, looking behind his shoulder again.

  Even without turning around, Kai knew that two figures would be hurrying down the hill toward them. “What’s a talisman?” When she glanced back she saw that her luck remained all bad—it wasn’t just the two who have been chasing them, but a third had joined them.

  “A charm, something magic, strong enough to break through here,” the prince said. He looked left and right, then grabbed her hand again and started running along a hidden path toward the pagoda.

  Kai expected the other figures to cut across the grass, but they couldn’t. Something held them to the path.

  “Magic doesn’t work!” Kai complained to Jimmy.

  “Of course it does! How do you think we got here?”

  “’Cause you’re special?” Kai asked, not quite succeeding at keeping the sarcasm from her tone.

  “Oh.” The prince stopped from a moment. The three figures
from the first hill had just reached the path to the pagoda. “Unaided magic?” he shuddered. “That’ll blow up in your face.”

  “Exactly.”

  “No, you need a talisman. A special amulet or something. That helps you do magic,” he said, running again.

  “What? Are you saying that there’s actual magic?” Kai said. She hated that feeling of falling, and though the ground was solid under her pounding feet, she was going down again.

  “There is. Real magic, not just songs about it in bars. Talismans are generally worn close to the skin, like an amulet or a charm or something.”

  Kai suddenly remembered the bright red amulet the human sorcerer at the warehouse had worn.

  “Where would I get a talisman?” Kai asked as they neared the top of the hill.

  “You’re the one who’s good at finding thing,” the prince said. “So find it,” he added as he whipped her past him, into the center of the pagoda.

  That awful feeling of falling came over Kai, and the world misted over, but not before she saw the two who’d been chasing him—along with a Taoist priest—lead the prince away.

  Chapter Ten

  Kai found herself in Jackson Square, just outside St. Louis Cathedral. It was late; all the fortune tellers had packed up for the night. Even the midnight ghost tours were finished. Floodlights lit the white towers of the cathedral from below, highlighting them against the inky black sky.

  Wind pushed at Kai hard. It carried the smell of rain and chaos. The temperature had plummeted. Instead of muggy August summer, it felt like cold December winter.

  Shivering, Kai pulled her phone out of her bag. Before she could call for a cab, it rang out with a loud ringing of church bells. Kai fumbled, but didn’t drop her phone.

  Shit. The emergency number. And not a text, a call with Orlan on the other end.

  “Hello?” Kai said, turning and starting to walk toward the Marigny, toward Orlan’s place.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Orlan asked.

  “I found where the priests are keeping the sirens,” Kai replied. She stopped, then turned around, heading back the way she came. Maybe if she cut down to Decatur Street, she could catch a cab. If there weren’t any around, she’d call Manuel.