“Yes, Colonel,” she corrected me. “Right away, Colonel.”
I smirked back at her. “You said I was a smartass.”
“And a pain in the ass. Don’t forget that part.”
As I walked out, Willard was asking Freysha if she knew anything about feeding cats and tending litter boxes. Maybe she would have a place to stay this week, after all.
16
“You are cleaning me out, Val,” Nin said, stepping into the little armory in her food truck where she made merchandise far different from her signature beef and rice dish. Outside, the rain had stopped, and her two assistants in the kitchen were busy serving meals to customers.
“I need enough for me and Willard to blow up a hundred dark elves if we need to.” I put another case of ammo on the counter for her to tally up.
I’d selected a rifle for Willard. It wasn’t automatic, but Nin, who usually only took custom orders, didn’t keep a lot of extra merchandise on hand, so it would have to do. Realizing we would be tramping around on foot, at least for part of this adventure, I kept myself to one case of grenades instead of two, but I was taking enough flashbangs to outfit an army. They were usually for distraction, but they might be effective weapons against the light-sensitive dark elves.
“Are you paying for all this today?” Nin pulled out her tablet to tally everything up.
“Yes, but put the rifle and its ammo on a separate invoice that I can give to Willard. And the flashbangs too. She’s feeling generous today.”
“As you wish. Val?” Nin lowered the tablet. “Did Dimitri ask you to co-sign on his lease?”
“Lease? Is he getting an apartment?”
“No. For his Fremont shop.”
“He didn’t, no. He knows I’d tell him he’s a nutcase and Zoltan can co-sign.”
“Zoltan does not have a credit record. I asked.”
“Did he ask you to co-sign?” I frowned at her.
“Yes. I like him, but I have concerns. I have worked very hard to become a citizen and establish credit for myself and my business.”
“Don’t risk your credit record on their start-up. Zoltan has the money to make something happen if they can’t go through the normal channels.”
“That is what I was thinking. But I did not want to be a bad friend.”
“You’re not. You’re a good friend for telling him that he’s being irresponsible by trying to drag you into his scheme.”
“Oh, I do not believe it is a scheme. I made him do a business plan. I think he can be profitable, but it would be risky for me to invest or co-sign on a lease at this juncture.”
“Damn straight. Tell him that. Or I will.” I patted the case of ammo. “Send him to me if you need to, and I’ll shoot down his idiocy.”
“I can do it. I just was not sure if that was right.” Nin nodded. “Thank you. You are also a good friend, Val.”
“Does that mean you’ll give me ten percent off on these flashbangs?”
“No. Those are magically enhanced, and this is business.”
A soft rap sounded at the inner door. Nin slid it aside.
“There is someone here to see your client.” Her assistant pointed at me.
Maybe Willard had come down to select her gun personally. No. As I focused on the square outside, I detected someone with a familiar magical aura.
“Oh, good. I was hoping to ask her some more questions. Nin, will you bag all that stuff up for me? I brought a canvas tote.”
“Excellent. I will give you ten cents off for bringing your own shopping bag.”
“The crazy good deals you give me are the reason I keep coming back.”
“And the excellent merchandise.” She winked at me as I let myself out the back door.
Lirena faced it, as if she’d known where I would come out. Once again, she wore a cloak, but her hood was down, her blonde hair wrapped into buns almost as impressive as Princess Leia’s. They were higher on the head and hid the points of her ears. They also made her look like she was wearing cinnamon rolls, but judging by the guys in line trying to catch her eye, nobody was worried about her hairstyle.
“Greetings, cousin.” Lirena offered the bow-curtsy. “I am glad I was able to find you.”
“You seem to be able to find me wherever I am.” We were miles from my apartment, and I was positive I hadn’t mentioned Nin’s food truck.
“Of course. We share blood, remember.”
“I’m here shopping for munitions for a mission. I don’t suppose you’d like to lend me that flute and teach me how to use it? Is there a special note to hurt the ears of dark elves?”
“Yes, but you would need to spend many years studying music in order to play it. Also, it is a valuable family artifact, so I cannot part with it.”
I’d figured as much.
“There is something I wish to speak with you about.” Lirena glanced at the line of people watching us. “Will you walk with me?”
“Yes.” I doubted we would find more privacy on the busy streets of Seattle, but I extended a hand for her to lead the way.
We hadn’t walked far when she asked, “Do you know what happened to the dragons?”
“Dragons?”
Did she mean Zav and Zondia? Or was something going on at the Dragon Justice Court?
“Two were here in this world only yesterday.”
“Ah. I’m glad to hear they’re gone. How can you tell?”
Lirena frowned at me as we turned a corner on the sidewalk, busy men and women streaming past us toward a crosswalk. “I can sense that they left. You cannot?”
I hated being reminded of how poor my magical abilities were. “I can only sense them when they’re within a mile or so of me.”
“They are nowhere near this city, nor this ocean and coast.”
“Your range is a lot larger than mine.”
“I can show you how to improve that, but tell me why the dragons left.” Lirena squinted at me. “You do not seem surprised.”
Her interest in this topic made me wary—hadn’t she supposedly come to observe me and see if I was elfy enough to meet my father?—but her offer to teach me something that would be incredibly useful kept me from saying something sarcastic.
“I asked Zav to leave and take his nosy sister with him.” I didn’t intend to share my life with this near stranger, but I found myself explaining what I knew of the incident with Zondia and Amber.
“Dragons always presume they can read the thoughts of others without their permission. That is one of the reasons their kind are so infuriating.” Lirena spread a hand across her chest. “Elves would consider that a crime, akin to rape. To force yourself into another’s mind is a heinous offense, especially if someone is weaker and has no way to fight back.”
“I agree.”
“I should also teach you better mental defenses. I assume they have difficulty reading your surface thoughts? Your father’s line is known for their mind powers. Even a half-elf should have inherited some of that natural aptitude.”
“I’ve been told dragons have trouble reading my thoughts, yes. But they can force their way in if I can’t figure out how to prong them with my sword and convince them to go away.”
Lirena glanced at Chopper’s hilt over my shoulder. “Even with tools that can breach their barriers, it is difficult to do substantial damage to a dragon. Our kind—all of the other species—have always had to use trickery to have a chance against dragons.”
I remembered Zav’s story of the elven seductress-assassin. Trickery, indeed.
We’d crossed busy Alaskan Way and were in front of the ferry terminal.
Lirena pointed to the large car- and passenger-ferry loading up. “You will pay for passage across the water? This vehicle traffic noise makes it difficult to hear.”
“Elves don’t have money either, huh?”
“Not that spends on your world.”
“I’ll pay if you show me how to extend my range while we’re on board.” I expected her to say such a thing would tak
e years to master, not a half-hour ferry ride, but she nodded.
“Yes, I will show you the basics. And you will tell me when the dragons will return.”
“They shouldn’t return. I told Zav to take his sister and get out of here.”
“You told him? That means little. Dragons do not obey the wishes of humans or elves. They will return.” Again, she nodded. Firmly and to herself.
“Do you consider that good or bad?” I was still trying to work out why she cared about the dragons if she was here for me.
“Their presence anywhere our species exists is bad. Did you not say they were a threat to your daughter?”
“Yes. I don’t disagree with you. That’s why I don’t want them to come back.”
As pedestrians, we bypassed all the cars waiting to board the ferry, and walked on. I led Lirena up the interior stairs and out to one of the observation decks. The rain had stopped, but the sky was still gray, and wind blew across the Sound, tugging at our hair. What would Lirena do if her big buns tumbled down and revealed those ears?
“We will practice here.” She pointed to the railing at the front of the ferry, a spot devoid of people. The weather was sketchy enough that most of the passengers were seating themselves inside. “What do you know of how elves use magic?”
“Nothing.”
She frowned at me. “That cannot be true. You have some ability to sense magic, yes?”
“Within that mile range I mentioned. I can sense artifacts and people with magical blood.” I pointed at her. “But I don’t know how it works.”
“A natural aptitude, then. Long ago, the various intelligent species found different ways to access magic and focus its power as they evolved, each in line with their natural aptitudes. Some use songs and spells, some artifacts like wands or stones of power.”
I nodded, having seen trolls chanting and goblins wielding wands.
“Elves are similar to dragons in that we need no tools other than our minds.” Lirena sounded supercilious as she said that, but all I cared about was that she was teaching me. “But it is difficult to will things to happen outside of our own bodies, so we use mental tricks to help. It is simpler to access our own inner power, which you may have done by accident before, but there is much more power outside of us, at least in most places. Some worlds have more magic than others, as you’ll learn if you travel. Your Earth is a poor source of magic. It is only desperation that drives the magical races to this place. When they are here, they lose much of the power they are accustomed to being able to access. That is why few species truly care what goes on in this world. It is resource-poor by our definition of the word.”
“But dragons aren’t affected?”
“All species are affected. Dragons are simply so powerful that, to you, they seem unaffected. But in their magic-rich native world, their powers are even greater. The shifter world is also full of magic—you know that shifters were originally humans taken from your world for an experiment?”
“I’ve heard that.”
“Over time, they evolved and became a stronger race, one infused with magic. But their world has a lot of chaotic magic, so it is also unpopular with most of the races. The three elven worlds—” she touched her chest again, “—have a large amount of even and predictable magic, which makes them very desirable. Our people have had to grow strong in the ways of using magic to keep other species from conquering it—and us.”
Willard would find this fascinating, but I struggled not to grab Lirena’s arm and force her back to the topic of concern to me. How I could increase my range.
The ferry engines thrummed under the deck as we departed from dock.
“You said something about tricks?” I prompted.
“Yes. We use patterns as foci. For example, the syi’i leaf is often pictured in the mind for levitation. You see the leaf floating on the breeze, the intricate silver veins along its spine, and your body will become like the leaf, rising in a breeze or drifting slowly to the ground.”
“I imagine a leaf and I can levitate?” I didn’t manage to keep the skepticism out of my voice.
“With much practice, essentially. The leaf is simply a pattern, a trick that makes it easier to access what is all around us.”
If I was going mountain climbing, knowing how to levitate would be handy, but I didn’t have years to learn a new skill. Since I could already sense magical beings, maybe extending my range would be a simpler matter.
“What’s the pattern for sensing magic at a distance?”
Lirena raised her hand, her palm open toward me, and a spider web appeared in the air between us, several feet wide but anchored by nothing. It didn’t look like a holographic projection; it appeared perfectly real, so much so that I had to touch it to check. My finger passed through it to tap her palm.
“Huh.”
“You will imagine the azailee web when you wish to check for magical beings, spreading it out around you for miles or even hundreds of miles.” She tilted the illusion so that it was horizontal with the ferry deck. “The information you seek will flow along its strands to you.”
I attempted to do what she suggested, though I didn’t expect to sense magical beings in the water around us. My senses told me she was the only non-human on the ferry. The rest was a void. I tried to extend my senses back to the shoreline we’d left, but it was more than a mile away now, and if anyone magical was near the water, I couldn’t tell. I realized I’d lost the image of the web in my mind and grunted in annoyance.
“It will take time,” Lirena said.
“I wish I had time. I have a mission that I may be leaving on as soon as tomorrow.” I eyed the dark clouds, trying to decide if the sun might break out later.
“What mission?”
I opened my mouth, almost giving her the details, but I still didn’t know that much about her. “My people are fighting dark elves,” was all I said. “I don’t suppose you would like to help?”
Her face grew hard. “Our kind have warred throughout the eons with our dark-elven kin. We drove them from our worlds after they attempted to take them over. It must have been with reluctance that they settled here. Rumors say they’ve found ways to more fully access the limited magic of this planet. Watch out, or they will try to drive your people from this place and keep it for themselves.”
“That’s our concern. Want to come help fight them with me?” I tried again.
Lirena might not be as powerful as Zav, but I wouldn’t reject a magical ally of any kind.
“Our people currently have a truce with the dark elves. If I were to fight, it would be considered an act of war.” A glint entered her eyes. “But I will help you practice how better to access the magic of this world, and you will be a more powerful foe against them.”
“I’ll take what I can get.”
A strong ally would have been nice, but I always preferred relying on myself, so learning more about my own power was good too. I only hoped Lirena would stay long enough to make a difference.
“Good. Let us consider again the azailee web.” She held up her illusion again.
I tamped down my skepticism and opened my mind, hoping to absorb as much as I could.
The sun came out in time to see it set over the Olympics as I walked from the ferry terminal back toward Occidental Square where I’d parked. After helping me practice extending my range for sensing the magical, Lirena had stayed on Bainbridge Island. Whether she wanted to visit Frog Rock or preferred the lesser population density, I didn’t know, but since she could levitate—she’d shown me—it didn’t matter if she had money for the ferry.
I wish I’d learned to levitate, but I wasn’t even sure I’d figured out the web thing. Everything took years of training, according to Lirena. No wonder elves lived so long. They had to in order to have time to learn anything.
As I headed to Nin’s food truck to pick up my munitions order, I sensed a full-blooded magical being crouched behind it. The line out front had dwindled, but a few p
eople sat around, eating their meals. Nobody seemed alarmed.
I casually walked around to the back of the truck, my fingers tapping Fezzik’s hilt.
A familiar blue-skinned troll crouched there, frowning at me. It was the eight-year-old boy I’d caught outside of Rupert’s.
“What’s up, kid?” I hoped he hadn’t come for his shard—the one Zoltan had melted. We hadn’t exactly agreed on the forty dollars as payment for it before he’d been scared away by Zondia’s arrival.
He licked his lips and looked me up and down, his gaze lingering on Chopper’s hilt. His white hair was matted to his head in greasy clumps, a bruise swelled under one eye, and his clothes were torn. Had he looked that rough the other day? I didn’t think so.
“I want to hire you.” He held up two twenty-dollar bills, clenched in his fist.
I politely did not point out that was the money I’d given him. “To do what?”
“Avenge my father’s murder.”
Ugh, I didn’t have time for extracurricular assignments this week. “Who’s your father?”
“He owned the bar. They threatened him, and then he broke their orb, and then they killed him!” He blinked rapidly, moisture filming his eyes.
“Your father is—was—Rupert?”
The boy nodded.
“And the dark elves were the ones who killed him?”
Another nod.
“I’m sorry, kid. That’s horrible.” Now I felt worse for chasing him. “When did it happen?”
“Last week. He… They left him not quite dead, and I thought… I thought he would get better. That he would heal. I went out and gathered food and brought it back and took care of him.” He sniffed. “If there had been a shaman, I would have brought him for healing, but our own people wouldn’t help. They were too afraid. They’re cowards. Dark elves aren’t that scary. Cowards.”
“So he just passed away?”
“Yeah.”
Had he still been alive when I’d caught up with the boy on the rooftop? I wished I’d known all this. I could have gotten Rupert help—and asked him for all the details about the dark elves.
“Who did it?” I asked. “A male and a female?”
Elven Doom (Death Before Dragons Book 4) Page 14
