Jaekob chuckled and put his arm over the guard's shoulders. In a quiet, conspiratorial tone, he said, "Don't worry about it. It's not your fault you have conflicting orders. Sheesh, commanders—am I right?"
The guard's eyes flicked all over the place, a sure sign of nervousness. Probably wondering if it were a ruse before Jaekob let the hammer fall right on him. "Yes, sir... I mean, no, they're doing what they can, I'm sure—"
"Um, 'this Guardian?’" Jaekob said, smirking.
"... This Guardian is sure?"
Jaekob gave the guard a slight squeeze, then let him go. In a much louder voice designed to carry, he said, "Well done, Guardian. Your dedication to duty is hereby noted. If contacted again, please let the Council know I'll be there when I can, and that I, too, have duties to perform."
The guard swallowed hard, twice, but saluted smartly. "Yes, sir."
Jaekob led Bells and his guards through the gate and into the unaffected areas of the city. She felt an irresistible urge to keep looking at him when she thought he wasn't watching, trying to evaluate the new facets of his personality. The Prince of Dragons, heir to the First Councilor of the mightiest race on Earth or beyond the Veil, had just risked his life rather than leave her or his bodyguards behind. He valued their lives enough to risk his own.
So why had he done nothing to help the fae? She followed him into the city, feeling very conflicted and confused.
When they had gone only about twenty steps beyond the gate, they rounded a street corner and Bells stopped abruptly, mouth gaping as she stared at the scene before her. Jaekob, too, had frozen in place. It was just too surreal not to stare. The entire time Bells had been in Philadelphia, the streets had been busy. Far busier than her village, at least. Now, however, only a few intrepid souls wandered the streets and they all walked quickly as though attending to urgent business. Bits of trash blew around the streets, which might have been common in some city zones but was unheard of in modern Philadelphia so close to the market. Important people, people with money, were the kind who usually traveled that particular street, and they had no interest in seeing trash. The Pures usually had dedicated crews of fae cleaners in the area, keeping everything tidy.
That day, she saw no cleaners and very few people of any kind
"What is on their faces?" Jaekob asked.
Bells squinted her eyes to try to see better but couldn't tell. She had never seen anything quite like it. It was as though every person had half their face erased.
One of the Guardians said, "They appear to be wearing face masks, sir. Protection from the fungus."
As the only fae in the group, Bells knew better than anyone there that a simple face mask wouldn't stop an airborne fungus. She said, "No, I mean... Yes, that's probably why they're wearing those things, but if this fungus somehow gets airborne, the masks won't help. It'll still get in their eyes."
Jaekob let out a low growl and then said, "One of my Guardians got infected just by allowing the fungus to touch his skin, remember? He even had clothes on when he touched the infected body. It infected his gloves."
Bells shuddered. It was a terrifying thought and an even worse memory.
Jaekob made a beeline toward a man across the street, an elf in rather fancy-looking clothes. The moment he noticed Jaekob approaching, he practically jumped to the other side of the sidewalk, as far away as he could get. "Get away from me. I don't know you and I can't help you." He began to jog away, leaving a stunned Jaekob in his wake. When he was safely past any chance of being intercepted, he glanced over his shoulder and shouted, "Put a mask on, for Creation's sake. You're probably already infected, stupid dragon."
Jaekob walked back, shaking his head in disbelief. "I have no idea what's going on."
After they had walked another half a block, an elf woman wearing a face mask like the rest stepped off the curb and fell. It looked like half her leg disappeared and Bells realized she must have stepped into a deep pothole. Even from her distance, she heard a loud crack and the woman let out a terrible scream.
Bells strode toward the injured woman but a fae man going the other direction passed by the fallen elf, who held her arm outstretched toward him and cried for help. He roared at the woman with his fists clenched, leaning forward like he might strike her. Bells stopped, unable to believe her eyes. He ran from the woman, turned a corner, and sprinted out of sight.
From right behind Bells, Jaekob asked, "What on earth is going on here?"
She could only shake her head.
A Guardian said, "If a fae man feels brave enough to scream at an elf, I can't imagine the level of fear there must be in the city."
Jaekob nodded, thinking. His voice sounded hesitant when he said, "Here is what we know. Everyone who can stay inside or hidden is doing so. Those who have to go outside wear face masks and avoid everyone they see. They're fearful enough that they won't even help someone injured in the middle of the street, not even fae. People must think it might be airborne, but we know that it isn't."
"No, not yet,” Bells confirmed. “It only spreads by those tendrils, those disgusting, pulsing, vine-looking things. Those couldn't get through the Wards."
"But we don't know whether this is happening everywhere in the city or just here next to the dockyards neighborhood."
"Why don't you summon your dragon forms and fly out?” Bells asked. “If you head toward your house, you'll be able to see what's going on all over the city, and I can just meet you there as quickly as I can."
Jaekob looked up at the sky, shaking his head. "First, I won't leave you here like this. It's my fault you're in this situation in the first place. Just as importantly, though, look up. What do you see?"
Curious, Bells looked up and scanned the sky, looking for whatever could possibly keep a dragon grounded. "I don't see anything. Just some small groups of dragons flying around. Obviously, dragons aren't afraid of flying."
One of the Guardians chuckled but Jaekob cut him off with a slash of his hand through the air before turning back to Bells. His expression softened. "Those aren't just little groups of dragons. Those are half-wings, basically half a squad of soldiers. They're flying in formation and they're the only ones in the air. I'm willing to bet they have orders to ground or even flame anyone in the air who isn't in uniform, in formation, and on duty."
"Are you serious? Why would they keep everyone grounded? The fungus isn't airborne. They should let the healthy people get out, right?"
"If only it were that simple," Jaekob replied. "They must know how contagious it is. Both the Dragon Council and the White King's people are afraid enough to lock everyone down in the city. I guarantee you all the ways in and out of the city are being guarded, as well."
Bells had no reply. She took a deep breath and looked up into the sky, blinking rapidly and wishing she had never come back to Philadelphia. But what was done couldn't be undone and she had to make the best of it. At least her present companion was a powerful dragon, guarded by even more of his kind. For the moment, he wasn't willing to leave her behind, so she was as safe as any fae could expect to be. For now. "Well, I think we should—"
She felt a tugging sensation in the back of her mind, almost overlooked and yet impossible to completely ignore, much like when the dinner bell rang while she was hypnotized by the repetitive boredom of weaving fabric.
"What is it?" Jaekob asked. She heard a tinge of worry in his voice with the way his pitch rose on the last syllables.
She couldn't remember what she'd been about to say—the sensation had been such a surprise—so she shook her head. "I don't know. I felt like someone grabbed a loose thread at the back of my brain and pulled hard. Like, unraveling my mind for a second. It kicked out every other thought."
He shrugged and went back to looking around for danger as he said, "Telepathy. You've never been contacted before?"
"No... It's not a fae thing."
A Guardian smiled down at her. "Of course it is. Just rare in your kind. Usually, it runs in fami
lies. The connection gets stronger if you're related."
Bells frowned. What relative did she know with telepathy? She couldn't think of any. Yet that tug had been plenty strong. "Well, it's gone now. A mystery, I guess."
Jaekob's barking laughter surprised her and brought heat into her cheeks. He said, "No mystery. You just didn't answer. They really don't teach you this stuff as a kid, I see. When you feel that, you have to... I don't know, like, open your mind up. You have to accept the call by lowering your ego, that sense of yourself that makes you separate from the world and from the caller."
Bells grimaced. "Humans do that. Cut themselves off. Pures, and fae especially, are all about being open to the world around them."
"Not like this," Jaekob replied. "I mean, you have to forget yourself, forget you're a separate person. When you talk telepathically, you stop being separate. With training, you can block some things off and still be open, but at first, whoever you talk to will see everything there is to see, assuming they know what to look for."
Well. That sure didn't sound like fun. There were some things she didn't want anyone to know, she realized as she looked at Jaekob. Still, the timing was too weird to be a coincidence. "It has to be related to this fungus thing or whatever is going on here. The first time anyone tries to crawl inside my head with me, and it's in the middle of all this?"
Jaekob's mouth tightened, lips thinning. "You have a point. If it happens again, I think you should let them in."
As they again started walking toward his house, safely within the Wards, Bells waited for another tug at her brain-thread, but it didn't come. Yet, if it were important, she wondered whether she could afford not to know what it had been about. She let her mind go quiet as their feet stepped rhythmically on the pavement, using the steady beat to lull herself into a blank state. Then she reached out, not with her senses, as usual, but with her thoughts, seeking that thread that had tried to connect with hers.
She had no idea what she was doing, so when she felt the tug in her mind again, it almost startled her out of her blank state. A familiar-sounding voice came to mind and she wondered whether it was her imagination, but then the words became stronger, more clear.
“You aren't imagining it. You're in danger out there.”
“No kidding.” Everything about the neighborhood they walked through screamed danger.
“That's what I said, kiddo. Listen, I—"
Who in Creation's eyes was she talking to?
“You don't recognize the voice?”
It seemed disappointed.
“Well, we only met once. This is Hawking. The family bond is the only way I found you out there since we've never melded before.”
Melded... That would be the merging Jaekob had mentioned. Oh no, too late—did they catch that? She felt her heartbeat rise.
“Calm down or you'll break the meld. This is hard, you know, since you aren't trained. Don't worry about Jaekob. He's a dragon, you're a fae. You have actual things to worry about.”
Bells frowned and had the urge to deny whatever he was suggesting, but part of her feared the response, so instead, she shoved the thoughts away and did her best to simply focus and receive the message as clearly as she could.
“That's better. Much better, in fact. Listen, you can't go back to Jaekob's manor. I saw that's where you're headed. And you need to bring him with you. Only a friendly dragon can help us, now. I failed to stop it, so now I have to help that dragon.”
Bells felt a sensation of fiery anger with the incoming thought. She wondered—
“Stop. No time for questions. I have a group of people you need to take him to. They will help. Trust me. It's the only hope any of us have, in the long run.”
Odd. Bells wasn't sure how she felt about luring Jaekob to meet a secret group of Hawking's people. Hadn't he been part of the plot to kill the First Councilor? In fact, she remembered with her own rising anger, he'd used her to do it. She couldn't trust him, not with Jaekob's life.
“He's dead anyway if you don't listen. Listen! Yes, they tried to kill Mikah, but they failed. And now, the plan has changed.”
“Right. Changed to setting off some sort of plague and killing—"
“We didn't have anything to do with the contagion that is just starting to run through the city, but we have to stop it. These people you need to meet, they know what to do. They have a plan. If you don't trust me, trust that the five dragon warriors with you can handle a simple secret meeting.”
Before she had a chance to think of a response, an image flooded her mind. Not just into it, but rather, she felt a physical pain. It was like information was burning itself into her brain. It came as an image of a corner with two street signs in front of a plain-looking house with brass street numbers plainly visible. But the pain was overwhelming and she felt her knees buckle. All she could see was the image of that house, but she felt strong arms catch her as she fell and gently set her on the ground with her head resting on something soft.
“It did burn itself into your brain. That's how brains and memories work. You'll never forget it, not for a long time at least. Go there. Save the city. Maybe even more, if this infection escapes Philadelphia—"
The voice in her head vanished in an instant, leaving her mind reeling to decipher what was in her head and what was real for a couple of seconds. She heard Jaekob's voice, loud and strong. "Bells, wake up. Where are you? Come back."
She blinked rapidly and the real world replaced whatever mental zone she'd been in and the house's image. "We have somewhere to be, and there's no time to lose."
She got to her feet and began walking away from his manor, finding it odd that she remembered exactly how to get from a place she'd never been to another place she'd never been. Hawking would have to answer some questions someday, when all this was behind them.
Bells led them unerringly toward the house. Jaekob had been hesitant at first, but as she pointed out, it couldn't hurt. If someone had an idea to fix things, they'd be foolish not to at least hear it out, maybe even negligent. That was when he gritted his teeth, nodded, and held out his hand for her to lead the way.
The path took them out of the neighborhood right outside the docks district into a less wealthy area. Some of the houses were burned, others abandoned, but many look occupied. Elves and dragons wouldn't likely be the ones to call this place home, and that left weres, trolls, and maybe some of the wealthier fae.
She hoped it would be fae who awaited them.
Two hours after she got the message, she saw the house up ahead. It looked exactly as it did in her memory, which was both surprising and not surprising at all. Hawking had lain the path so clearly, she would have been more surprised if it hadn't been an exact match. Cousin Hawking must have been there before, which only raised her hopes that wealthy fae might be waiting for her.
"Wait," Jaekob said, the first time he'd spoken since they began the trip. "It could be dangerous." He turned to his Guardians and picked two. "Go inspect the area. Fly, if you have to, but fly low. I don't want anyone getting burned up by the sky patrol."
Bells watched as they carefully inspected virtually the entire block's worth of houses surrounding their target, then checked the house itself. One Guardian did fly, but only about twenty feet up, and he landed right away when a half-wing of air patrol Dragons dove at him from above; once he landed, the other dragons flew back up. The warning was clear.
When they returned some twenty minutes later, they reported everything looked clear, but they'd seen people inside watching them through the curtains.
"So, they know we're here," Jaekob muttered. Louder, he asked, "Did they make any aggressive moves?"
"No, sir. But there are definitely more than two people inside."
Bells frowned. Enough was enough. "Of course they know we're here. Whoever sent that message," she said, carefully avoiding Hawking's name—she didn't know if he'd escaped or been let loose—"must have told them I was coming. We're wasting time we don't have.
"
Jaekob grinned at her, both surprising and a little thrilling. He had a rather nice smile... "Well then, let's go. Two guards on you, two on me. Stay close together, just in case, but keep your weapons sheathed. We won't make any aggressive moves unless they do it first."
The Guardians saluted, then formed up around her and Jaekob. She took a deep breath before heading for the front door. Jaekob muttered something the entire way, but Bells spent the time sending her senses outward, directed at the house. The Guardians had been right, there were more than two people inside. Six, in fact, and four were fae. The other two were a were and an elf, which immediately made her nervous.
The guards drew even closer to their two charges as Bells relayed the new information. Then they headed to the building. As she walked up the three creaky wooden steps leading to the patio, the front door opened a crack. She caught the glint of a door chain—it wouldn't have stopped a dragon.
A man stood, obscured by shadow inside, peering out the door. "Just you two. No guards."
Jaekob let out a laugh that somehow sounded both brave and insulting, but was there a hint of nervous bravado she caught in his tone? He said, "I'll not be trusting either of our lives to your good intentions. The guards come in or we leave."
Bells blurted, "But—"
The man inside interrupted, talking loudly over her, "And if you leave, the city dies. Make up your mind. If you don't come in, this group will leave Philadelphia and this horrible world to you all, and head back through the Veil to hide until it kills that world, too."
"Impossible!" Bells said, without thinking first. No one could go back through the Veil until both the Crown of Pures and the Black Court signed an accord in blood, and that would only happen after a long and terrible war, when both sides were too wiped out to keep fighting over the magic that poured through Earth's ley line veins.
"Wrong," the man said. "There are ways. We're not sharing those with anyone else, much less you people. It doesn't matter what you believe, though. If you leave, we aren't going to try to stop you. We won't even care. We're only doing this to save our brethren. If you let us, that is."
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