Lan Tu quickly went over most of my vitals before pronouncing me fit to get up.
“I thought you’d heal faster,” she admitted. “You’ve been down for hours. My trùm advised Mary and your people; I am to inform him now you’re up.”
“Thank you, Lan Tu,” I said. “Do you know if Mary is coming here?”
“My trùm asked her to wait until he’d spoken to you,” she told me. “I have passed on what I have seen; she knows you are well.”
“Well, huh?” I asked with an arched eyebrow at the blood-soaked cloth in the goblin’s hand.
“You are now,” she replied. “My trùm is quite upset at your injuries. If I leave to get him, will you please stay in the bed and rest? You’re still healing.”
“Go ahead,” I told her.
I let myself sink into the cushions on the bed as she disappeared. It might look like a hospital bed, but I’d never been in a hospital that spent this much on the mattresses and pillows. Even with the oxygen monitor on my finger and the IV drip, I was possibly more comfortable there than at home.
It was only a few minutes at most before MacDonald returned, the graying Wizard checking my vitals himself before coming over to the bed.
“You’re fine,” he told me gruffly. “Lan Tu is just used to treating shifters and goblins, both of which heal faster than you do. You’d have needed a blood transfusion were you actually mortal.”
“Great. Did it work?” I asked.
“The effects on you were worse than I anticipated,” he admitted. “I apologize for that. I have rarely, if ever, encountered anti-scrying defenses of that strength. Without your blood-link to the weapon and my power, we would never have penetrated it.”
“But we did?”
“We did,” MacDonald confirmed. “I suspect they may have neglected the defenses around it as well, now that they have focused on Asi as their new tool.” He shook his head. “It is possible that they had assembled sufficient power to protect the spear from even a blood-link-based scrying by a Magus. I cannot emphasize how paranoid and powerful your enemy is, Lord Kilkenny.”
“They killed a Wizard, Mage MacDonald,” I reminded him. “I’m not surprised. But you know where Esras is?”
“I do,” he confirmed. “And that brings me back to how paranoid your enemy is…and how well informed.”
“Sir?”
“You understand that there are Covenants that bind the Magi that we would not share with others, yes?” he asked. “Realize that those Covenants are old, and certain promises and commitments in them were made for reasons that have been forgotten by any mortal.”
That didn’t sound good.
“Magus?” I said questioningly.
He sighed.
“There are places we are sworn to never go,” he told me. “Scattered around Europe, Asia and Africa, in the main. Cities, counties, small countries…” He shook his head. “Rome. The entire island of Malta. Places home to Powers we did not desire to challenge. Some of those Powers are no more. Others remain but are long retreated from even the Powers’ eyes.”
“And they’re hiding in one of those places?”
“Malta,” he confirmed. “A renovated old fort of the Order of St. John. The…creature whose territory we promised not to violate remains on the island, in the temple at Ġgantija.”
I didn’t even know what that was.
“What kind of creature?”
“What mortals once called gods. She has gone by many names, but she was worshipped by the Stone Age dwellers of Malta first, so when the world changed, she returned there.” MacDonald shook his head.
“If they are on the islands of Malta, she knows they’re there and they have paid sufficient tribute to go unbothered. She doesn’t care about even supernatural politics. But…”
“But if you were to attempt to intervene there?” I asked.
“My brothers and sisters would prevent me if they could. We do not know the limits of her power or her willingness to invoke chaos. A Power on her islands would be a challenge she could not ignore.”
I sighed.
“And if I were to go? With, say, an army of asura and Hunters?”
“She would barely notice you unless you decided to remain,” he admitted. “She won’t defend them, regardless of how much tribute they’ve paid, but she won’t permit a Power to enter her islands unchallenged.”
I exhaled.
“So, you can’t help us,” I said.
“I cannot. I can tell you where they are and where within the fortress they have hidden Esras, but I cannot enter the islands of Theia’s domain.”
“All right.” I nodded grimly. “Then it looks like it’s a good thing I picked up Raja Asi and his friends. Every gun and sword is going to be helpful for this.”
“Step carefully, Jason Kilkenny,” MacDonald warned. “Even though Theia should not intervene, she is old and capricious. And remember, the Masked Lords must be expecting an attack.
“What they have done cannot go unanswered.”
21
“Malta.”
Mabona sounded angry. Her projection just looked tired. The video of Ankaris was much the same, and the people gathered in my own conference room weren’t much better.
Mary was sitting next to me, managing to not quite hover. Coleman and Asi were doing their best to out-loom each other.
Oberis, Robert and Talus were also linked in by videoconference.
“I’m guessing that the High Court is bound by much the same restriction as the Magi?” I asked. Her tone would line up with that.
“We have no official treaty with the Titaness,” Mabona told me. “But Theia will not permit a Power on her islands, and she is powerful enough to enforce that.” My Queen winced. “Even among Powers, there is a gradation of who is stronger, and it most often goes with age.”
“The Titaness is over seventy-five hundred years old,” Ankaris concluded. “Even the Wild Hunt generally avoids her territory.” He shook his head. “We should have guessed. Malta has always been a place for supernaturals who are not Powers to hide.
“So long as her tribute is paid, she does not care who is on her island other than the Powers.”
“Will she protect them if we go after them?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Ankaris admitted. “We have generally erred on the side of not interfering in her space.”
“We have no choice now. If I take a team of asura and Hunters into Malta to retrieve Esras, am I going to be fighting a Titan?” I demanded.
“We don’t know,” Mabona repeated. “I don’t believe she cares. A quick in-and-out operation should be safe.”
“You said she requires tribute to stay on her island?” Mary asked.
“Yes. Silver or platinum, usually.” Ankaris shook his head. “Theia is probably sitting on one of the world’s largest stockpiles of those two metals.”
“So, why don’t we simply pay her tribute when we arrive, then move against the Masked Lords?” my girlfriend asked.
The meeting was silent for several long seconds, then Asi laughed aloud.
“We need to keep this one, my lord,” he told me. “She’s smarter than the rest of us put together!”
“You may be right,” Ankaris allowed slowly. “Theia might choose to intervene if she sees our actions as…well, rude. But if you pay her appropriate honor and tribute, she should stand by and allow you to move against the Masked Lords.”
“All right,” I said, squeezing Mary’s hand. “And what is the appropriate tribute for a strike team of thirty-odd asura and Greater Fae?”
“About fifteen tons of silver or a quarter of that in platinum,” Mabona said instantly. “The favor of one of the oldest Powers alive does not come cheaply.”
I winced.
“Okay…can someone lend me that?” I asked plaintively. “I don’t think my bank account stretches that far.”
“It will be arranged,” Mabona told me. “Give me twenty-four hours.” She managed to s
mirk despite the bags under her eyes.
“You’ll need the practice in long-distance Betweening, anyway.”
I sighed and nodded. She wasn’t wrong. I hadn’t actually left Calgary since learning to walk Between. The trip to Malta would be entirely outside my experience.
As the meeting broke up, Mary and I retreated to the master suite of the house. Given the number of people living in the building now, that suite was our only actual private place in the entire ten-thousand-square-foot-and-expanding structure.
“I barely feel like I belong in these conversations,” she admitted as she leaned against me. “I’m literally in a meeting with two frigging Powers, Jason.”
“And you’re the one who saw the solution,” I pointed out. “As Raja said, it feels like you’re smarter than the rest of us most days.”
“That’s because I’m a wildcat shifter and even you are a Fae Noble,” Mary reminded me. “Neither of us is used to being able to just bull through things on sheer power, but I still can’t—and there are starting to be a lot of situations that you can.”
I hadn’t even thought of that. I still thought of myself as “just a changeling” around half of the time, but she was right. I was also starting to regard a lot of things as surmountable problems that changeling me would have run away screaming from.
Not least a Masked Lord fortress inside the territory of what was potentially the only living Titan. My confidence there had more to do with the allies I was going to bring with me, but I was at least confident that I could survive being in the middle of the fight we were planning.
Even a year earlier, that wouldn’t have been true.
I nodded and wrapped my arms around her.
“I can’t say I haven’t changed,” I admitted. “My past is the same, but I keep getting dragged into this shit. And then we found out who my father was and everything that came with that.”
“I know.” She rested her head against my shoulder. “It’s just weird, you know? I started dating a changeling, someone on roughly the same level of supernatural-ness as me. Now…now I’m dating a Fae Noble.”
“It’s still me,” I told her, despite the chill running down my spine. “I’m not going anywhere. Unless…” I swallowed hard. “Unless you want me to.”
“No,” she said instantly. “Mine.”
I laughed at the fierceness of her tone and leaned into her myself.
“Good. I’m not planning on changing anything with us, even if my life keeps changing underneath me.”
“I’m coming with you to Malta,” she told me. It wasn’t a request, and I nodded. “I’ll bring Barry and his team, but I’m going to be with you in Malta. To watch your back, if nothing else.”
“Good,” I said. “Love…I have grounds to trust Coleman and Asi, but…” I shook my head.
“Damh Coleman has other allegiances. The asura…Powers be, I barely know anything about them except that they’ve sworn me Fealty. Having people with me that I know, that I can trust without question…”
I kissed her head.
“That’s worth more than I can explain, I think. It’s going to be dangerous and I wouldn’t ask you to come,” I admitted. “But I’m selfish enough to admit I’m grateful that you want to.”
“Good boy,” Mary told me with a chuckle. “So, this paying-tribute business. Any idea how that works?”
“Right now? I’m assuming we show up in Malta and borrow a Brink’s truck,” I said with a chuckle of my own. “This is entirely outside my experience.”
“Mine, too,” she agreed. “It’s going to be interesting.”
22
“You need to be familiar with where you’re going, or at least the overall geography,” Coleman told me as we stood in the middle of nothingness. “Where you are Between corresponds to the ‘real’ world, but how closely is variable. A variable you can control.
“At this level”—he gestured around at the vague clouds of gray around us—“the ratio is high. Every step you take here crosses multiple kilometers in the world. It’s easy to get lost.”
“That’s understating things,” I admitted. I couldn’t pick out any landmarks or identifiers around me.
“It’s a question of practice,” he told me. “Look there.” He pointed.
I followed his pointing hand. There was something there…something shrunk into insignificance versus its real-world presence.
“Is that the Rockies?” I asked.
“Exactly,” he confirmed. “Almost nothing humanity has ever built is large enough to register this deep into the Between. You can go deeper…but few can do that and come back,” he admitted. “Our beacons that we leave in the real world only reach this deep. If you go deeper, there are no landmarks. No links to the world. No beacons.”
“So, how do we find our way?” I asked.
“We stay at this level and navigate by mountains, lakes and continents,” he told me with a grin. “Even this deep, the trip to Malta will take almost two hours. We’ll go over a map of the Mediterranean before we leave, make sure everyone knows what terrain we’re covering.”
“What about water?” I asked.
“Doesn’t matter here,” he said with a shake of his head. “You’re not standing on the ground, Kilkenny. The only thing supporting you is your will. The only thing allowing you to breathe is your Gift.”
“And we’re bringing an entire group with us?”
“It’s not as easy as I’d like,” Coleman told me. “There’s a reason we normally only have one Companion per Hunter. Including you and me, however, we only have ten Hunters. I’m guessing we’re bringing more than twenty people.”
“As many as we can,” I replied. “If we could bring everyone, I would. That’s a dozen shifters and twenty-plus asura.”
“We can’t,” Coleman said bluntly. “If we had more Hunters, maybe. I’m told that twenty-seven Hunters—three cubed, of course—can create a safe pocket in Between and use that to transport larger groups. I’ve never seen it done.”
“What can we do?” I asked.
“With a bit of work and practice, two passengers per Hunter,” he told me. “My Hunters and Companions, you and I, and twelve others.”
He sighed.
“I know it’s not what you’d prefer—it’s not what I’d prefer—but its all we can carry with only ten fae who can walk Between.”
“You’re adorable,” Raja Venkat Asi told me and Coleman an hour later when we broached the subject. “Forgetful, blind, arrogant…but adorable.”
“Excuse me?” Coleman demanded.
“Kilkenny appears to be trying to forget that we were once his enemies,” Asi pointed out.
…that was probably more correct than I was willing to admit. The less I thought about the fact that I’d fought the Asi Warriors before their survivors had entered my service, the less mental dissonance I had to deal with.
“He is forgetful,” Asi concluded. “You are arrogant. You presume, Hunter, that the otherworld is restricted solely to you? That no other can follow you there or survive there?”
The Hunter troop Captain winced.
“That has generally been my experience,” he admitted.
“But you chased me Between when you were hunting me, didn’t you?” I asked. I’d forgotten the gold portals and the men who’d followed me into the trap we’d originally laid for the Masked Lords.
“We have less flexibility in our access than you Hunters do, but yes, three of our number—including myself—can enter the Between under their own power. All of my asura can survive Between.”
He shrugged.
“If you can walk us across the barrier and guide us through the depths of the otherworld where even I would not normally dare to walk, then we do not require your Hunters to carry us.”
“Then we can carry the shifters along with our Companions,” I told Coleman. “I’m not going to complain about bringing fifty guns instead of thirty.”
For me, the Between was chilly,
with cold, crisp air. For someone without my Gift, it was a frozen vacuum. I was more than a little surprised that the asura could all survive there—and I had to wonder if that was because they had the same tolerances as a Hunter or if they simply didn’t actually need to breathe.
“Let’s get ready for the jump,” I instructed. “We’re waiting on Mabona to arrange the tribute, and once that’s set up, we’ll make our final plans.”
Eighteen fae. Ten shifters. Twenty-two asura.
I really hoped the Masked Lords had relied on secrecy for their main defense.
23
Malta wasn’t actually hot, per se, when we arrived. It just felt that way after almost two full hours of traveling Between, a place that even for a Hunter got colder over time.
There was no one in my little army who wasn’t shivering as we emerged into the winter sunshine of the Mediterranean. The asura got the worst of it, still used to warmer climes than the rest of us and less inured to the ravages of the Between than Asi had suggested.
“Are your people okay?” I asked him and he held up a hand, his entire body continuing to shiver in the sunshine.
A long exhalation later and he looked over his team.
“We’ll be fine,” he told me. “I…have never taken this long a journey through the otherworld. I underestimated how bad it would be.”
My actual Wild Hunters and Companions were fine, but they’d known what they were getting into. If nothing else, they’d all made the journey from Ireland to Calgary via Between.
Mary and her shifters looked about as bad off as I felt. We’d been Between before, but a trip of this length was something new for all of us.
“You can’t warn someone what a long journey in the deep Between is like,” Coleman told me. “I tried. But mere heavy clothing and winter preparation doesn’t stack against the kind of bone-deep chill the Between brings.”
Noble's Honor (Changeling Blood Book 3) Page 12
