Forged in Fire

by J. A. Pitts

  “Why Spokane?” Katie asked. She had her hands wrapped around a steaming cup of coffee and was leaning over it like it was the only thing keeping her from freezing to death. Granted, it was only forty-three degrees—in the sun.

  Deidre looked over at Katie, debating on spilling a secret. That much I could figure out. Her good sense must’ve overcome her fear.

  “Your mom and dad had a place out there. A safe house, someplace to run when things got wacked in the world.”

  Katie’s mouth went hard, her lips so narrow I could barely see them. “We were going to tell you, but you freaked out and left.”

  “A week ago,” Katie said through clenched teeth.

  “Don’t start, young lady,” Deidre said, spinning her wheelchair around to face where Katie was sitting. “He’s given his whole life to keeping this place safe for you. Don’t judge him harshly, Katie. He may have some rough spots, but in the end he loves you more than anything.”

  I reached over and put my hand on Katie’s shoulder, not heavy, just a light touch to let her know I had her back.

  Only she didn’t explode. She just slumped back and let her breath trail away to nothing.

  “I know that,” she said so quietly I could barely hear her. “But he’s keeping them from me, hiding the things I could cling to.”

  “Dangerous things,” Deidre said, rolling back a foot or so, to not cramp Katie’s personal space. “Were you aware your mother kept a diary?”

  Katie sat up, her eyes alight. “Diary? No. Can I see it?” The dark side caught up with her thoughts half a second later. “Of course, he’s read it already.”

  Deidre watched her for a second, then shrugged. “No, he never read it. Wanted to save it for you, when you were mature enough to handle it.”

  Katie looked back at me, then to Deidre. “Can I have it, then?”

  “No, I’m afraid not,” Deidre said. “Jimmy only took it out of the case she kept it in once. That’s before he and I were married. You were with friends, a sleepover. He opened the case and touched the cover.”

  We waited, but she stopped there.

  “And?” I asked.

  “As soon as his fingers touched the cover he began to shake, like electricity was shooting through him. I thought he was joking at first, but smoke started coming out of his mouth, so I tackled him, knocking the diary and case onto the floor, landing on top of him.” She shuddered, either from the cold, or the memory. “He almost died. I had to do CPR on him for fifteen minutes before the EMTs arrived.”

  “What?” Katie asked.

  “It killed him, Katie. Sent a jolt of power through him so strong it stopped his heart. If he’d been alone, he’d still be dead. As it is, we got him to the hospital in time. He ended up in there for a week. Full-on heart attack at nineteen.”

  “Wait. Where was I for that week?”

  “I picked you up the next day and took you out to my parents in Bellevue.”

  Katie sat back, stunned. “I was twelve,” she said. “I remember that week as one of the best in my life. That’s when I met Melanie for the first time.” She put her hand on top of the one I had on her shoulder.

  Deidre nodded. “And we never told you.”

  “More secrets,” she said, heat filling her again. “How could you not tell me?”

  “You were twelve,” Deidre said. “And you’d just lost your parents not so long ago. He didn’t want you to think you’d lose him, too, that there was any chance. Made me promise not to tell you. After the battle you two have been having, I’ve decided that you’re being selfish, so I told you.”

  Katie mostly deflated. She’d asked for it, pushed Deidre to tell her.

  “And the diary?” Katie asked.

  “Stashed away,” Deidre said. “Can’t risk it killing anyone.”

  I looked at Katie, questioningly. With all the crap we’ve been through lately, with the dragons and the blood mead, the ghosts and dwarves, giants and trolls, magic amulets and magic swords, how could she be so quick to want that diary?

  Of course, it was her mother’s. I don’t think she had anything of her mother’s. Just memories of smells and songs. I guess that’s why she became a skald, to embrace the songs from her mother.

  And now that I remembered it, her mother loved lavender. No coincidence there, I’m sure.

  “And Jim’s worried about Anezka’s place,” Deidre continued, letting the subject of the diary drop. “They’re gonna stop by on the way home tonight.”

  “Bub said Qindra’s dome is holding strong,” I reminded her.

  She looked out at the yard, where Bub was chasing Frick and Frack, who were laughing like hyenas.

  “Yes, he went out there. Damn near killed him,” Deidre said. “Ate like a horse, then slept for two solid days. There’s something going on out there, something he can’t figure out, and he’s agitated all the time.”

  “What’s Jimmy think?” Katie asked.

  Deidre studied her a moment to see if she was digging for a fight. “He’s not sure, but thinks we shouldn’t leave it unattended.” She turned to me. “Sarah, I know you have an obligation to that witch who’s trapped in there, and we all heard the tale of your battles with the ghosties.” She turned to encompass Katie as well. “He’s scared, hon.” She covered Katie’s hand with hers. “But he’s damn proud of you.”

  Katie had earned a good amount of cred around the farm with that event. Pissed Jimmy off beyond belief, but proved she had the chops. That she wasn’t a little girl anymore.

  Course to Jimmy, she’d always be his kid sister, even when she was eighty.

  “I may know a way to ease some of Jimmy’s worries.” I waited until they both looked at me. “What if we arranged for Skella to provide travel services for Black Briar the same as she was doing for the dwarves before we wrecked their happy home? Traveling by mirror is a damn sight faster than driving over the mountain.”

  Katie’s face lit up and Deidre seemed pleased.

  “We’d need to pay her,” I started.

  Deidre didn’t even let me catch my breath. “Done, what’s next?”

  I looked to Katie. “It won’t be exactly cheap,” I said. “Specialized service and all.”

  Deidre laughed. “You let me worry about the cash flow. I think we can afford her.”

  Who was I to argue? I know Jimmy and Deidre were sitting on some serious cash, what with the insurance from his parents being declared dead and Deidre’s money from selling her software company. Must be nice to be that flush.

  “Well,” Katie said. “We could set up a watch station out on Chumstick Highway, near enough to the house to keep an eye on things, but far enough away to be out of danger.”

  Deidre thought about it. “Good plan,” she said. “Sarah, if you can arrange it with Skella, we’ll use her to travel between the mirrors here and a mirror out in Chumstick. We’ll get her a cell phone in case we need a special delivery, but we’ll have a normal schedule.”

  She was already into heavy project-management mode—thinking of ways to make this work while keeping some modicum of control over it all.

  “Three shifts,” she continued. “I’ll help schedule it all. What do you think?”

  “Brilliant,” Katie said. “Jim will hate it.”

  “True enough,” Deidre agreed. “But what do you think, Sarah?”

  “Seems reasonable. Let me get with her, make sure she’s even vaguely interested.”

  “Fair enough,” Deidre said, and gave us a grin.

  We spent the next couple of hours watching Bub and the kids while making plans for how we were going to set up an encampment out at Anezka’s place. Someone had to know when things went even more hinky than they were now. Besides, I know I could use all the intelligence we could gather on the place.

  A ley line ran down from the mountains, right under Anezka’s place out in Chumstick. Quite a few lines ran through the Pacific Northwest. It was a regular nexus of power. This particular line came to the surfac
e in a cavern below the house. That’s where Justin had blocked the line. It burned me that he’d used my shield—the one I’d gotten from the Valkyrie, Gunnr. The very shield I used to help kill the dragon, Jean-Paul Duchamp.

  I’d left it on the battlefield and Justin had recovered it. He’d worked his dark magic on it and shoved it into the ley line, disrupting the flow of energy and flooding the region with tainted magic. Of course, he’d been murdering people on those grounds for a year or more by that time.

  Now, I just needed to get past the dome Qindra had over the place, remove my shield from the ley line, and bring Qindra home.

  Piece of cake.

  Nineteen

  We left messages on the mirrors at Black Briar and at home. It took a few days, but Skella finally saw one of the notes. I knew she was keeping an eye out for contact. We arranged to meet at Monkey Shines. I hadn’t been there since I heard about Camille, and we wanted to pay our respects.

  The place was fairly packed. Gail was working the drive-thru as usual, but there were a couple of new girls running the front and the line was pretty long. We knew what we wanted and had more patience than some of the idiots in front of us. At one point, I thought I was going to have to kick some guy’s ass, but his girlfriend got him under control. Did no one have any patience these days? Didn’t they know how fine this coffee was?

  “Look,” Katie said, pointing to a small stand-up on the counter when we got near the front.

  There was a cardboard sign with Camille’s face on it. In front of the placard was a fishbowl half full of singles. The sign read: HELP US REMEMBER OUR FRIEND. CAMILLE PRESTON MEMORIAL FUND. HELP SEND GIRLS IN AFRICA TO SCHOOL. IT WAS CAMILLE’S FAVORITE CHARITY.

  “Damn,” I said, fishing in my pocket for my wallet. “I talked to her for years. I never knew she supported kids in Africa.” I dropped a twenty into the jar, and the angry guy in front of us glanced our way. At least he had the decency to look abashed when he walked away with his coffee. He didn’t donate any money, and I bet he didn’t tip.

  The new girls were perky and solemn at the same time. It was a little creepy. We ordered coffees and worked our way to the back of the shop, hovering over the good chairs until they were vacated; then we claimed them before anyone else could.

  “What the hell are we going to do about this necromancer guy?” Katie asked, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, her cup cradled in her hands.

  I looked around at the other patrons. A vital part of this place had been brutally murdered and people were sitting around doing crosswords, texting and chatting like the world was safe.

  “I don’t know,” I answered, trying to keep the frustration from my voice. Katie’s look told me I hadn’t succeeded. “I think once Skella gets here, we might be able to get some answers.”

  Luckily we didn’t have too much longer to wait. I had barely dented my huge mug o’mocha when Skella walked out of the hall leading to the bathrooms. The mirror down the hall was fairly secluded. It was also one of the ones Gletts had kept tuned to when he’d been stalking me, before I’d really met them.

  I waved Skella into a seat we’d been saving—much to the annoyance of the other patrons—and she beamed at us.

  “I’ll grab you a coffee,” Katie said, standing.

  “Hot chocolate, please,” Skella said.

  Katie nodded and began to swim her way back upstream of the crowd at the bar. I put my feet in Katie’s chair, to keep the guys behind us from taking it.

  “I have a proposition for you,” I said, launching right in.

  She didn’t say anything for a bit, just listened with wide eyes.

  “Of course I’ll help,” she said, bouncing in her chair. “Gran is making me crazy. All we do is sit with Gletts and mope. All those families sitting around the infirmary, hoping their loved ones will wake up someday. It’s like being at a funeral all the time. I mean, come on. The battle was only a month or so ago. Give the people time to heal. But just sitting around all the time. I’d kill for a diversion.” She grinned at me. “Gran said some days she has a hard time believing I’m an elf.”

  Katie arrived at that moment with a vat of hot chocolate and three plates of blueberry crumble.

  “We hope it’s all pretty mundane,” I said, sliding a plate of crumble to my side of the table. “No real excitement.”

  “At least I’d be helping the good guys,” Skella said, picking up her drink. “Thanks,” she said, inclining her head to Katie.

  Katie nodded back. “We’re hoping for dull and boring, actually. We’ve had enough excitement.”

  In the end, we settled on a salary I thought was criminally low, and Skella thought a king’s ransom. That and we promised to provide her a cell phone and cover the monthly bill. She was in heaven.

  I finished the crumble and set my mug aside, considering the young Goth elf. “How’s your brother?”

  “Fine,” she said, her face suddenly neutral. “No change, really. Gran insists we sit with him every day, so he knows we need him to come home.”

  “What do you think?” Katie asked.

  “He’s out there, somewhere,” she said, wistfully. “I just can’t find him.”

  I looked at her, suddenly nervous. “You’re looking for him? Like where?”

  “The sideways,” she said, lowering her voice. “His body is strong. I know he could come back, if he could find his way home.”

  “So, he’s a ghost or something?” I asked.

  “Something like that. If he doesn’t come back soon, his body will begin to die. Then he will be lost to us forever. Gran is getting quite desperate.”

  I thought back to how the dwarves of the Dragon Liberation Front had forced Skella and Gletts to act as their taxi service while they kidnapped Ari and used him to make their blood mead. Not all dwarves were evil, but that crew definitely had bought a franchise into bat-shit crazy land.

  “Your gran isn’t thinking of doing anything drastic, is she?” I asked.

  Skella just shrugged. “She doesn’t tell me. But I know she has no love for dark magic, nor blood magic, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  I shrugged. “No. She seemed like a lovely person. I just know that grief and fear can drive rational beings to do some pretty stupid things.”

  “Which brings us back around to the necromancer,” Katie said.

  There was a sudden lull in the conversations around us, so we all paused. Once things got back to their usual dull roar, we huddled close over the small table between our chairs, and spoke in earnest tones.

  I explained everything that had been happening, from the death of the girls in Vancouver, to Camilla’s murder, and even the horse, Blue Thunder. Skella hadn’t heard anything, alas.

  “I’m almost positive it’s the guy from Anezka’s place,” I explained. “The one who worked for the dragon up your way, the necromancer.”

  “Blood magic, yes.” Skella looked very uncomfortable. “Before you killed Jean-Paul, Gletts had met the necromancer a couple of times. That’s how we knew to find you at the house in Chumstick. Gletts had taken some of the dwarves out there to meet this blood mage, Justin.” She paused, toyed with her cup. “He never liked it, you know. No matter how he may have come across to you. Gletts hated them. Hated what they forced us to do.” She sighed, looking up at us in turn. “He said we had to fight fire with fire. I think he may have dabbled in a few things he wasn’t proud of.”

  I thought back to the crap in my life, the current relationship I had with Nidhogg. How could I argue?

  “They never included Gletts in their conversations, but the dwarves, Kraken and Bruden, let things slip from time to time.” She set her cup on the table and scrubbed her face briefly. I could see the tears in her eyes. “They were arrogant and cruel. I’m happy they’re dead.”

  Katie reached over and patted her on the knee. I loved that about her. Always reaching out to make sure others were okay.

  “Well, we may have broken up the blood cult
, but Justin is still out there wrecking havoc. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of facts,” I said. “We just know that he’s killing people around me. We think he’s trying to figure out who I am.”

  Skella looked at me for a long time, a look of resignation on her face. “Sarah. I don’t know much, but based on what Gletts shared with me, I’d guess he already knows who you are. I think if he wanted to kill you, he’d have already tried something.” She shrugged. “I’m just guessing, but based on the things Gletts had picked up, I think he’s doing something else. Something he doesn’t want you messing with.”

  “You think he’s trying to scare me?”

  Katie pulled a face, but didn’t say anything.

  Skella thought for a moment. “He knows someone killed the dragon. To do that, they’d have to be pretty damn powerful.” She smiled at me.

  “Which we know is totally true,” Katie said with a laugh. “Kick-ass warrior chick.”

  I shot her a look. “Seriously?”

  Skella snickered when Katie leaned over and kissed me.

  “So,” Skella went on, “I think he’s still on the path he was on before, only now he knows you’re out there and he’s trying to keep you going in circles.”

  Made a kind of sense. “Any clue to what he was planning?”

  “Not much,” she said, glancing at Katie. “He was always looking for an item of power. Gletts never could figure out what it was, but they think it’s down here somewhere, in your neck of the woods. Whatever it is, the dwarf, Bruden, always claimed it was a game changer.”

  “And they were in league with dragons who want to rule openly?” Katie asked.

  Skella nodded.

  “Why the hell would anyone want to help the dragons rule openly?” I asked. “It would be mass murder.”

  “He thinks he’s getting something out of the deal,” Katie said.

  Skella shook her head. “I can’t imagine what would be worth all that.”

  Katie grimaced. “He’s a necromancer. I’m thinking he’d love a lot of death. It buys him something.”