Steam Union

by Patti Larsen

  I paced a moment, hands clasped behind my back, trying to decide what I was going to say. Every conversation I staged in my head went from bad to worse in a matter of seconds, forcing me to rewind and try again. By the time the door opened again, I was so wound up and ready for the worst I was surprised to see Mom kindly waving off her secretary. Philip grinned at me on the way by, his mood high, at least. And when I met Mom’s eyes, all the fighting I’d been doing in my twisting brain shut off.

  “Mom,” I said.

  “Syd,” she said, at exactly the same time.

  “I’m sorry.” Again, in unison.

  Mom came toward me, and I to her, our arms around each other before we could fully come to a stop.

  “I know you would never do anything to jeopardize the Council,” she said.

  “I swear I was going to tell you and tried to stop them from even forming a shadow council,” I blurted over her.

  We laughed together, soft and full of understanding. Mom led me into her office, closed the door. I sat in one of the big chairs in front of her massive desk while she took the one beside me, crossing her legs as she leaned toward me.

  “Tell me,” she said.

  I shared everything I could remember, including my suggestion to train all witches in sorcery.

  “Agreed,” she said. “I understand there has been a shift in power in the Steam Union.” Her eyes glittered with delight she’d caught me by surprise. “Yes, I heard about Piers. I’m proud of him.”

  “He’ll be a great leader,” I said, sinking back into the cushions, finally relaxing as weariness washed over me. “I’m also going to see what I can do about restoring the stolen funds from the covens.”

  She nodded. “Simon,” she said.

  Did she know everything? Probably a good thing, honestly.

  “I have no real objection to the shadow council,” Mom said. “As long as you keep me posted—and they don’t attempt something detrimental to the safety of our people. If feeling like they are in control gives them courage and comfort, I’m fine with it.” She hesitated with a little smile. “Besides, if I trust anyone to have the best interests of the covens at heart, it’s you.”

  Nice of her to say so. “They’re afraid, Mom,” I said. “I’m hoping Piers will be willing to allow his people to train ours so they won’t have to fear the Brotherhood anymore.”

  “Let me see what I can do in my official capacity,” she said. “I planned to reach out to him and congratulate him tomorrow. To encourage him to join the WPC.” I had a feeling there’d be no fight there. “And to ask him to help us. Even if he can’t at this point, I know he’ll give it a fair hearing.”

  Unlike his mother. “Any news on Eva?”

  Mom shook her head. “My sources aren’t that good, sweetheart,” she said. “But if Piers wants help tracking her, we’re more than happy to do what we can.”

  Working together. What a concept.

  Sydlynn. Max’s massive mind touched mine, making me jump. Forgive the intrusion.

  Where have you been all day? I sat up straighter, Mom’s little frown registering the distraction. Mind you, I’d been busy, but we usually patrolled together and I felt guilty for forgetting about him.

  All is well, he sent, amusement clear. But we have an appointment I don’t think either of us should miss. Council Leader Hayle, your permission to enter your territory.

  Mom’s eyebrows shot up. Granted, always, Max, she sent. How polite, she sent to me in a tight touch of power.

  Touchy times, I sent back as the veil opened and Max stepped through. I stood to join him, Mom coming to my side. He bowed to her before offering his hand to me.

  “Forgive me,” he said. “Syd and I must go.”

  “Of course.” She hugged me before I could take his fingers in mine. Funny, she sent with a catch in her mind, I forget sometimes just how small the problems are the rest of us have to deal with compared to the ones you carry with you every day. I tried to protest, but she let me go with a smile. Leave this to me, she sent. Just keep the Universe turning, please.

  I kissed her cheek and grasped Max’s hand, leaving my mother behind as he pulled me into the veil. Where are we off to?

  Ameline contacted me a short time ago, he sent. She has an answer for us.

  The dark maji. My heart sped up as the mess I left behind was shunted sideways in favor of bigger problems. Any idea what they said?

  We’re about to find out. The veil opened and Max and I were in the maji chamber. I guess he was more confident in his ability to pinpoint our landing than I was. Ameline stood by the altar, smiling at us, though there was strain on her face.

  “Thank you for coming so quickly,” she said, stepping aside to show us she wasn’t alone. “I didn’t think our guest was willing to wait much longer.”

  The tall, dark skinned maji was as familiar to me as Ameline. “Trinol,” I said, greeting her old guide with a smile. “It’s good to see you.”

  He nodded to me, though nervously, black eyes flickering to Max and back to me again. “Sydlynn Hayle,” he said. Sang Max’s drach name. “I don’t have much time.”

  “What’s going on?” I took a step toward him but he backed away from me, holding his hands up to ward me off.

  “I shouldn’t be here,” he said, deep voice shaking, dark skin taking on a gray tint. The hem of his long, black robe trembled over the floor, though he held himself as rigid as stone. “But I owed you answers, after everything that happened.”

  He’d been Ameline’s guide way back when we were still struggling to fulfill the prophecy. Told her far more than Iepa ever told me. And yet, I’d always felt a closer affinity to his people than to the ones meant for my side of the fight. Which made me wonder whose side the light maji were really on. Not so cut and dried, the second race.

  “We need your help,” I said. “You know about the sorcerer Belaisle and his connection to Dark Brother?” I still couldn’t believe the idiot sold his soul to Creator’s sibling in the other Universe. Then again, this was Liander Belaisle. And any offer of Universal power would make him salivate.

  Trinol’s sharp nod was no surprise. “We are well informed,” he said. “Part of the reason my people have closed off from the rest of the Universe.” He hesitated. “They are afraid, Sydlynn. As am I.”

  “You’re the only ones who can help us,” I said. “Max and the drach are stretched thin. We have to find the pieces of Creator before Dark Brother does.”

  Trinol’s distress was clear on his face. He’d always come across as so composed to me, almost as emotionless as the Sidhe. I’d never seen him so torn, so upset. “We can’t,” he said at last, turning sideways, away from me. “Our focus has been defense. We seek tools, weapons we can use against Dark Brother when the time comes. And the time is coming, make no mistake.” He turned his head to meet my eyes. “An army is coming for us, the likes of which we’ve never seen.”

  That sounded promising. And like a ton of fun. Yikes.

  “We have no promise of that,” Max said in a gentle voice. “The Fates can see nothing.”

  “Perhaps,” Trinol said. “But the final foreseeing has been triggered and you know it, Lord of the Drach.” He shuddered. “Whether through an attack of Dark Brother’s army or in the final battle between my people and the light maji, we are doomed.” His voice dropped, softened, and he repeated the words I’d heard from Light Fate a few times now. “The end of everything.”

  “Not if we can find Creator’s pieces first,” I said. Totally grasping at straws.

  “For all we know,” Trinol said with great sadness, “it is the assembly of Creator’s physical form that brings about our final downfall.”

  Hadn’t thought of that, honestly.

  “We want to help, Sydlynn, we truly do.” Trinol’s shoulders sagged forward, large hands spread out before him, eyes flaring with rainbow light and frustration. “But we fear triggering the retaliation of our brothers and sisters of the Light. We just can�
�t risk doing so, especially with Dark Brother in the mix.”

  It wasn’t his fault, but that didn’t help my temper any. “Thanks for nothing.”

  Trinol finally turned back completely, nodding, sad. “I know you think us cowardly,” he said. “We have spent our existence controlling the fate of others through subtlety and manipulation. You are an anomaly to us, as Ameline was.” He smiled at her soul and she smiled back. “Children of pure action, of passion and immense power. How terrifying in your freshness.” He paused, drew a deep breath and let it out again. “If anyone can prevent Dark Brother from reassembling Creator’s form, it will be you. Not us. We are too far past our days of direct intervention.”

  “Do you know what will happen if he succeeds?” I still didn’t have a satisfactory answer.

  Trinol shrugged. “It’s unclear,” he said. “Though the final vision is of the maji at war. So I can only assume that control of Creator’s form means Dark Brother will rule both Universes.”

  More guessing and supposing. Great.

  Trinol’s head snapped up, eyes going distant before he shuddered, rainbow light surrounding him.

  “I can tell you one thing,” he said, hurried, words tumbling over each other as the power pulled at him. Clearly, someone wasn’t happy he was here. “You already have the means to track the pieces in your possession. Something the other seekers do not. And make no mistake,” he shifted, wrestled with the magic tugging at him, “there are more players seeking Creator than just you and the sorcerers.”

  “Trinol!” I reached out to him with power, but his magic held me off.

  “You just have to know where to look,” he said, eyes glowing. And vanished in a flash of fire.

  ***

  Chapter Twenty

  I pulled myself up to sit on the edge of the altar, Ameline leaping gracefully beside me. Max joined us, feet firmly on the floor, but at least we were now at eye level.

  “Any guesses what that cryptic little remark was about?” I swung my feet, hands palm down on the stone behind me, leaning back and squinting at the writing on the wall across from me, secretly hoping some mystery message might appear and solve all my problems.

  Ameline shook her head, turning sideways, tucking one foot under her thigh. “It’s obvious the dark maji are now as reluctant as the light to do anything besides save their own skins.” Her old irritation was showing, though it felt more like my own so I wasn’t freaked out by it.

  “While it’s comforting to know we have something in our midst that will help us,” Max said, “until we can pinpoint that advantage, I’m afraid we’re no further along that we were before.”

  Ameline’s distress pulled at the corners of her bow lips. “I’ll keep working on Trinol,” she said. “He’s never been so reticent before.”

  Max leaned forward and gently patted her knee, giant hand almost engulfing her leg. “You’ve done well,” he said and, to my shock, she flushed and ducked her head with real pleasure.

  She really had shed all her bad parts.

  “The spirit magic glitches are growing worse,” Ameline said when she’d recovered. “I’m feeling blips, as though there are gaps in the power that seal themselves when the parts go missing.”

  “How frequently?” I sat up straighter, thinking of Pender and the image his shattered mind shared.

  “Not very, just yet,” she said, “but far too often for my liking. And there are small gaps, at times, bigger ones in others. As though the spirit power is thinning. Does that make sense?”

  I showed them both what Pender showed me and Max hissed in a breath of air.

  “As I feared,” he said. “I have no idea where Sebastian and his vampires have gone. But if that image is correct, what you’ve been feeling, Ameline, is other blood clans disappearing as the DeWinter one did.”

  So, not good. “Then we have a visit to make,” I said, hopping down from the stone altar. She might not want to admit it, but the Empress of vampires had a serious problem on her hands. And while I didn’t really feel a keen sense of loyalty to the other blood clans, my vampire essence urged me through worry alone to go check in and see what was up.

  Max and I left, Ameline promising to share what else she learned, the veil engulfing the drach leader and me as I did my best to puzzle out what Trinol was talking about.

  Where are we going? Max let me take the lead even as I focused on the ledge.

  To talk to a stubborn old vampire, I sent. Cold air struck us as we emerged, Max looking around with glittering eyes at the dark mountain peak.

  “Nepal, I believe,” he said. “Your plane.”

  So that was where the castle resided. I hadn’t managed to figure that out.

  The two guards at the gate stepped aside the instant they saw me, keeping their distance, and this time there was no greeting party on the path to the bridge. I crossed it in a hurry, mind reaching forward with a discreet tap, much like the one the Empress offered me when she first contacted me.

  See? I could be polite.

  Welcome, Sydlynn Hayle, her ancient mind met mine.

  That was easy. I strode through the open door into the giant, arching foyer, now empty of the gathering of queens. A slim young woman in a skintight, black leather cat suit, hair cut to a perfect bob, bowed to me. Her dark eyes slanted slightly upward, belying her Asian heritage, and she moved like a graceful animal when she gestured for me to follow her.

  Not a vampire, from the feel of her. Some sorcery at her disposal and a hint of witch magic, but subtle, like she’d never developed it. Her core of power was based in spirit magic, though I’d never experienced that in a mortal before. How interesting.

  She led us through a curving corridor, one side carved out with windows looking over the mountain range. A thick, deep, red carpet muffled my footfalls and, not for the first time since I left home in my pajamas, did I regret not stopping for a change of clothes.

  Our guide stopped at a small door carved with the face of a dragon. The briefest smile passed her ruby painted lips, lifting her pale yellow skin, rounding her cheeks. She bowed to me, fluid, almost inhuman, and gestured for me to precede her.

  “Lóng,” Max said with respect in his voice. “I had thought your kind extinct.”

  I looked back and forth between them, hating being in the dark.

  “My people are few,” the young woman answered in a crisp British accent. “Faithful to the one who saved us.” She bowed to him. “I am Jiao.”

  Max sang his name to her and she stood there, rapt, until he was finished.

  “I am honored,” she said, lowering her head with genuine humility. Her dark eyes then lifted, met mine. “My mistress awaits, Light One.”

  So, she knew about my extra circulars. Also very interesting. I stepped past the girl, Jiao, surprised by the minty, yet dusty, scent of her, catching the faintest hint of scales on her collarbone. That startled me. Was she like Max? But, no. Not drach. And her power refused to let me examine her further.

  Determined to grill Max on who she was later, I let it go. For now, I had some questions to put to the Empress and I needed my full focus.

  The room on the other side was dark, walls painted the same lush crimson as the carpet in the hall. A heavy fall of fabric hung from the ceiling, draping around the giant bed in the center of the room. Three young women, all beautiful, all human, arranged themselves in various positions of languidity, only rising when a hand rose from the velvet coverlet and waved them away. They swept from the room in a scented breeze, the mix of flowers and spices making me feel slightly nauseated.

  “Come forward.” The Empress’s magic slipped back the fabric, two young men in black jackets tightened to their waists with white cummerbunds attaching the weight of the drape to large gold rings embedded in the wall. The resulting effect resembled the spread of drach wings. I strode to the base of the bed, trying not to be too impressed, Max joining me. The Empress leaned forward, beads of black eyes lighting up at the sight of him, a real
smile on her face.

  “Lord Drach,” she said, muttering something else in a language I didn’t know. It sounded as old as she was.

  He answered in the multi-layered song of his people, to which she swayed as if entranced, then went on in the same language she’d used.

  Way to leave me out of the conversation. But it was over quickly, the Empress sinking back into her cushions as the young, dangerous Jiao, came to stand beside the bed, eyes locked on me.

  “It has been too long since we met,” the Empress said, a hint of regret in her voice. “It is good to see you well.”

  “And you, Moa,” he answered with a happy rumble.

  Max obviously knew her. Part of me was peeved he hadn’t told me so. Then again, I really hadn’t been forthcoming when I informed him who we were visiting. But knowing the trouble the Universe’s spirit magic was in, I would have thought he’d have brought her up by now.

  As for the Empress, she preened, though the twist of her lips told me she knew she was being ridiculous. “Not so pretty as when I saw you last, great lord.”

  “You are as lovely as ever,” he said with absolute sincerity. “It is the courage of the heart and the beauty of the soul’s song that appeals to the drach.”

  She laughed, a soft and happy sound, childlike. I still struggled to reconcile her ancient appearance with the young voice that emerged when she spoke. “Flattery,” she said. “It’s been too long.”

  “Empress,” I said, “I don’t mean to break up the party, but we’re worried about your people.”

  Her sharp eyes went to me, back to Max. “You are aware of the disappearances of other blood clans.” Not a question.

  “We are,” Max said. “And we want to help, if we can.”

  The Empress sighed, shook her head, almost angry as she cut through the air with one hand. “We both know that isn’t possible,” she said. “Greater things have been set in motion, Fated.” She fixed her glittering eyes on me. “Correct?”

  There wasn’t much I could say to that. “We’re doing everything we can,” I said. “The maji are staying out of it. That leaves the drach to carry the work.” As usual.