Wyvern and Company

by Suttle, Connie

  Raffian is also considered Grey House's best K'Shoufa jewelry designer. I figured the Tiralian crystal cufflinks that Glendes delivered to me had been designed by Raffian—they were beautiful.

  And spelled.

  "These are for the ones whose names are marked on the boxes," Glendes handed more boxes to me.

  Kiarra's name was on one, and it contained a pair of earrings. Another box had Justin's name written on it, with a wristwatch inside. Spelled Grey House jewels decorated the band.

  Mack's watch matched Justin's.

  Merrill, surprisingly, also had a box. I handed it to him. A ring lay inside—a spelled ring in gold and platinum, with the traditional dark-gray jewel set in it. At that point, I was sorry I'd asked for cufflinks—the ring could be worn anytime, while the cufflinks could only be worn with my nicest dress shirts.

  Merrill, understandably, placed the ring on a finger immediately—on his left hand. I wasn't sure that was the way it was meant, but he was taking it as such. I wasn't surprised that the ring fit—another spell placed upon it to do just that, and it would only fit and protect the designated owner.

  As would the other items. I nodded to Glendes, who, having the talent to do so, folded away quickly. "Don't take these watches off," I instructed as I handed the proper ones to Justin and Mack. "They're built to protect you. I hope we won't need that protection, but you never know. I imagine it will accommodate your change to wolf," I added as I watched Mack place it on his wrist.

  "It's really spelled?" Mack blinked at me curiously.

  "By the best wizards anywhere," I agreed. "What's on your wrist would cost anyone else a fortune."

  "Can somebody steal it?" Justin asked as he admired the timepiece on his wrist.

  "It won't allow it," I said. "I figure any would-be thief will get a nasty surprise if he makes the attempt."

  "Too bad we can't get the earrings to Mom, then," Justin tapped her box. "I'd feel better if she had these right now."

  "Adam, I'm getting mindspeech from Lion," Dragon interrupted.

  "What is it?" I asked.

  "A small town in Arizona was just attacked by spawn. Everyone there is either dead or missing. We have to go."

  I cursed.

  Chapter 13

  Justin's Journal

  Coppertown, Arizona is tiny. Not even a speck on most maps. Dragon shielded us as we watched emergency workers move through the short, main street of town, attempting to identify remains.

  Mack shook his head and barely muffled an angry growl. His scenting ability was quite keen—much better than what it had been before the wolf manifested. He smelled spawn and death everywhere. If he were wolf, his hackles would be raised and his ears laid back.

  I touched the new wristwatch I wore, stroking the dark jewels lining the band. Merrill, his new ring unfamiliar on his finger, did almost the same thing as he surveyed the blood, gore and mess left behind by ravaging spawn.

  "Had to be at least a hundred, to leave this kind of destruction behind in such a short period of time," Dragon mumbled.

  It had been a short period of time. A cell-phone conversation with a resident had been cut off and less than five minutes later, the carnage was discovered by a delivery driver.

  "They blew through here like a tornado," Dad growled. He was angry that this was taking us away from our search for Mom. Joey stayed behind in New York and was joined there by Uncle Bearcat, who offered to help while we took care of spawn.

  If we could find them.

  Police and National Guard helicopters were flying over the desert surrounding Coppertown, but the spawn had disappeared like rabbits down a hole.

  Only there wasn't any hole. Not that was obvious, anyway. Uncle Dragon couldn't get a fix on them, either, and that was strange. I'd thought my inability to see them by Looking in Florida may have been my newness with the talent, but the fact that mindspeech had been held behind a barrier there was still unexplained.

  That was coming back to haunt us, now.

  "Ten people are missing and likely turning to spawn while we stand here talking about it," Dragon's voice rumbled as he grimaced at the grisly scene before us. "Whatever prevents us from tracking them has moved far enough from this area that my Looking skills are currently accurate through the town."

  "We are still crippled by Thorsten's command," Dad huffed. "That means Merrill and the others will be forced to place their lives on the line again if we can get a position on this horde."

  "I would like to bring my brother in," Dragon sighed. "He is almost as skilled as I with his blades. Spawn will be sorry if they attack him."

  "I wasn't aware you had a brother," Dad said.

  What he wasn't saying was that at Dragon's age, his brother should have died long ago.

  "It was part of the deal offered to me to join the Saa Thalarr," Dragon replied, his face falling into the familiar scowl. "My twin brother would be given immortality if I agreed to fight with the Saa Thalarr. At the time I joined, the mortality rate among our current race was much higher, you understand. Crane was suffering from a terminal disease. I did this for him—and for me."

  "Identical twins?" Merrill queried.

  "Yes. Except in our tattoos. Crane's tats are of cranes, naturally. I became Warlord. He was my General on Falchan."

  "Cool," Mack breathed beside me, his anger at spawn forgotten for a moment. His hero-worship of Dragon just ramped up several notches.

  "You may be risking his life," Merrill pointed out.

  "I know. What else can I do? My hands—and the hands of every other Saa Thalarr—are tied at the moment. We must use what we have to destroy this threat."

  "I understand what might happen if you disobey a direct order," Merrill shook his head. "Expulsion from the Saa Thalarr and the removal of your power and immortality is a terrifying prospect."

  "That is why we must do what we can behind the scenes," Dragon nodded. "We were never told we couldn't provide support to those doing the actual fighting."

  "Then let's go to Fresno," Dad said, his shoulders sagging. "Joey promised to keep me updated on the search for Kiarra, but he can search just as well from Fresno as he can from New York. We need the vampires when they wake to help track these spawn. They're trained to do research while hunting a target. We'll put them to work."

  * * *

  Dad called our new friends at the FBI, too. They had vampires and werewolves on the payroll, and had even better informational resources than we did. They were now looking for Mom and the missing spawn. I asked Dad afterward why we couldn't find Mom by Looking.

  "She's an unreadable," he explained. "Those are so rare they almost don't exist. It's good for her—and bad for us. We can't find her by Looking. Neither can the enemy, but without the power she normally has, if they find her using traditional means, then she's more than vulnerable. If they take her, they'll either kill her or demand a ransom of some sort. Who knows what they might ask in exchange?"

  I'd been scared before by Mom's disappearance. This terrified me. "Will they let her die?" I quavered. Mack, who'd been listening in, went completely still and his face went pale. After all, we'd both heard the phrase we don't negotiate with terrorists. Wouldn't this be the same thing?

  "Son, let's concentrate on finding her, all right? We have the best we can get working on that right now, including the FBI Paranormal Division. We have to focus on the spawn that are now attacking entire towns."

  "She has to be all right," Mack mumbled, stuffing his hands in his pockets in an uncomfortable gesture. "Dad says I have to go on the Pack run tomorrow night. I'd rather stay here and help Joey."

  "Son, you won't be able to stop the change—it's in your blood," Dad dropped a hand on Mack's shoulder. "We're all worried about Kiarra, but none of this is your fault. It's mine. We'll find her. We have to."

  A weariness came over Dad and lines appeared around his mouth that I'd never seen before. This was taking a greater toll on him than I thought and I was only beginning to r
ealize what the stakes were in all this. Yes, Mack and I had a narrow escape with spawn and three kapiri, but this one thing could bring all of us down.

  * * *

  "Perhaps you should have left her power intact." Nefrigar studied Pheligar, who'd uncharacteristically Pulled in a chair to sit while they spoke. He didn't mention that Pheligar's blue skin was tinged with gray, or that worry clouded normally bright-blue eyes.

  "I see that now. At the time, I imagined it to be the prudent thing to do. I had no idea she would choose to disappear like this. I had to deliver Wolf to her new assignment on Grelx, else I might have been more aware of the situation."

  "Have you attempted bending time?"

  "Yes. I encountered a maelstrom when I did."

  "The time is in flux, then, intersecting with imaginary time in another juncture of the multiverse."

  "Imaginary time," Pheligar huffed angrily. "There is nothing imaginary about it. Why would it be named thus, when it can result in a chance intersection of one timeline with another, at which the same events occur in both timelines at the same moment, at an extremely critical point?"

  "You know that in some exceptionally unusual circumstances, the timelines can spin away in different directions as a result?"

  "I have read the books and studied the phenomenon," Pheligar grumbled. "It does me no good, as there is no way I can prevent any of this, and, as Kiarra is unreadable, I cannot find her."

  "Have you attempted mindspeech?"

  "You think she will listen to me?" Pheligar seldom employed sarcasm, but he did so now, tapping his chest and shaking his head at Nefrigar.

  "Any attempt is worth the effort to get her back," Nefrigar replied, turning back to the ancient book he'd been repairing with power when Pheligar appeared. A fragile page, ravaged by time and almost eaten away, became whole in his hand. Carefully placing it atop the other pages he'd already repaired, he turned to the next page in the text.

  "You are correct, of course," Pheligar admitted with a weary sigh. "I should have listened to your advice early on, when you said to remove the mute on our M'Fiyah. She has two muted M'Fiyahs upon her, and that cannot be a good thing. Do you suppose that lent to her confusion now?"

  "It will not help it in any way," Nefrigar responded, making another page whole with power. The parchment rustled softly as he smoothed it in place atop the other repaired pages.

  "You already know that her life would have been better had you not muted your M'Fiyah with her," he continued. "You likely realize that Kiarra's M'Fiyah with the King Vampire, had it not been muted, might have kept her from running away. She could have relied on his strength and his desire to comfort and console. That is a beneficial aspect of multiple mates that is often overlooked."

  "I understand that—if you recall, we did research on that subject centuries ago."

  "I remember. All I can tell you is this—it is imperative that she be found. If she is lost, many events will rupture and the future may be lost."

  "You do not reassure me, brother." Pheligar turned his head.

  "I cannot—too many things have become critical, and this may be at the center of it. If she dies, your child will not be the same. It matters not that you carry the complete and healthy embryo in your body. A mother can have a great deal of influence on a Larentii child, even if he does not carry her genes or DNA. It is usually the reason Larentii young name themselves after their mothers, ever since the rift."

  "I know. Most Larentii do not remember the times before the rift, when female Larentii numbers were much the same as the males."

  "Ferrigar's fault," Nefrigar repaired another page. "And yes, brother, I know not to speak that aloud outside the archives. Somewhere inside him, he knows he erred, but he may never admit it. His second mistake was making the race forget the times before. I recall them perfectly, as I am archivist and the Archives are protected against any power that might tamper with history. Nevertheless, Ferrigar ordered those records sealed and none may read them now. The Wise Ones, you and I may be the only ones, besides Ferrigar, who know the truth."

  "The Vhirilaszh knows," Pheligar whispered.

  "And he disappeared long ago. None have seen Kalenegar for millennia, and even the Wise Ones cannot find him, as he is also an unreadable."

  "I worry that he may have separated his particles, leaving us without that added level of protection."

  "I believe he still is," Nefrigar repaired the back cover of the book and closed it carefully with a sigh. "That, of course, cannot be proven, no matter how much I'd like to try."

  "The Vhirilaszh is neither here nor there, as humans often say," Pheligar pointed out. "We must find Kiarra before the enemy does. Everything hinges on that."

  * * *

  Adam's Journal

  Lion and Marlianna cooked breakfast for us the following morning—we'd snacked the night before while we studied and pondered the problem of disappearing spawn and a missing member of our family.

  Hardly any of us slept. Karzac looked like a thundercloud and snapped at any adult in the house, with the exception of Mack, Justin, Darzi and Marlianna. We'd heard from Pheligar, early on, warning us not to attempt to bend time in our search for Kiarra. It was one of those instances when we could lose ourselves in an inescapable vortex.

  I had no idea what that meant, but knew enough to heed the warning. I was too worried that Thorsten might become aware of the situation and order us to cease our search for Kiarra, writing her off as a lost cause.

  Could he—would he—do that to the First among us?

  In my few direct dealings with him, I came away with the feeling that he had no care what happened to any of us, and was prepared to find a replacement if any of us fell. Only Kiarra had worried about that—more than anyone else, at least.

  With Pheligar's input and Dragon's and Lion's help for the past fourteen thousand plus years, she'd managed to keep the tiny race of Saa Thalarr intact, and that included Griffin, who'd never appeared to care whether any of his charges fell while he served as First.

  Worlds had been lost when Saa Thalarr died. Kiarra had never lost one, and had saved many considered Not Worth Saving, including Earth twenty years past.

  They all owed her a debt—those many worlds attacked by the Ra'Ak. Countless souls had been saved by her perseverance and the tireless support she offered her charges. Those in her care included me, as well as the others.

  Only the feeble-minded would fail to see that she'd stopped rescuing worlds classified as Not Worth Saving since the birth of our son. For those, she'd risked her life more than she normally might. I imagined that she had no desire to leave Justin without his mother while he was young. Now that he was grown or nearly so, she was pregnant again. Once more, I wondered at the timing of everything.

  "Adam?" Dragon's voice broke into my thoughts.

  "What?" I turned sharply in his direction.

  "Another small town has been hit—this time in Arkansas," he said.

  * * *

  Kiarra's Notes

  A television was on and breaking news was announced when I stopped for a late lunch in Nashville. I'd loaded the car with snacks, juice and water before leaving Columbus behind, so I wouldn't be hungry and begin to feel sick while driving.

  The small truck stop had a diner and I could fill the gas tank while I was there. Instead of eating my grilled cheese sandwich at first, however, I stared at the carnage depicted on the screen above the counter.

  Remains were scattered throughout the small community in Arkansas, covered by sheets, tarps and anything else emergency workers could find to hide the bodies from curious onlookers and the swarming media.

  The National Guard was on the scene, securing the perimeter, just as they were doing in a small town in Arizona.

  Were there now two hordes of spawn on the loose? Were Adam and the others planning their searches? Was this the work of one horde of spawn that had somehow managed to appear and disappear with the help of something more powerful?
<
br />   I'd asked Pheligar, the last time I'd seen him, whether any Ra'Ak could be detected on the planet. He'd already Looked for them and said he'd found no evidence. If they were here and could hide from a Larentii, the future of the Saa Thalarr was in serious jeopardy.

  It was all we had—Pheligar always knew of their presence. No, he couldn't interfere in our search for them after we reached a world, but he always knew they were there.

  I felt ill anyway, and belatedly lifted my sandwich, taking a determined bite while I watched the rest of the broadcast.

  * * *

  Justin's Journal

  Mack had to go home with his dad before most of the rest of us were folded to Green Bluff, Arkansas. Darzi and Karzac stayed in Fresno with Marlianna, Joey and Bearcat.

  For the second time, I stared at covered bodies while emergency crews searched buildings and houses for more remains.

  Nobody was left alive.

  Nine missing here, Dragon sent mindspeech to all of us.

  They're gathering allies while they have a snack, Dad's mindspeech was little more than a snarl. This town is slightly larger than the one in Arizona. It's my guess they'll select larger and larger targets as they go along.

  By now, on any other world, we'd have found and killed them, Lion said. I have no idea what is hampering us from Looking for them here.

  People are beginning to panic everywhere, Merrill broke in. I've heard from Wlodek in the UK. While Europe hasn't been attacked yet, everybody is afraid and passengers are refusing to get on planes headed to the States. The President is attempting to calm everyone by calling these isolated incidents, but that won't last much longer. We could have rioting soon, if something isn't done. The military is worse than helpless in this situation—because they could become the spawn horde's next target.

  Agreed, Dragon responded. That is my worry, too, as those trained for the military will make deadlier spawn if they are turned.

  All it will take is a spark in the proper place to start a conflagration, Lion nodded slightly. After that, nobody will be safe here, and the Ra'Ak will have won the world without a challenge.