“What we need more than anything else at the moment is time,” Max was saying. “We’ve got to give Wolf and Valory as much time as we can.”
“How?” Hawk’s tone was more respectful now, Alejandro noted. Perhaps he had only needed to be reminded once that this was no longer the Exile, his memories gone, but the Keeper of the Talismans.
“Well, to start with, we don’t involve Cassandra until we absolutely have to. We tell the Hunt that as High Prince she can’t leave the Lands—”
“Is that true?” Moon looked puzzled.
Max shrugged. “Well, the Hunt doesn’t know any differently, that’s for certain. If she’s not available to negotiate, you’ll have to do it, and say you have to report back to her. Ask them for precise terms, even let them think you’re leaning favorably toward the idea.”
Alejandro grimaced. “I am sworn to help the human Outsiders against the Hunt.”
“And you are helping them. We need information, to prepare. Do what you can to assess their numbers, discover their hideouts. Determine, if you can, how many of the Basilisk Warriors have joined them. See if you can sow discord between the two groups.”
Now Alejandro smiled. “That should not be difficult.”
Nik let the phone fall into its cradle with a clatter, pushed his chair back far enough that he was clear of his computer keyboard, and rubbed at his eyes. He picked up his coffee cup, took a mouthful, grimaced, and swallowed it anyway. When he poured himself a cup of coffee, he thought, he really should try to remember to drink it before it went stone cold.
After what had happened to Wai-kwong, he’d had Elaine organize a telephone tree, so that all of his people could stay in regular touch with each other, and report to him as well. Her organizational skills were second nature to her; he’d had to learn his the hard way, and even now he’d screw up if he didn’t have his lists to refer to. Some had grumbled a bit at first, but the fight at the train station had shown them just how useful a tool it could be. There was no way they could have gotten everyone there to help so quickly, if they hadn’t already been in touch. So everyone checked in, and everyone was accounted for.
Everyone except the Riders. Problem was, he had no idea how things worked on the other side of the Portal, and the longer he went without hearing anything, the more nervous he got. Nik picked up his cell phone and used it to call Valory’s number again. He’d reached voice mail before, but this time he got no response at all. Nothing. He tried Alejandro’s with the same result. Whistling tunelessly through his teeth, Nik crossed the hall into Elaine’s office.
His partner looked up from her desk and smiled in her old way. The lost Elaine of a few days before was gone. She’d had to have her dra’aj level refreshed again in the interim, but as she became accustomed to her new condition, she’d stabilize and need to be refreshed less often.
“D’you sign the stuff Marg put on your desk?” Elaine finished putting her signature to a letter and moved it from the smaller pile on her left to the larger pile on her right. She was trying to keep up the business of the firm, in between correlating reports. She looked up again.
“Yeah, first thing.” Nik threw himself into her client chair and slung one leg over the arm.
Elaine put down her pen. “I know we have all this other stuff going on, Nik, but I have to act as though we’ll get through it. As though we’re going to have a business to come back to once it’s all over. We have responsibilities to our clients.”
Nik shut his eyes, nodding. He knew Elaine was right. This is what Outsiders had been doing ever since they organized, trying to live as normally as possible.
“I can’t reach the Riders,” he said, opening his eyes. “Valory, either. It’s like their phones don’t exist.”
Elaine leaned forward, her smile disappearing. “You don’t think they’ve deserted us?”
“I know a few who would say so.” He shrugged. “Maybe I am a fool for trusting them.”
“I don’t know what else we can do, just now,” she said.
Nik found himself heartened by Elaine’s “we” and “us.” She’d always been very quick to assimilate new facts, face new challenges, but what had happened to her was something that had radically changed her life, and changed it forever.
“Did you get into some kind of trouble for helping me?”
Nik gave her his best grin. “We’re not running out of dra’aj yet,” he said. “Don’t worry about it, there are still plenty of donors, fortunately—or unfortunately I suppose I could also say, considering that these are people who are dying.” His grin faded away a little faster than he’d intended. “But if it turns out the Riders aren’t going to help us—” he shook his head. “Rationing might work for a while, but the stability of our community exists because of low population, and careful control of that population.”
“So you did get into trouble.”
“Like I said, nothing for you to worry about. This is my district, I can make it work out.” So long as I don’t help any more new ones, and what happened to Wai-kwong doesn’t happen to anyone else. He put both feet on the floor.
This time Elaine grinned. “Your district? You sound like a sheriff.”
Nik shrugged, spreading his hands. “More like a senior adviser. Access to dra’aj is regularized, controlled, so everyone gets their share. If there are too many Outsiders in one community, for example, they get help to relocate.”
“And with all the new ones? With me? There are too many of us now, aren’t there?” His look must have answered her, because she went on before he could speak. “But we have to do something to help them.” Elaine’s tone was bleak, her voice strained.
The phone rang and she turned away, indicating with the lift of one finger that he should stay put. She said “okay” twice, “good” once, and made an entry on a spreadsheet she had open on one of her monitors.
“Elaine.” He waited until she was focused on him, looking him straight in the eye. “The restoration of a person’s dra’aj depends on someone else’s death. Do you see what I’m saying? That’s a setup for the very worst of worst case scenarios. I’ve seen it. Our whole system’s designed to prevent that from happening again. There’s nothing worse.”
Elaine made a face. “Not even letting the new ones go on killing themselves, or just dropping dead through lack of interest?”
“Better we should kill people to preserve ourselves? Because whether you intend to or not, that’s what you’re suggesting. Outsiders in places that aren’t being overrun by Hounds are looking at Toronto, and Madrid, and Beijing and Sydney and saying it’s our problem, and we can’t expect them to help us solve it.” He leaned forward again. “That’s why it’s so important that the Riders stick to their agreement.”
“You don’t find it a bit ironic that we expect Riders to care what happens to a bunch of humans, when the humans themselves don’t care? And I can’t believe I just said that.” Elaine rolled her eyes. “I’m still trying to come to grips with the fact that we’re dealing with nonhumans.”
“The Hunt has to be stopped, Elaine. It has to be.”
Elaine closed her eyes for a second, and actually seemed to be laughing to herself. “So we’re basically looking for Buffy the Vampire Slayer?”
Nik grinned. “I guess so, yeah.”
“Nikki, what are you going to do?”
Nik rubbed at his eyes. “What can I do? All the Riders I know are incommunicado. Even Valory’s gone.”
Elaine was quiet for a long time. “You’ve been thinking about her a lot, haven’t you?” she said finally
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Nik focused on the pile of folders in Elaine’s out basket.
“Come on, Nik, it’s me, Elaine.” She leaned forward, tapping herself on the chest. For a moment her wide smile and her sparkling eyes denied they had any real problems to deal with. “How long have I known you? You’ve had ‘that look’ on your face since you met her. And let’s face it, she’s solvent,
she’s got a job, and she’s already helped us. That puts her three-for-three on the last girl you liked. If you still had a mother, she’d be thrilled.”
Nik covered his eyes with one hand. “Oh, god, I’d already had that thought. Am I that simple?”
“Hell, no. You’re a complex guy. It’s just that I know you so well. Go. Get out of here. Valory or no Valory, you have work to do.”
Nik went back to his own office, but he didn’t do any work. He pulled open the same file three times, and three times closed it again when he realized he hadn’t registered anything he’d read. His coffee was still cold, and even vigorous face rubbing didn’t wake him up. There was no point in going back to the Royal York. That Rider was with Valory—wherever she was. He’d just have to trust that Alejandro would call him when they got back. There was nothing else he could do.
Well, actually, there was something else. He hesitated, his finger hovering over the button that would connect him with Elaine. No, he could already see the smile she’d give him, if he told her where he was planning to go.
Valory’s place on Rhyl Avenue wasn’t all that far from where Nik was living off the Danforth. At this time of day taxis weren’t the best option, so he took the subway to Woodbine, and then hopped on the Woodbine 92 bus. He checked the GPS on his cell, got off the bus at Kingston Road, walked east to Elmer, and then down Elmer to Rhyl. Number 22 was just in from the corner, a semi-detached not unlike his own, but on this one someone had enclosed the front veranda.
Nik went up the walk slowly; he wished he could stop imagining the smile on Elaine’s face.
Valory’s right-hand neighbor was pruning bushes in her front yard and nodded at him as he went up to the door of the enclosed porch.
“You may want to go around the back,” she said, pushing her light brown hair back from her eyes. “They might not hear the bell if they’re outside.”
Nik smiled his thanks and headed down the narrow passage between the two houses. The gate was latched, but not locked, and he let himself into the backyard. There was another gate that let out onto a laneway, where there were small garages and parking places for cars. Many of the older neighborhoods in Toronto, including Nik’s own, had been set up this way, long before the price of the land made it uneconomical. When Nik had first come to Canada, just after WWII, all these old neighborhoods had been crowded with immigrants, making it easy for him to fit in. Now they were among the most expensive places to live in the city, and a lot of the old garages had been turned into fancy “carriage house” flats.
The back door was closed, but Nik opened the screen door and tapped anyway. It was unreasonable to be as disappointed as he was when no one answered. He sat down at the patio table, and tried to rub away the tightness he felt between his eyes.
“Nik? Nikos?”
Nik lifted his head from his arms and groggily focused on the man peering into his face. Sandy-red hair, dark brown eyes. Plenty of dra’aj. He pushed himself upright.
“When did you get here? What time is it?”
“Time for you to come in and have some coffee, I think.”
Nik passed through as Alejandro held the door for him. At the Rider’s gesture, Nik followed him into a square kitchen, where a pass-through revealed the other ruddy-colored Rider standing next to a dining table made from some dark wood.
“Nik, you’ll remember my friend from the train station?” Alejandro had gone to the stove, where an espresso pot was beginning to make noise.
The other Rider stepped forward, his hand outstretched. “Nighthawk, my mother is Flyer in the Dusk, and the Dragon guides me.” His voice, deeper and more resonant than Alejandro’s, sent a shiver up Nik’s spine, but that wasn’t anything his own grandmother hadn’t been able to do with the right tone, and Nik straightened to look the Rider in the eye.
“What about your father?” Nik couldn’t believe he’d just asked that. He must be still half asleep.
Nighthawk tilted his head and looked at him closely, as if he were looking at him for the first time, but with a lift to the corner of his mouth that Nik was sure was a smile.
“What an interesting question,” he finally said, and from his tone he meant it sincerely. “It is not our custom to give our fathers’ names, I have never realized that before. My father was Rides the Wind.”
“I’m Nik Polihronidis,” Nik said. “My father was Andreas Polihronidis, and my mother was Christina Angelis. We don’t have Guidebeasts, but I’d guess you know that already.” He pulled out a chair, stifling a yawn as he sat down.
Nighthawk was grinning at him. “So, you are yourself an Outsider?” The Rider took the chair across from Nik. His voice showed real concern, and Nik warmed to the man.
“That’s right.” Nik nodded when Alejandro handed him a cup of coffee and reached for the sugar bowl. “I was trying to get hold of you.” He looked around. “Did you bring Valory back?” The two Riders glanced at each other, and Nik began to get a bad feeling. “What?”
“Valory is still in the Lands,” Alejandro said. “She looks for the Horn of the Hunt.”
Okay, not what he was expecting, but at least she was all right. “This is the thing you mentioned before? The thing you can use to make them obey?” Hawk smiled, and Nik found himself smiling back. They were certainly very beautiful, these Riders. Very beautiful, indeed. “So what are we supposed to do in the meantime?” Neither of them bristled, so Nik must have succeeded in keeping his tone respectful. These people meant to help him, but he wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they also had their own agenda.
“We are to gather information, under the guise of negotiation,” Alejandro said from where he stood in the doorway.
“Uh-huh.” Nik put down his sugar spoon and took a sip of his espresso. “What are we supposed to be negotiating?”
“The surrender of the Shadowlands to the Hunt.”
“Holy Mother of God.” Nik found he was on his feet. By some miracle his coffee was still in its cup. “And that’s what you want my help with?”
Alejandro was patting the air in front of him with his hands, but it was Hawk who spoke.
“Did you not hear him? He said ‘under the guise.’ It is not our intention to do any such thing.” The Rider leaned forward, his elbows on the table. “If the Horn is found, we can call all of the Hunt to a single place. But if it is not?” Nik leaned forward, willing himself to concentrate. “Then we must locate as many as possible not only of the Hunt, but of the Riders allied with them.” Hawk paused, frowning, a small line between his auburn brows. “We cannot know which way our plans may go. Whatever happens, we must know their strengths, where they are, where they hide.”
“And it’s my thought,” Alejandro cut in, “that you Outsiders can help us with this. For one, you are able to distinguish between stable Hounds and Riders, something we cannot always do.”
Nodding, Nik sank back into his seat. “Yeah. I see how this could play out. The more we know about them—well, it’s not wasted, even once the Horn’s found.” Elaine would probably want to start a new spreadsheet. He looked up at the faces above him. “I’m in.”
“You can speak for your people?”
Nik thought about what he’d said to Elaine. What had she called him? The sheriff? “Yes, I can.” Nik stood, pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.
“Nik?”
The voice came again. Not the first time. He blinked. He was standing up. He was holding a cell phone. Had he been planning to make a call?
“What has happened to him?”
He looked up. Riders. Alejandro. Hawk. He’d come here to get their help. He needed their help.
“Help me,” he said aloud.
“What can we do?” Hawk led him to a seat. Took hold of his hands.
“I feel so stupid.”
“You must tell us what the problem is.” Alejandro sounded far away.
“Here.” Another voice. A sharp sting on his cheek. “Look at me.”
Nik focused. Wh
y was this so difficult? “A red-tailed Hawk,” he said. He felt his mouth smiling.
“Let me show you what I really look like.” Suddenly there was a younger-looking man, still square-built, but bigger, taller. Crouching on his heels. Holding on to Nik’s hands. His coloring shifted until his hair was the dark red of a full-bodied wine, his skin flushed bronze, and his eyes sienna. Hawk smiled, and Nik felt his heart beat faster.
“Oh,” he said. “I’ve emptied. Damn. I didn’t think I was this close.” He took a deep breath, though he knew that wouldn’t help him to pull himself together. This has happened before, he reminded himself. Nothing he couldn’t handle. He looked down at his phone. Licked his lips. Felt the phone being taken from his hand.
A voice murmuring in the background. Hawk’s eyes, his hands gripping. Nik sighed. Do I know who this is?
“Belmont House,” the background voice said.
“What’s the intersection?” Hawk asked. Hawk. That was his name. “I can Move us there.”
“Do you know the place?” Alejandro’s voice.
“I’ve known Toronto since it was a trading post. What’s the intersection?”
“Yonge and Aylmer.” It took Nik a minute to realize that he’d answered the question himself.
“Stand up. Come now. Put your hand on my shoulder.” Hawk again.
He didn’t really see the point, but Nik placed his hand on the Rider’s left shoulder. There was a POP! in his ears, and they were standing on the southwest corner of Yonge and Aylmer. Tucking Nik’s arm under his own, Hawk—who now looked once again like his human self—walked him into the building.
“Nik Polihronidis,” he said to the man behind the counter.
“I’ll look after this, Carl, thanks.”
Nik wouldn’t have turned around if he’d been alone, but Hawk did, so Nik did, too. Poco was just coming through the revolving door. He’d been the one who’d spoken. He looked at Hawk and his eyes narrowed. They stayed that way when they shifted to Nik.
“Nik, you okay?”
How did Poco get here? Suddenly Nik knew where he was, and why. I’m empty. He swallowed. “I can’t do this,” he said. He took a deep breath and straightened, no longer leaning on Hawk. The Rider didn’t quite let him go.
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