“No, we don’t, that’s so.” Fox straightened until he was no longer leaning against the back of the couch, and Wolf allowed the small flame of hope to grow. “And the others?”
“Will they not be led by you?”
Fox grinned, his mouth, for one heartbeat, too large and too full of too sharp teeth. “That they would be,” he acknowledged.
Wolf stayed silent. Now was the time to let his brother think over all that he had been offered. Push, and Fox would push back. Finally, Fox tilted his head, looking up at Wolf from under his eyebrows. Wolf focused on his brother’s left ear.
“I’ll give that some thought. I will. I’ll think about what you said. In the meantime, you think about what I’ve said. You’ve got until sunset.” He pointed at Elaine with his chin. “She knows where.”
A rush of air, and Fox was gone.
Chapter Twenty-two
SOMEHOW THE DINING ROOM felt like the safest place to show them the Horn. It probably had something to do with the lack of windows. It seemed important that no one be able to see us. I pulled the well-wrapped package out of the front of my T-shirt and laid it on the table, slipping off the tie and flicking the edges of cloth aside. Viewing it for the first time here, in my own world, I saw that unlike my clothes, or Wolf’s—or the cloth it was wrapped in, for that matter—the Horn itself looked exactly as it had on Ice Tor’s workbench, like a tiny flute made of old ivory.
“Ice Tor told us ours is made from fewer elements, and maybe won’t be as strong.” This time I added what I hadn’t been able to say out loud until now. “It might not work at all.”
Alejandro was shaking his head. “It is unlikely that it would take on the form, without also having the function. But have you touched it, querida?”
I licked my lips, looked from one face to the other. Nik scrubbed at his chin, his look of determination overlaid with curiosity. Alejandro looked at me, not at the Horn, concerned, as if he thought I might somehow be hurt by it.
I stretched out my left hand and laid my index finger on the breathing hole. [A sound I couldn’t hear; cavernous darkness; howling; a horn; a unicorn; flash of gra’if.] “It will sound,” I heard myself say. “But only once.” Alejandro shifted, as if he’d like to touch the Horn himself, but I now knew that he wasn’t the one, so I folded over the thick black felt and once more tucked the artifact away in the front of my shirt, hoping that no one saw my hands shaking, and asked me any more questions. I couldn’t share everything I’d read.
I was saved from further questions by a whoosh of displaced air that made the papers on the kitchen corkboard flutter. Alejandro went immediately to investigate, his sword in his hand. He was waving me back with the other, but I knew it could only be Wolf, so I was right behind him, in time to see Wolf laying Elaine down on the daybed in the sunroom. Nik made an incoherent sound behind me, pushing past us to Elaine’s side.
“Where is Moon?” Alejandro’s voice was quiet but sharp.
“The Hunt has her.”
It felt like there was something stuck in my throat.
“Elaine knows,” Wolf was saying. “She knows where we must go to regain Moon.”
“Is she…?” Nik was trying to take Elaine’s pulse. Instead of pushing his fingers up under her jaw, he had her by the wrist, which even I knew is the most difficult way to do it.
“Here,” I said, taking hold of his sleeve with the fingers of my right hand. [His shirt was made in Germany by a left-handed man.] Nik licked his lips, and held out Elaine’s wrist, stepping back to give me room.
I didn’t feel for a pulse, but instead took a firm grip on Elaine’s hand and lower arm. Her skin felt elastic and cool and, better still, she felt [a laundry basket full of potatoes?] strange, but whole, her pieces gathered and tidy.
“She’s okay,” I said, and I heard Nik let out a breath, and felt it on the skin of my neck. “He didn’t take her dra’aj.”
“Who, querida?”
“Fox,” I said. I didn’t look around, not even when someone hissed. Touching Elaine was easier than usual, and I wondered if that was because she was unconscious. What I was reading was clear, but that didn’t mean it made any sense. “Why do I keep getting Maple Leaf Gardens?”
I turned around in time to see Nik and Alejandro exchange looks. Wolf caught it as well.
“You know the place?”
“We do.” It was clear from the tone of Alejandro’s voice that Wolf wasn’t on his good list any longer.
“You’d better tell them, Wolf.” I folded Elaine’s arm across her chest in what I hoped would be a comfortable position and covered her with the lambswool afghan that lay at one end of the daybed.
“Fox says he will return Moon to us at sunset,” Wolf said. “If we meet his demands.”
“And Maple Leaf Gardens is where he’ll meet,” I said.
“Where is she now? Is that where he is holding her?” Alejandro turned to me.
I shook my head. “That’s more than Elaine knows. They’ve Moved together, and to some extent imprinted on each other, but…Moon’s alive, that much I can tell, but not where.”
“We have badly miscalculated,” Alejandro said. “I thought we would have more time. Does he have new demands?” Somehow his cool question made everyone relax just enough to listen.
“What he has already asked for,” Wolf said. “The Shadowlands, the closing of the Portals.”
“He wants to exchange Moon for this?” It didn’t make any sense to me.
“She is the sister of the High Prince. Foxblood believes Truthsheart will be more likely to listen to him now.”
They all looked at me, but what could I tell them? “I’ve never had a good reading from Cassandra, not after she was wearing all her gra’if.” I thought about it. “But I have touched Moon, and I’d say Cassandra would sacrifice her sister, if it would mean saving or helping the most people.”
“Valory is correct. Truthsheart would not give the Shadowlands to the Hunt, not even for her sister.” Wolf had his eyes squeezed shut, but his voice, though faint was firm.
“This may turn to our advantage.”
We all looked at Alejandro, but he was focusing inward on his own thoughts. All at once he blinked, as if he realized we were staring at him.
“We need a place to call the Hunt. The time is not of our choosing, but why not this place?” Alejandro looked around at us. “We can have our own allies there. If Fox has Moon with him, we can blow the Horn. He will be unprepared to have the rest of the Hunt suddenly appear. Whatever plans and provisions he has made will be completely overturned. We can take them.”
Wolf shook himself. “I ask that you delay in using the Horn, even if Moon is there,” he said. “I have spoken with Foxblood, and it is possible that he has listened.”
Nik had more color in his face, but from the way he was rubbing the bridge of his nose, he wasn’t entirely happy yet. “And do you think he’ll listen to you this time?”
“I was Pack Leader; he has had to listen to me in the past. He may do so again.”
“You’re going to have to tell them,” I said. Wolf looked at me, his lips parted. He knew I was right, but the habit of protecting his brother was so strong he couldn’t bring himself to speak. I had to say it for him. “Foxblood is Wolf’s brother.”
“And that is why you have not killed him, though you have had the opportunity.” Alejandro’s voice was so deadly quiet, it was worse than yelling.
“I have not killed him, and he has not killed me.”
Alejandro stood, his hands in fists.
“Oh, come on.” To my surprise, Nik spoke before I could. “Would you trust someone who could kill his own brother just like that?” He snapped his fingers. “Even if he’s only some thing that used to be his brother? I mean, he knows there’s a cure.” Nik fell silent. He took hold of Elaine’s hand again and was looking at her when he spoke. “This is his brother. All he has left. He’d want to give him every chance.”
Wolf put
his hand on Nik’s shoulder.
Alejandro blinked slowly, amber eyes clouded as he looked inward. His shoulders relaxed, and his hands opened. I’d thought it was safe to tell him the truth, and I was glad to see that I hadn’t called it wrong. Finally, he nodded. “Still,” he said, “you have not explained why this should delay us in using the Horn.”
“I know my brother well,” Wolf turned away from Nik and leaned against the edge of the table. “Always he could be led, but never pushed.” His throat worked as he swallowed. “I have offered him the chance of Healing that the High Prince has promised to the Hunt.” He looked around at everyone. Alejandro was in the doorway, arms folded in front of him. Nik was half-turned toward me, sitting on the edge of the daybed. “He listened to me, I know that he did.”
“But he didn’t agree,” Nik said.
Wolf swallowed again, forcing the muscles of his jaw to loosen. “No.” He held up one hand before any of us could speak. “But it would not be his way to agree quickly. Always he must be courted and persuaded. But he will agree in the end, as he always does.” Wolf looked away, and I thought I knew what he was hiding. “And when he agrees, as Pack Leader he will bring the whole of the Hunt with him.”
“It is a weighty consideration,” Alejandro said and Wolf looked back with hope. “We would succeed without bloodshed. And further, without the element of the Hunt to complicate matters, the Basilisk Warriors can be dealt with more straightforwardly. Guards at the Portals should be enough; they would not need to be closed.”
I had to say something, though I hated to. I’d been hoping all along that maybe Wolf was right about his brother, and Fox could be persuaded. But that was before I’d touched the Horn. Before I could put the images I’d received from it together with the ones I’d just gotten from Elaine. Now I had a definite, disturbing, picture. Once again, I had to say it.
“But it won’t happen,” I said. “Fox won’t agree. He never meant to.”
Wolf rounded on me, lips pulling back from his teeth. Nik stood up between us, but it was Alejandro who, with his hand on Wolf’s shoulder, made him sit down.
“You cannot know this,” Wolf said, as if he and I were the only people in the room. I could also see the heat in his eyes. He felt betrayed—and why not? When we’d talked about this in the Lands, I’d been on his side. I wished I’d been able to explain in private the difference between then and now.
“Of course I can know it.” My hands had formed fists, and I had to force them open. Did he think I wanted to tell him this? “I don’t just know the things you want to hear,” I reminded him. “I touched Fox—and now I’ve touched Elaine. I know what his plans are. He won’t give it up. Not the Hunt, not the dra’aj. Not now that he has his new dream. Now that he believes he can have this world. Whatever it is we know about Cassandra and what she will and won’t do, he doesn’t know it.”
I reached toward Wolf, but he turned his head away.
“Look,” I said. “If I wasn’t sure about your brother, I would have said so. I’m sorry, Wolf, but he won’t change.” My breath hitched as I took it in, and I pressed my lips together to stop them trembling. Last thing I wanted to do was cry. “I wish we had time to let you try, to prove it. You’ll just have to trust me.”
“Valory is right,” Alejandro said. “What she knows, she knows. We have believed her about you, Stormwolf, and we must believe her now. If there was cause for uncertainty, she would say so. I say we do not wait.”
“I agree.” Nik held up his hand. “I vote with Valory,” he said.
We were all looking at Wolf now, waiting for him to speak. To decide. “You will blow the Horn regardless,” Wolf said as though he were thinking aloud. “My saying ‘no’ will not stop you.” He brought his head up, his gray eyes, now stone cold, boring in on Alejandro. “Will you trust me to be there?”
When Alejandro hesitated, I put my left hand on the table, my missing finger on display. “I trust you,” I said. Wolf would try to save his brother, I knew that as well as I knew anything, but I put as much certainty into my voice as I could.
“Then I, too, vote with Valory,” Wolf said.
“We will wish to be there early, so let us make what plans we can.” Alejandro looked around the table, waiting until all of us, including Wolf, had nodded. Elaine, looking pale but otherwise calm, was now sitting at the head of the dining table with Nik beside her. Alejandro had given her a stiff brandy, which she’d managed to sip at.
“I’ve got an idea, something Moon and I talked about,” she said now. “You know the Hunt calls us ‘scentless ones’? What if a group of us hid in the construction area?” She turned to Nik. “It would be like what you told me about the train station. They might not even know we’re there. Maybe we can’t kill a Hound, but Alejandro says they can be injured. If we arm ourselves as well as we can, at the very least we can distract them—you know, drop things on them, trip wires, that kind of thing.”
“Some of us have got guns—not many, mostly long guns for hunting, but some,” Nik said. “But what about the Basilisk Warriors? Are they for us or against us? We don’t know what happened to Sunset on Water, so how do they fit in?”
“If they are against us, we need worry only about those actually present,” Alejandro pointed out. “Blowing the Horn will not summon them.” He grinned suddenly, but there wasn’t any humor in it. “And guns will kill a Rider, if he is hit in the right place.” He tapped his forehead.
I’d been trying to avoid looking directly at him, so it took me several minutes to notice that Wolf wasn’t with us, though I knew he hadn’t Moved anywhere. Alejandro saw me trying to glance into the living room without drawing attention to myself, and made a slight motion of his head toward the back door. Sure enough, I found Wolf on the patio, leaning against the table, with his arms folded in front of him.
“They’re figuring we should be in the Gardens before the sun sets, get ourselves set up,” I said, using the shortened version of the place’s name that Nik and Elaine had been using. Wolf nodded but didn’t speak.
I sat down on the edge of the deck. “I’m sorry, Wolf,” I said. It wasn’t much, and I knew it was a lot less than he needed, but I had to say something. Apparently, it was the wrong thing, or maybe it wouldn’t have mattered what I’d said. The next thing I knew I was pinned up against the side gate, Wolf with his teeth bared, and his hand around my throat. His left hand.
I told myself it was the suddenness of it, and the speed, that started me shaking. Not fear. He was so angry [the Chimera’s lashing tail] that I could barely see anything else. But he wasn’t going to change what I knew about Fox, not even if he ripped my throat out.
“You are wrong about my brother,” he said, his voice hard.
“I wish I was,” I said. I wished my mouth wasn’t so dry. “You think you always persuaded your brother, but you didn’t. It’s easy to think you’ve won someone over, when they agree to something they decided to do anyway. Do you understand me? It’s not just that you won’t persuade him now, you never have. He just let you think so. You didn’t talk him into becoming a Hound. [It wasn’t the Hunt, that’s not what Fox was joining, but nothing clearer came.] He jumped at the chance. Fox wanted what you had, what he hated you for having. Always. You’re punishing yourself for nothing.” I waited, but he didn’t speak, didn’t move. It was like being held by a warm, breathing statue.
“Fox has always acted in his own self-interest,” I said. Part of what I was saying I was getting from Wolf, part I’d gotten from his brother, that time on the street. “Even wanting you back, it’s so he can be Pack Leader instead of you, over you. To show you up, command you.” I swallowed. “I wish I was wrong,” I said again. “I wish I could give you your brother back. Maybe some other time, some other place, I’d lie to you just to make you feel better, but there’s too much at stake right now.”
“I could kill you,” he said, his breath warm on my face.
“Not today,” I said.
&nb
sp; That startled him, and his grip on me loosened. I’d still have bruises.
“Not today?” he repeated. “But one day?”
“One day you’ll do something that could get me killed,” I said. “You won’t kill me yourself, but you’ll put me where I might be killed.”
This time he stepped back completely, and the jumbled flow of information I was getting from him stopped. He shook his head in short, slow arcs. “No. You cannot know these things.”
“I wish I didn’t,” I said. I’d have to be careful of him now, and that saddened me. I’d have to watch what situations he put me in. Unless what I was reading was the present situation? I almost smiled. Nothing seemed more likely than that what we were planning to do would lead to the death of one of us.
“Alejandro and Nik are the ones who know the inside of Maple Leaf Gardens best,” I said. “But you know the Hunt. Come in and give your opinion.”
Nik looked up from the surface of the table when Wolf and I came in. His eyes went from me to Wolf and back again, and the corners of his eyebrows drew down, but he didn’t say anything out loud. I took the chair at the far end, and Wolf stayed nearer the door. I tried to give Nik a reassuring smile.
Alejandro had fetched a large pad of paper, the kind I’d seen used on a flip chart, from one of the storage boxes in the basement. I couldn’t remember seeing it before, so I wasn’t surprised to learn, when I snagged a corner of paper between my thumb and index finger, that it was part of the tidy pile of things the previous owners had left. Apparently, they’d replaced it with a smart board.
Nik had been sketching out the inside of the Gardens with Elaine looking over his shoulder.
“This is a good big cleared space right here,” he said, tapping a spot on the paper. “We’ve counted about thirteen Hounds, so we’d get them all in there for sure. Wolf?”
His voice came rumbling. “Thirteen is too few. Fives of five? I cannot be sure. The numbers have changed, over time.” I risked glancing up and saw him frowning, his gray eyes narrowed, as if he was trying very hard to remember something that was just on the tip of his tongue. Had anything I’d seen be useful now?
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