by Eric Asher
Aideen frowned.
“I think you understand,” Alexandra said with a nod. “Why would the military believe that a water witch stationed in Europe would attack any of their forces in this country?”
“They’re setting you up?” Sam asked.
Alexandra nodded. “That’s all that makes sense to me. And now you tell me the military here has been attacked with one of our poison blades. There aren’t many witches with access to such a powerful weapon.”
“Are they as rare as the stone daggers?” I asked.
“Not so rare as that,” Alexandra said. “Many believe the stone daggers can still be forged. They are correct. One of the ironborn, or even someone of Calbach’s skills could create another. But the very flowers to make the poison daggers are no more, long since extinct.”
“Only water witches with access to the Queen’s Armory could get their hands on those blades,” Aideen said.
Alexandra gave one shake of her head. “There are a few more, in Nudd’s Armory. There aren’t a great many, but those aren’t the only places to get one of the poison blades. Nixie has at least two that I’m aware of.”
I cursed.
“You understand,” Alexandra said. “It would be an easy thing to frame Nixie for the attack. The military believes that the water witches of the rebellion are to blame. That logic will take a natural course.”
“That would lead them back to us,” Zola said. She squeezed her knobby old cane. “We cannot sit by and wait for this to play out. We must move.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
It wasn’t long before Frank returned to the shop. I hadn’t heard the bell on the front door jingle, but Bubbles’s barking shook the building. It wasn’t the hostile barking that said “Yes, I’m going to eat your face now,” but it was loud enough to wake the dead.
I smelled the pizza Sam had asked Frank to pick up. The smell wafted up the stairs before he crested the top, Bubbles trotting along behind him. “Two pies from Talayna’s and a dinner salad to go.” Frank placed the boxes on the coffee table before slipping into the oversized chair beside Sam. I really thought they would have grown out of the cute stage at some point, but it didn’t seem it was ever going to end. We were all just learning to live with it.
“Park is still tied up,” Frank said. “Casper was better for a while, but she’s not doing so hot now.”
“Who is Casper?” Alexandra asked.
We filled her in about Park’s sniper. It didn’t take long to recite what we knew because, in all honesty, we didn’t know much.
“Drake,” Alexandra said. “A fairy named Drake, wearing the armor of the Mad King?”
“We saw it ourselves,” Zola said. “Ah understand that armor isn’t a familiar sight, yes?”
“That would be an understatement,” Alexandra said.
Aideen nodded. “Casper’s an asset to Park. Would you help me rid her of the remaining poison?”
“That will drain us both,” Alexandra said, rubbing the palm of one hand with her thumb. “I don’t think it would be wise to be in a weakened state under the circumstances.”
“Then we won’t heal her completely,” Aideen said. “We’ll remove the poison from her body. We’ll let her heal the rest on her own.”
Alexandra contemplated that for a moment before nodding. “Understand that I’ll do this to strengthen your alliance with the military.”
“I know,” Aideen said.
I pulled a slice of pizza out of the box and dropped it onto a paper plate. The rest of the group followed suit. We were silent for a time, and I wasn’t sure if everyone else was pondering Alexandra’s words as I was. Initially, they sounded cold, but I understood the logic behind them. We needed a stronger alliance with the military. Or one of Nudd’s gambits, or the queen’s, was going to succeed.
“Oh, wow,” Alexandra said as she finished snarfing down her crust. “Where is that pizza from?”
“Across the street,” Frank said. “It’s not as good as an actual New York pie, but it’s a damn fine substitute. Place called Talayna’s.”
“It’s a wonder you haven’t eaten there,” Zola said. “You’ve known Damian more than five minutes.”
I grinned at Zola.
“I have been to the fudge shop,” Alexandra said.
“That’s all that matters,” Foster said.
“How are we going to get back in to see Casper without Park?” I asked.
The fairies all looked at each other, and a slow smile lifted the corners of Alexandra’s lips. “You’ll wait here.”
“We know where she is, now,” Aideen said. “There’s no need for you to return with us.”
“Foster should stay here, too,” Zola said. “They’re already suspicious of fairies that look like him.”
“I won’t be seen,” Foster said.
“Zola’s right,” Aideen said. “You stay here and help Damian eat that pizza.”
Foster frowned. “I am hungry.” He lopped a piece of pepperoni off with his sword and started munching on it. I winced at the thought of where that sword had been in the last few hours. “I’ll do it,” Foster said. “Though it’s a harsh sacrifice.”
Aideen gave him a knowing smile. “We shouldn’t be gone long. I know where Casper is. I’ll guide Alexandra there.”
I stuffed another bite of pizza into my mouth and nodded.
“Park isn’t there,” Frank said. “Don’t get yourself caught.”
“We’ll be careful,” Alexandra said. “Aideen and I are better about strategizing. We don’t simply stab everyone when we first meet them.”
Foster gave her a flat look.
Alexandra and Aideen made their way to the stairs and were gone a moment later. I turned to Frank, who had just taken such a giant bite of pizza I thought he might choke.
“Where’s Park?” Zola asked.
Frank chewed his pizza for another thirty seconds or so before he swallowed and finally said, “Talking to one of Casper’s squad’s lieutenants.” He frowned and shook his head. “He may actually be talking to the major.”
“Didn’t he say it was the major’s decision to have the tanks sent to the city?” Sam asked.
Frank nodded. “Yeah. He did.”
“That could be very good,” Zola said. “Park is a direct line to the major. He may have influence.”
“Let’s hope so,” I said.
Foster nodded and chewed vigorously on another piece of pepperoni. “And the armor of the Mad King looked a lot like mine. It would be easy for someone to mistake if they weren’t Fae. And it would be easy for a Fae to mislead someone if they wished.”
Zola frowned. “That’s not reassuring.”
“Delicate situation,” Frank said, “any way you cut it.”
“And a good reason to keep Aeros close,” Zola said.
“I would’ve thought the military would be much more trusting of Aeros now,” Sam said. “After he helped stop the harbinger by the Arch.”
“Police force is,” Frank said. “Some of the patrolmen were on the bridge. They saw a lot of what happened.”
“Hopefully it won’t take something so drastic,” Zola said, “to earn the respect of the men with the tanks.”
* * *
Frank and Sam left after we finished the pizza. Foster was wrangling Bubbles downstairs, leaving Zola and I around the heavy coffee table. Zola flipped through the pages of Phillip’s old journal, smiling at something on one before wincing at some unholy nightmare on another.
“You still miss him?” I asked.
Zola nodded slowly. “Ah do, but it’s complicated.”
“He did some pretty bad shit,” I said.
“I did some pretty bad shit, too, Damian,” she said. “The difference is, he never stopped.”
I turned the page of the Book that Bleeds, its blood pooling in the pizza box on the coffee table. As much as it had creeped me out the first time I’d seen the book bleed, now that I knew it wouldn’t leave any stains, it didn’
t bother me so much.
“Have you found anything new?” Zola asked.
I shook my head. “There are some sections about the Wandering War.” I rifled back a few pages and turned the book toward Zola. “It’s not as thorough as I’d like, but there is a myth about the Mad King.”
Zola skimmed the page and frowned. “What does it say?”
“You can’t read it?”
“Some of it is clear,” Zola said, squinting at the book, “but some of the lines shimmer. Like the text is hidden behind another spell.”
“That’s how the Black Book used to look. Why this page?”
“It’s perhaps your bloodline. It can be hard to tell with all the magic.”
I spun the book back toward me, flinging a bit of ghostly blood into the air, where it dissipated in an instant.
“We can ask Aideen when they get back,” Zola said.
“Foster might know, too,” I said.
A wry smile wrinkled Zola’s lips. “We want information. We don’t want them to stab the book.”
“He does like to stab things,” I said with a nod.
We studied in silence for a time, interrupted by the occasional bark of the cu sith downstairs, but otherwise left alone among the towering bookcases and musty scent of the old tomes. I hadn’t found many writings on the Wandering War. The fairies didn’t seem to be fond of putting their history down on paper. Perhaps it was harder to skirt the truth that way, which was a skill they prided themselves on.
Nixie had told me there were libraries, more in the past, but some still stood. One of them was in Nudd’s court, a chamber guarded as closely as the king’s life. Now that was a sight I would have liked to have seen. Vik and the vampires had some old books in their archives, but I imagined that the fairies likely had tomes that were much, much older.
A passage in the Book that Bleeds that was hidden from Zola’s eyes and not from mine. It didn’t seem to make sense. And when it came to the Fae, anything that didn’t seem to make sense always earned my attention.
“This entire book reads like modern English,” I said.
“We know enough to know that it shows a language most comfortable to the reader,” Zola said.
“Right,” I said, “I understand that, but then why are some of these passages either in old English or just disjointed gibberish?”
Zola frowned. “It may be as simple as the fact its spell has worn in places. If it’s like Ward’s … well, wards,” she said with a smirk. “The erasure of one small section can wreak havoc on the whole.”
I ran my finger across the thin paper and nodded. That actually made quite a bit of sense. I didn’t know how the magic worked in the book, but if each page had its own ward for its own binding, it made sense that some pages might be jumbled and others would be clear. But why was it the pages on the Fae? Had someone revisited them more than any other pages? It was a mystery, and I’d had more mysteries try to kill me over the past few years than I cared to remember.
“I bet Cara would’ve known.”
“Yes,” Zola said with a sad smile.
Some days I missed my friend a great deal.
CHAPTER NINE
The deadbolt in the back door squawked when someone slammed their foot into it and pushed their way into the shop. A female voice I didn’t recognize was shouting, and a moment later I heard Foster shouting back. Zola and I exchanged a look. She scooped up her knobby old cane, and I regretted having left the pepperbox downstairs. I wasn’t defenseless, but I also didn’t want to accidentally tear the shop down with a badly placed art.
“Foster!” I shouted. “Everything okay?”
“Hospital was attacked,” Alexandra said as she dashed up the stairs. It wasn’t her voice I’d heard at first. Someone else pounded up the stairs behind her.
“Casper?” I asked.
“Pants,” she said. “Foster said you have some pants.”
I blinked and glanced at her charred hospital gown. “Why don’t you have pants? What the hell happened?”
“I was in a bit of a hurry,” Casper said. “Being everything was on fire.”
“Some bloody fairy incinerated the ICU,” Foster said.
“Killed two guards,” Aideen said.
“The imposter was right next to me,” Alexandra said. “I could have mistaken him for Foster.”
“Same here,” Casper said. She turned to face the stairs, in the blind spot of anyone who might happen to come up. She glanced back at me and caught me frowning at the mesh underwear showing through her hospital gown.
“Enjoying the show?” Casper asked.
“No, I have, I mean …”
“What he meant to say,” Zola said, “is that he will get you some pants.”
I nodded quickly, offered Casper an awkward smile, and ran down the stairs.
* * *
We kept an array of extra clothes in the closet on the first floor. At one time, we had several shelves that were always full of miscellaneous junk, which made finding anything half impossible. Thankfully, most of that was behind the door now, and we didn’t have to remember that everything was half impossible to find until we actually opened the door.
“Was that Casper?” Foster asked as he landed on one of the shelves above where I was rooting. “I didn’t recognize her all unwrapped.”
I nodded. “Aideen and Alexandra are with her. Apparently you attacked the hospital.”
Foster cursed. “Drake?”
“It sounds like the entire ICU was burned up.”
Foster cursed at length and then launched himself into the air, gliding to the staircase and rocketing upstairs. I caught sight of Frank and Sam as they returned from whatever post-dinner adventure they’d been on. I turned to the slightly dusty pile of clothes on the bottom two shelves. Casper was a bit shorter than Nixie, but she was solid muscle. Sam’s extra sweatpants might be a little short on her, but I figured that would be better than having something too long getting tangled up in her legs. I snatched the black sweatpants off the shelf, grabbed a black T-shirt, and headed back up the stairs.
“It was a powerful glamor,” Aideen said. “It looked like you, Foster. I mean every detail.”
“Everything except the armor,” Alexandra said. “For some reason, he cannot mask the armor of the Mad King, or chose not to.”
“A tactical decision?” Casper asked, taking the sweatpants from me. “It’s possible he didn’t mask his armor so that his own people wouldn’t kill him.”
“As good a theory as any,” Zola said. “How much damage was done to the hospital?”
“If there was anyone else in the ICU,” Casper said, “they’re dead.”
“Drake burned out most of what we could see,” Aideen said.
“I extinguished what I could,” Alexandra said. “Once the sprinklers went off, it was easy enough to guide that tainted water.”
“I’m so glad you were there,” Aideen said with a shudder. “Who knows how much iron had leeched into that water.”
Alexandra shook her head. “It couldn’t have been much. If it was truly Drake, he isn’t ironborn. That would’ve hurt him just as much as it would hurt you.”
Frank coughed and turned away when Casper nonchalantly dropped her hospital gown and slipped into the T-shirt. “What …” Frank started. “So they’re really trying to kill Casper?”
“I’d say so,” Casper said. “You can turn around now,” she said with a smile.
Sam didn’t say anything, but she gave Frank a small smirk.
“I’m glad everyone has pants now,” Foster said. “Did anyone see you come into the shop? Did anyone follow you?”
“Foster,” Sam said. “Who else could it have been? You think Drake won’t know it was one of us?”
“I guess it’s a good thing we have some defenses here,” I said. “Although we need to put a muzzle on that deadbolt if it’s really been talking to the commoners.”
“You are strange people,” Casper said. “I need to
get ahold of Park. He needs to know what happened.”
“You need to stay here,” Zola said. “You’re the only one Park will fully trust. Without you, he may believe Foster capable of attacking the hospital.”
Casper shook her head. “You don’t give him enough credit. He’s talked about Foster and Aideen at length. Even the big rock that camps out by the river sometimes.”
“Mr. Chatty,” I said. “That’s actually his name. If you see him, you should call him Mr. Chatty.”
Zola sighed, clearly exasperated. “Just ignore him.”
“Here,” Frank said, “call Park on this.”
“Thank you,” Casper said, taking the phone from Frank. “Can I get a little privacy? Some of what I have to tell Park is not for everyone’s ears.”
“Yeah, sure,” Frank said. “Just go downstairs anywhere you like. With all the books and carpet up here, we can hardly hear anything that goes on down there.”
Casper nodded. I noticed her bare feet as she started descending the stairs.
“I think there might be some flip-flops in the closet by the table,” I said.
“Thanks.” She vanished around the turn of the stairs.
“We should try to keep her here,” Aideen said. “If it’s only the fairies hunting her, the blood shield is her best chance at staying hidden.”
“She’s the only survivor,” Foster said. “They come for her, it’s going to be fast. It’s what I’d do.”
“What happened?” Sam asked. “They literally attacked the ICU at the hospital? While impersonating Foster?”
Aideen nodded. “And the impersonator …” She shuddered. “Their glamor was inscrutable.”
I started back toward the chairs, settling into the one nearest the shelf on the back wall while the others filtered in.
Sam looked down at the Book that Bleeds and grimaced. “Gross. Did you seriously let that thing fill up the pizza box?”
“But why now?”
“Because he’s gross?” Sam responded.
Alexandra smiled. “That is not what I meant. Why would Drake surface now? A man known as the right hand of the Mad King. He was believed to be dead. No one has seen him in hundreds of years.”
