by Eric Asher
Zola frowned and rested her hand on top of her knobby old cane. “What do you know of the bindings on the Book that Bleeds?” She glanced at me and then turned her gaze back to Alexandra and Aideen.
“With all due respect, my friend,” Alexandra said, “I don’t believe this to be the time to discuss that relic.”
“Perhaps,” Zola said. “But earlier today Damian was reading a passage that remained in the old tongues. A passage about the Mad King.”
“The book is ancient,” Aideen said. “It’s not unusual for those translation spells to wear down. And I believe they were laid on that book long before any preservation runes were added.”
“A coincidence then?” Zola asked. “A coincidence those pages were blurred to my eyes, but clear to Damian?”
“I can’t read it all,” I said. “Some of it’s in a language I don’t understand.”
“But you can read some of what Zola can’t?” Alexandra said, frowning. “If you can read the words on the page, but Zola can’t, then whatever spell is hiding it is still intact. Why wouldn’t it work on you?”
“Could it be his bloodline?” Sam asked.
“I wondered the same thing,” Zola said.
“Perhaps not the bloodline,” Alexandra said, “as much as the legacy of magic that resides in his soul.”
“Well, there’s an easy way to test that,” Frank said.
We all looked at Frank. Alexandra raised what I suspected to be a skeptical eyebrow.
“See if Sam can read the pages. Damian’s soul is in her aura, right?”
“Truly?” Alexandra asked.
“Was that still a secret?” Frank asked. “I thought everyone knew that by now.” He pursed his lips and glanced between Sam and Alexandra.
“Nudd and the courts already want to kill Damian,” Alexandra said. “I don’t think anyone finding out at this point is going to do much damage.”
“That’s reassuring,” I muttered.
“You think it’ll work?” Frank asked.
Alexandra shrugged. “There’s only one way to know.”
“Show us the page,” Aideen said.
I ran my finger along the thick pages where the last ribbon bookmark I’d inserted waited. The paper was almost glassy, and the feel was entirely wrong. It always bothered me about the book, how it felt like modern paper when it should have felt like mold or old parchment. I turned the tome toward Sam, Aideen, and Alexandra.
“Can you read it?” I asked.
“I can see it has words,” Sam said, “but I don’t understand them. It’s not in a language I recognize.”
“Interesting,” Zola said. “But can we be sure Samantha’s aura is the reason she can read it?”
Aideen took up a perch on Alexandra’s shoulder, and they both gazed down at the old text. Foster glided off the bookshelf and perched on Alexandra’s other shoulder.
They studied it for a time before Alexandra finally said, “There is no great secret on this page. I don’t understand why this spell is different.”
“It’s about the Wandering War,” I said, “right?”
Alexandra nodded. “There is mention of the war, and the Mad King, but I don’t see what this … what this …”
Aideen hopped down onto the table, staring wide-eyed at the Book that Bleeds. The blood pooled around her ankles, just skirting the bottom of her wings. “That can’t be. That’s not what happened in the war.”
“Whose account is this?” Foster asked.
Zola flexed her fingers on her cane. “What’s wrong?”
“It has to be a mistake,” Alexandra said.
“There’s one line here,” Aideen said, leaning forward and running her finger along the text. “It states essentially that the Mad King was locked away for all eternity in a prison of his own making. But that’s not what happened.”
“He was slain,” Foster said. “The story of the battle between the Mad King and Gwynn Ap Nudd is one of our oldest tales from the current king’s age.”
“Perhaps Drake’s appearance is not a coincidence,” Alexandra said, her expression sober.
“Nixie said something about the poison blades of the water witches not being a coincidence,” I said. “I meant to ask you about that.”
Alexandra frowned, then glanced between me and the fairies. “Some of the poison daggers were stolen.”
“Who knows about it?” Aideen asked.
“Those of us loyal to Nixie have started another armory. There is more than one location, which we thought would help deter the theft of any of the more dangerous weapons.”
“I take it you were wrong?” Zola asked.
“No,” Alexandra said. “The poison blades are not as closely guarded as the stone daggers. They were in a secondary location, but still heavily guarded, under constant surveillance. The only way the armory could’ve been discovered is if we have spies in our ranks.”
“Is the armory here?” Sam asked. “Someplace close by that they could’ve taken the blades and used them to kill Casper’s squad?”
“No,” Alexandra said. “We have assets at the ready, but none of the poison blades were being stored in this country.”
“I guess that doesn’t really matter, though,” Sam said. “If a Fae took the Warded Ways, they could travel here in an instant.”
“And I’m afraid the attack here,” Alexandra said, “isn’t the first that has happened in this country.”
“Falias?” Frank asked.
“Yes. But why do you ask?” Alexandra frowned slightly at Frank. “Have you heard from someone there?”
“That’s where all the friendly Fae are supposed to live,” Frank said. “If the commoners are getting murdered there, and maybe even the military, it’s going to shake up people’s trust.”
“Yes,” Alexandra said, surprise plain in her voice. “I’m afraid that is exactly what has happened.”
I cursed. “And that’s what has the Obsidian Inn all tied up.”
Alexandra nodded.
“Damian?” Casper’s voice said, echoing up the stairs. “Damian!” Her voice rose in pitch, cutting off the rest of our conversation.
I hopped out of the overstuffed chair and jogged toward the staircase. “Yeah? What is it?”
“Mr. Chatty is squaring off with some Fae out front.”
“What?” Alexandra said, hurrying after me.
Something crashed. A thunderous report like two giant boulders colliding shook the building beneath our feet. I cursed again.
“Aeros,” I said. “She means Aeros is out front.” I started down the stairs, hurtling down to the middle landing before jumping to the bottom.
“Since when is Aeros called Mr. Chatty?” Sam shouted as she appeared beside me, her sudden vampiric appearance scaring about twelve years off my life.
“Bad joke,” I said, following Casper through the saloon-style doors in the front of the shop.
“Christ,” I said as I opened the door. It was plain to see what the thunderclap that had shaken the building was. A bloody smear and an explosion of gore had erupted from Aeros’s rocky hands. He had literally smashed the life out of something. Or someone.
The disembodied scream that echoed around us a moment later told me it had been a fairy. Ley lines sparked to life, siphoning away the Fae’s body. Aeros spread his hands, and the gore-soaked armor within clattered onto the cobblestones.
“That was a clever trick,” the remaining fairy said, calling my attention to the shadows outside a nearby shop. He glanced down at his arm, either checking for damage or checking for the viscera of his ally.
“Drake,” Alexandra said, coming to a stop a half step ahead of me.
The fairy only glanced at the water witch. He kept his focus on Aeros, the cautious gaze betraying his nonchalant stride.
“Alexandra,” Drake said. “I would not have expected you to side with traitors to the throne.”
“Our king is a traitor himself. He had to betray the throne to take it. Rega
rdless of the fact our last king was mad.”
“I found them attempting to pick the lock on the front door,” Aeros said. “They intended to kill the one blessed with the old blood.”
“They keep trying to,” I said. “And they keep dying.” I gave Drake a broad smile.
CHAPTER TEN
“You died,” Alexandra said, narrowing her eyes as she focused on Drake. “Some of our people were there when you fell beside the Mad King.”
The smile that crawled across Drake’s face gave me chills. “Your kind live to be old enough and wise enough to know that what you see is not always what is happening.”
Foster exploded into his full-size form beside me, and Aideen immediately followed. Foster walked off to my left while Aideen circled toward the right. The wider our horseshoe formation grew, the farther away Drake stepped.
“I will kill you where you stand,” Aeros said. His eye lights flicked to me and then back to Drake. I wasn’t sure if he was looking for some cue, or if I had no influence over the situation.
“I’ve seen you strike,” Drake said. “You won’t catch me so easily.”
“Enough talk,” Aideen growled. She lunged with her sword, the attack so unexpected that I thought my eyes might be wider than Drake’s. He barely raised the sheath of his sword high enough to deflect the blade, sending it skittering along his armor to take a small piece out of his forearm. If he’d failed, that blade would have been sinking into his heart. Drake’s eyes flashed toward Foster and he launched himself skyward a mere second before the cobblestones rose to swallow him.
“I already told you, I’m too fast,” Drake said, slashing the air with his sword and slipping into the Warded Ways.
“What were you doing?” Foster asked.
“That strike was meant to kill him,” Aideen said.
“It’s unlikely that you would catch a knight that off guard,” Alexandra said.
Aideen nodded. “Yes, but that attack wasn’t without fruit. Drake, or this fairy who claims to be Drake, was wrapped in a particularly strong glamor. His armor deflected my sword a fraction of an inch sooner than I expected it to. He shouldn’t have been able to deflect that strike.”
“Meaning what?” I asked.
“Meaning the fairy we just saw,” Alexandra said, “was glamored to appear smaller than his true form.”
“Why bother to hide that?”
“Damian,” Frank said. He tapped my arm.
I turned to look at him and cursed. A squad of soldiers was swarming toward us down Main Street, and it wasn’t a casual patrol. The men moved with their rifles raised and trained on us.
“Get behind me,” Casper said.
“Bullets will kill you just as well as they will kill us,” Zola said. “Be wary.”
The squad moved like one long snake, slithering along the shop fronts, one soldier taking up a post inside the entryway of a shop while the rest filed around him. That rolling movement continued until the nearest stood only a dozen feet away.
The soldier in the front used the barrel of his gun to indicate the ground, while the others kept their rifles trained on us. “Weapons on the ground.”
“I don’t feel comfortable doing that at the moment,” I said.
“Weapons on the ground or you’re going on the ground. I don’t care which.”
I exchanged a glance with Sam. She gave a tiny shake of her head, as if she knew what I’d been asking her with my unspoken eyebrow raise. She wouldn’t be fast enough to take them all down before they got a few shots off. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to just flay these men alive.
I lifted the holster over my shoulder slowly, setting the pepperbox on the ground as lightly as I could.
“Then the swords,” the soldier said, training his gun on Foster.
“Right,” Foster said. He and Aideen snapped into their smaller forms and were gone. I suspected they were perched on Frank or Zola’s back, but I wasn’t going to go looking for them now.
“They won’t attack you,” I said. “We’re on your side.” I hesitated at my own words, realizing that I suddenly sounded like a bad 1980s action movie.
“You kidnapped Casper,” the soldier said. “Give her back, in the same condition you found her.”
“The same condition we found her?” Zola asked. “That would require us to injure your friend quite severely.”
Casper stepped out from behind me, and most of the guardsmen lowered their weapons.
“Casper?”
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Casper said. “Where’s Park?”
“We heard you were dying,” the guardsman said. His brow furrowed. “You look … alive.”
“Thanks to them,” Casper said with a nod toward us. “I thought you were going to shoot them just now. And, yes, I’m feeling much better.”
“Where are the fairies?” the nearest soldier asked. “We’re supposed to bring the one that attacked you.”
“You just missed them,” Sam said.
“That’s the vampire,” the bigger, louder soldier said from the back. “Keep an eye on that one.”
Frank slid in front of Sam, staring the guardsman down. Sam cocked an eyebrow at him, but didn’t say anything.
Casper walked out in front of me, and I muttered a curse when I saw Foster clinging to her back. “Not the best idea,” I whispered under my breath.
The fairy shot me a grin. Some of the shit that amused him seemed very strange to me.
“We just saw him,” the soldier said.
“No,” Casper said. “You saw my friend, Foster. His wife saved me. If not for them, I would’ve died.”
The soldier frowned.
“Foster,” Casper said, holding up her hand. “Do not shoot. Keep your weapons down, fingers off the triggers.”
Foster climbed up onto her shoulder and flexed his wings. He hopped over to Casper’s palm and said, “Hi!”
The louder man toward the center of the group raised his rifle and shouted, “There it is! Take it out!”
“Stop!” Casper said.
Two more soldiers raised their rifles. I took half a step forward and managed to summon a shield before the first shot rang out. The cobblestone street erupted an inch in front of Casper. She stumbled backward into me, dropping her hand as Foster launched himself into the air. Bullets whined as they ricocheted off the vertical cobblestones left standing from our encounter with Drake. A booming voice said, “Surrender your arms or die.”
“Aeros, don’t,” I said.
“Kill them,” Alexandra snarled.
“No!” I said. “Everybody put their goddamned guns down. And don’t you get any ideas about drowning people,” I said with an eyebrow raised at Alexandra.
I studied our group and didn’t see any injuries. I also didn’t see Aideen.
“Where’s Aideen?” I asked.
A soldier shouted, and Foster vanished too.
“Drop the wall,” Zola said to Aeros. A cacophony of shouts and screams rose from the other side of the cobblestone wall. Two more gunshots sounded. Metal echoed and rang out as it fell to the earth, and I didn’t need to see it to know that someone had dropped their guns.
“Drop the wall now!” Zola shouted.
Aeros did, the cobblestones returning to their original position, leaving no trace of the wall that had been there a moment before. All the soldiers were still standing, and I was worried that meant Foster or Aideen might have been hurt.
Casper stormed forward. When she reached the larger loudmouthed man from the center of the group, whose uniform proclaimed him Stacy, her elbow flashed out, catching the man in the neck and sending him to the ground.
“What was that?” one of the soldiers shouted.
I jogged after Casper and slowed when I saw what was on the ground. Foster and Aideen had cut the guardsmen’s M16s to ribbons, strewing the barrels and sights across the cobblestones.
“Oh man,” I said, “I hope I don’t have to pay for that.”
> “I don’t care if I’m not in uniform,” Casper said. “If I give you an order, follow it.”
“Where the hell is Foster?” The horrible scream of a fairy being sucked back into a ley line was nowhere to be heard, so I knew he was at least alive. And Aideen, too.
“Up here,” a voice shouted.
I glanced up, and found Foster and Aideen perched on top of the Talayna’s Pizza sign. Relief washed over me. I glanced at the angry guardsman squaring off against Casper. I nodded to the fairies and turned my attention back to the confrontation.
“Where’s Park?” Casper asked.
“On his way, sir,” the young private said, coming to attention.
Casper looked back toward Aeros. Her eyes strafed our group. “Frank, come here.”
Frank looked at Sam and then hurried forward. “What is it?”
“This is Park’s most trusted advisor when it comes to the Fae,” Casper said. “You opened fire on a valuable liaison. A known ally. And that doesn’t even begin to approach the topic of the fact that you nearly shot me.”
“Sorry, Casper,” a few of the privates muttered in a ragged chorus. By the downturned eyes of some of the soldiers, I didn’t think this was the first time Casper had words for them.
In that moment, I was very happy not to be one of those guardsmen. I thought Casper’s iron gaze might flay the skin from their faces.
“You’re green,” Casper said, “but if you don’t learn to handle a weapon, you’ll be relieved of it.”
One of the soldiers looked down at the ribbon-like remains of his M16, but was wise enough not to comment.
“Park is here,” a voice said as a shadow turned the corner of the street behind us. My hand went for the pepperbox, which I remembered was still laying on the street. I walked back and scooped up the holster, nodding to Park as he assessed the scene before him.
“Why aren’t you in fatigues?” Park asked, eyeing Casper.
“I apologize, sir,” Casper said, coming to attention. “I was in a bit of a hurry trying not to get dead.”
“As you were,” Park said. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but his demeanor was stiffer than usual. Though I was fairly certain that had been a very dry joke with Casper, none of the other soldiers reacted.
