Taellaneth Complete Series Box Set

by Vanessa Nelson

  “Our security cameras,” the man said, with unnecessary emphasis, “were disabled.”

  “Then it was a planned attack. The witnesses will corroborate that we were fired upon,” Arrow told him.

  “What direction were you travelling?” Lisa Summerland asked, breaking in before the man could say something even more foolish.

  “I’ll show you,” Zachary offered. Arrow eyed the distance across the street and was not sure she could walk that far. The Prime glanced across. “Arrow, will you stay with Rose and Paul until the others get here?” It was phrased as a polite request, giving her a valid reason to stay still. She was happy to agree, making her way slowly back to the wall as Zachary led the Deputy Chief and the other woman in uniform away, leaving the man standing on his own, glaring at Rose and Paul.

  Arrow remained standing, staring back at the man, silver bright in her eyes, until he decided he had business elsewhere.

  Even as he turned to go, several black vehicles were pulling up behind the emergency services vehicles.

  An entire cadre of White Guard and a group of armed ‘kin poured out of the vehicles, brushed through the human’s cordon as though it did not exist, and made their way across the space to where Rose and Paul were on the ground, Arrow standing nearby.

  “Greetings, mage,” Kallish said, voice calm, eyes taking everything in.

  “Svegraen. I am glad to see you.”

  “You said there were injured?” Orlis broke in, then saw Paul, lying on the ground, and moved forward without hesitation.

  “This is Orlis,” Arrow told Rose. “He is the best healer I know.”

  “I remember him from the summit,” Rose said. Her eyes widened as Orlis knelt opposite Paul and opened his bag, showing a vast array of bottles. “How do you fit that all in?”

  “Broken back?” Orlis asked in Erith. Arrow was not sure how much common tongue he understood.

  “And internal damage,” Arrow confirmed. “I have put some basic healing in.” Orlis nodded and set to work. Xeveran was nearby, ready to translate. Arrow was not needed for now. She took a few steps away to give Orlis room to work and then decided that leaning against the wall was a good idea. The White Guard were here. Matthias and a quartet of lethal ‘kin were here. It was unlikely that anyone else would fire a rocket launcher at them.

  It was also a sign of how serious the situation was that Matthias would leave his mate. There had been an attack on the Prime. The shifkin nation’s enforcer was required. Arrow could only imagine how annoyed Tamara was not to be here.

  “How did you survive?” Kallish asked, curious.

  “What do you mean?” Arrow asked. Her head felt odd. She touched a hand to her ear and found blood drying there.

  “Rocket launcher,” Kallish prompted, as though that answered Arrow’s question.

  “Wards,” Arrow answered.

  “Your wards held?” Kallish raised a brow, disbelief clear.

  “Yes. Or we would not be speaking.”

  “There were three rockets,” Kallish was still sceptical.

  “Not all at the same time. And a lot of gunfire. Magic bullets.” Arrow grimaced. Bullets were hard enough to deflect with a battle ward. Bullets laced with magic required more energy.

  Kallish was silent for a moment, eyes travelling over the scene. Arrow suspected that the warrior would be able to provide a far more accurate description of what had happened than Arrow herself.

  “Extraordinary,” Kallish said after a while. “You saved the Prime’s life.”

  Arrow ducked her head away from the direct gaze, feeling heat in her face. She had not thought of it that way. Not with the damage across the street, the human deaths, and Paul so seriously injured. Now that she did, her body chilled.

  “He is out on his own now,” she said, tone urgent, stepping away from the wall.

  “We are watching him,” Kallish said calmly, putting a hand on Arrow’s arm and gently pressing her back against the wall.

  Arrow looked across and saw a half dozen warriors casually following Zachary and Lisa Summerland around the scene. There was a pair of ‘kin there, too, armed and wary. Even at this distance, Arrow could see the amber sheen of wards. Zachary would be aware of them, too.

  “Where were you going?” Kallish asked.

  “Another residence which seems to have been owned by Norman Merkel. It was being watched by one of Matthias’ team.” Arrow switched to common tongue. “Matthias, is the residence still being watched?”

  “Yes,” he answered, tense, eyes travelling around the scene. “It’s ready when you are.”

  “It was definitely a residence Merkel had used?”

  “There’s trace of his scent,” Matthias confirmed, frowning. “Why?”

  “How many people knew we would be travelling along this route? The annoying human said that the cameras were off.”

  From the tightness of Matthias’ jaw, that detail had already caught his attention.

  “Too many people,” he answered her question. “We’ve been working with the locals. They like to share information.”

  “A significant risk,” Kallish commented.

  “Yeah. We kept telling them. Perhaps they’ll believe us now.”

  The two exchanged some further observations, Kallish happy to practice her common tongue, whilst Arrow’s mind drifted, snagging on odd bits of detail across the street. A woman’s scarf, that had been white but was now spattered with red. The dented panels of the vehicle she had been travelling in. The cracks in the road surface around the rocket’s crater. The glint of sun off something in a window high above.

  That last drew her chin up, frown gathering. It was odd to see windows open that high up.

  “Svegraen,” she began.

  “Battle wards!” Kallish’s shout was loud enough to carry across the whole street. Arrow did not think she had heard Kallish shout before.

  Bright amber shimmered into being a moment later. And not a moment too soon. Gunfire rained down on the street again. Not just one shooter. The warriors protecting the Prime moved with him to the side of the street, Arrow watching as the bullets struck points of brilliant light across the Erith’s battle wards. She took a half step forward. Even the strongest wards would only hold so long.

  Kallish grabbed Arrow’s arm and dragged her closer to where Rose was huddled over Paul, Orlis kneeling beside them. The remainder of Kallish’s cadre were already there, battle wards raised.

  “We cannot move him yet,” Orlis told them, voice urgent. “He will heal, but needs to stay still.”

  “Understood,” Kallish acknowledged. For the first time Arrow could recall, the warrior sounded tense. The White Guard would maintain their wards as long as possible, but maintaining wards under fire was draining. Arrow reached inside for her own power, finding it nearly gone. She grimaced at the twist inside, the painful hollow where the power usually sat. Three rockets, a lot of gunfire, and a basic healing. Even with the boost from Lix’ soil, she was drained.

  “Orlis, do you have any more healing potions? Or energy ones?” Arrow asked.

  “Mage, you have done enough,” Kallish said, snap in her voice.

  “Unless you can take down the shooters, we will need stronger wards,” Arrow answered, with a snap of her own.

  Orlis handed her four vials, expression grim.

  “If you take these, you will have full energy for up to an hour. Then you will need to rest. And no more magic for at least a day.”

  “At least we will be alive,” Arrow answered. She opened the vials and swallowed the contents one after the other, choking on the powerful taste. “Are these supposed to be diluted?” She coughed, trying to clear the catch in her throat even as the potions spread through her body with a scorching, powerful wave of heat and healing, skin itching.

  She thought she might have blacked out for a moment as the potions combined, coming back to the here and now to find Kallish using one of the White Guard’s emergency communicators, telling who
ever was at the other end in no uncertain terms to send back-up. At once. For a moment Arrow’s mind drifted, wondering why. The White Guard and the Erith had cut ties with her. Almost entirely. Then she remembered the hard-won peace between the races. In jeopardy if the Prime was killed.

  The healing itch faded. Her mind sharpened. The pool inside her was endless.

  She straightened away from the wall, wards rising.

  “Stand down your wards,” she told Kallish. “Get the Prime and ‘kin across here and then go get the shooters.”

  Kallish lifted a brow at the orders but moved away from the wall.

  Erith amber died, replaced by blinding silver that sparked like lightning from bullet strikes as the Prime joined Arrow beside the building. He was furious, eyes brilliant green. Beside him, Lisa Summerland was talking into her mobile phone, using language that made Arrow’s brows lift even as she held the ward.

  “Someone wants you dead, Prime,” she commented. “Quite badly.”

  “So it would seem.” His voice might be calm. The power coiling around him, and the low hum of fury in the air, were not.

  “Kallish and her cadre are getting the shooters,” Arrow added. The White Guard had melted away into the buildings.

  “Matt’s with them.” Zachary set his shoulders back against the wall and folded his arms across his chest. “Thank Orlis for me, will you? Paul’s a good man.”

  Arrow passed on the Prime’s thanks. Orlis was settled on the ground with his back against the wall, pale from the effort of healing. He nodded once.

  “I hate waiting,” Zachary added after a moment.

  The bullets were still flying, fewer than before.

  “Not long now, I think,” Arrow answered. The wards were holding. The pool of power inside her was still strong. Not as endless as before. “Orlis, can you give me anything else?”

  “No.” He glared up at her. “You have had far more than is safe. The only reason you are still standing is because you are so powerful normally. Anything more would kill you.”

  “We may die anyway if Kallish does not hurry up,” Arrow answered. She set her shoulders against the wall and grit her teeth, drawing her wards in a fraction, trying to conserve energy.

  The bullets stopped. Into the silence came the sound of boots on concrete. A lot of them. Human law enforcement. Armed and armoured. About fifty of them, by Arrow’s count. They flooded into the street and took up guard positions at intervals, weapons ready.

  “Better late than never,” Lisa grumbled. “Bloody bureaucrats.” She shook her head, and Arrow realised that the woman was shaking with fury. “Thought this was a shifkin matter. Apparently, we should just have left you to die,” she told Zachary.

  He grinned, an expression that made Arrow want to back up away from him. Lisa Summerland did take a step back, swallowing hard, fury fading to fright.

  “I am quite hard to kill.” He had not moved. He did not need to. The Prime’s power licked at her senses, and from Lisa Summerland’s expression, she felt it too. Quite hard to kill. An understatement. For a moment, Arrow wondered if he would have survived the attack without her wards.

  Movement drew her attention from the Prime. Matthias stalked across the street, dragging a person behind him. Actually dragging. He had hold of one arm, the person bumping across debris and buckled road surface as they went.

  “Arrow, can you check this one. Seems to be the leader.”

  The sword at Arrow’s back stirred, a familiar ripple through the spell work.

  “He has a surjusi stone,” she confirmed to Matthias.

  “Thought so,” he said, with quiet satisfaction. “There’s a sort of prickle against your skin. Very faint.”

  “We need to question him now, while he’s still lucid,” Zachary said.

  No one needed an explanation for that. The first main conspirator they had found carrying a surjusi stone, the former Magister of the human Collegia Magica, had lost his mind not long after the stone had been removed from him and destroyed Arrow shivered, remembering her last sight of the man. He had been staring into space, eyes vacant, not responding to any sound or sight. The other conspirators who had been unmasked at the same time were in a similar state. The human authorities had debated leaving the stones with the humans. The Erith and shifkin had vetoed the idea, threatening reprisal if the humans did not comply. Although it seemed cruel removing the stones and bringing on the blankness, Arrow knew that the human minds were already lost. Besides, they did not know the surjusi lord’s capabilities. He might be able to use the stones somehow to gain access back into this world. The risk was too great.

  The Prime crouched beside the man Matthias had captured. The human’s eyes widened in fright. Arrow did not blame him. The Prime’s power was still coiling around him in an almost visible force, the low hum of fury loud, Zachary’s eyes brilliant green.

  “There are processes,” Lisa Summerland began, voice fading to nothing as Zachary glanced up, lifted a brow and then pointedly looked around the street. The Deputy Chief’s shoulders sagged. “I know. But we do have processes.”

  “This is not a human matter,” Arrow told her. “The shifkin Prime was attacked in daylight. The Treaty gives the ‘kin jurisdiction.”

  “Couldn’t have said it better myself.” Tony had arrived. The shifkin’s lawyer. Immaculate as ever, steady in her high heels even across cracked concrete.

  “I-” Lisa opened her mouth to argue.

  Even as she did so a muted bang and sense of displaced air drew everyone’s attention away from the prone human and out to the street.

  “Not here,” Matthias said, voice terse. He spent a moment speaking on the radio clipped at his shoulder, face tightening. “The Merkel house just blew up.”

  “What?” Lisa Summerland’s jaw dropped. “What did you do?”

  “Nothing. We were on our way there,” Zachary answered, voice mild. He turned back to the human. “Either these ones were sent to delay us, or the house was the other plan.”

  The man squirmed under the Prime’s attention.

  Arrow’s knees sagged. She staggered sideways. The edges of her vision were blurring, fading to grey and black.

  “Told you,” Orlis said, a firm hand under her elbow. “Only up to an hour. You have used all your power up again. You need to rest now.”

  “We will keep watch, mage,” Kallish told her.

  That annoyed Arrow intensely, for reasons that her mind could not formulate into any coherent objection. She closed her eyes instead. Sleep.

  CHAPTER 4

  A hundred drummers had set up residence in her head, all of them slightly out of time with each other. Her mouth was full of the taste of something unrecognisable and foul. There were no wards around her, and she could not tap into her power.

  She sat up with a muffled cry of alarm, eyes wide.

  The room was bathed in bright daylight from the skylight overhead. Her bedroom. At the cottage. The cottage. She had no magic to sense the wards of the place, feeling blind as she looked around. Nothing seemed disturbed. Even without magic, the age of the place sang to her. It was intact.

  She scrambled out of bed, trying to remember how she had got there. Where she had been. What she had been doing.

  “You are awake.” Kallish’s voice. Calm and measured.

  Arrow focused on the voice, turning to find Kallish in the doorway to the living area. The warrior was as unruffled as ever, not a hair out of place.

  “Svegraen.” Arrow could manage basic courtesy.

  “You have slept a full day and more. The Prime said you were to be left undisturbed. Orlis left this for you, with instructions that you are not to try and use any magic until your head stops hurting and the taste in your mouth goes away.” It was clear that the warrior did not think much of Orlis’ instructions. She held out a metal flask. “Does that make sense?”

  “Yes.” Arrow took the flask and sat on the edge of her bed, holding her head for a moment before she even tried t
o open the flask. “I do not remember the last time my head felt this bad. And the taste. Awful.” She managed to get the top off the flask and sniffed cautiously. Orlis’ potions could be strong-tasting. To her surprise, it was not a potion. The fresh scent of peppermint met her nose. “Peppermint tea?”

  “Orlis put something else into it,” Kallish confirmed.

  Arrow took a sip and almost cried as the fresh, clean, mix of peppermint and rosemary washed over her tongue. A combination that perhaps should not have worked, it chased away the worst of the taste in her mouth.

  “Is the Prime alright? Matthias? Tamara?”

  “No one else died,” Kallish confirmed, in a typically dry tone. She tilted her head to indicate the kitchen area. “We have food. And coffee.”

  “Good.” Arrow drained the rest of the flask and rose, intending to use a housekeeping spell to cleanse herself and her clothes, only to remember Orlis’ edict about no magic. She glanced at the bathroom door, wondering if she should shower first.

  “You do not smell that bad,” Kallish told her, a gleam in her dark eyes. “Come. Eat.”

  The cottage was small. Apart from the bedroom and bathroom, the only other room was a living space which had a compact kitchen, dining room and comfortable seating area. It was perfectly big enough for her alone, but felt crowded when Arrow stumbled out of her bedroom to find a few warriors making themselves comfortable. She was still clothed, she realised, including the sword at her back. Someone had removed her boots and jacket, that was all.

  The small table, a square that would comfortably seat four, was covered with bakery bags and boxes. Arrow realised that, once again, the White Guard must have bought an entire bakery’s supply.

  “Coffee?” Xeveran asked.

  “Water, please.” Arrow did not trust her head yet. The peppermint and rosemary tea was settling the worst of the drummers into place, and the foul taste was almost gone. Coffee might be too much for now.

  “Have you been here the entire time?” she thought to ask, investigating the contents of the nearest bakery bag. There was not much left.