Lord's Fall

NINE

The group had lunch brought up to them and by evening Pia couldn’t stand the sight of the apartment any longer.

They went to the main hall for supper, which was filled with quite a few more people than had been present at breakfast. Supper was robust winter fare, hot and filling: roasted deer, rabbit and pheasant, white and sweet potatoes, roasted chestnuts, loaves of chewy honey nut bread, pumpkin and cranberry tarts, baked apples and plenty of wine, beer and water.

Linwe joined them, along with a few of the other Elves that had traveled with them on the previous day, and the meal passed with plenty of lively conversation. Most of the people in the hall didn’t leave when they had finished dining. Instead a few fetched musical instruments, and soon the sound of flutes, fiddles and drums filled the hall.

After several people called out in encouragement, a slender male with a sensitive-looking face stood to sing a ballad in Elvish. Even though Pia didn’t understand a word of the song, the music and the flow of the lyrical words were haunting.

Pia watched and listened in silence. Everyone was friendly, the music was excellent and she had not heard anything bad, not from Dragos, Hugh or Calondir.

So that meant everything was fine, right? The evening should have been pleasant.

Table lamps and the firelight from both massive hearths gave the hall a warm, golden illumination. Sparks of Power from individuals glowed in her mind’s eye like fireflies lighting a warm summer night, and the wild, secretive Wood’s presence blanketed them all. She could sense so much Power, and it was all undiluted by distractions from technology like television, cell phones and street traffic.

A few especially strong glows seemed to shine in the distance. Perhaps those were Linwe’s “ancients.” Two of the glows might even be Calondir and Beluviel.

But underscoring everything was a sense of dread and anxiety she could not overcome. She had to force herself to unclench her fists. Then only a few minutes later she discovered that she had clenched them again. She ate because she was starving and eating was compulsory these days, but the food sat in her stomach like a rock. An unseen pincer gripped her by the back of the neck, causing a dull, throbbing ache.

Her tension roused the peanut whose awareness draped around her neck, his bright, loving energy unsettled. She put a hand over her abdomen, whispering silently, I’m sorry, baby. She tried to soothe him, but she didn’t really know what she was doing, and she was still tense and filled with dread herself. His presence sharpened until it felt spiked with invisible claws. For the first time since she had become aware of his existence, he felt dangerous.

Oh great, go ahead and scare the dragon baby, why don’t you? Knucklehead. She breathed deeply and evenly. Calm down.

She could just see how the future was going to go. If the peanut really turned out to be dangerous after he was born, Dragos might have to be the one to take care of him whenever he had a toddler tantrum. Yeah, it was going to be fun to get the answer to that question. For the first time that whole, rotten day she felt an evil, sneaking sense of cheer.

Gradually the baby calmed down again. As she turned her attention away from him she felt again the sense of something lying stealthy and quiet underneath all the other sparks of Power, and her fists clenched.

Realization struck. Yes, she was worried and anxious, and she missed Dragos horribly, but whatever the hell she was sensing, it wasn’t her own fear. It definitely existed outside of herself.

Had it always been there, only she had been too preoccupied to notice? Or had it crept in since they had arrived? The words dark and light didn’t seem quite accurate when describing nonphysical qualities, but that stealthy, quiet thing felt like the antithesis of those sparks of Power that glowed so brightly against her mind’s eye.

She turned to Eva, who sat beside her and murmured, “Do you feel anything odd?”

Across the table James’s gaze flickered to them even as he laughed at something one of the others said. Beside him, Miguel shifted his seat back and settled into a lounging position that, Pia noticed, also happened to free his legs so that he could leap easily to his feet. Even though the others appeared relaxed and were clearly enjoying themselves, they had not sacrificed an iota of their alertness.

Like Pia, the captain had also been silent as she listened to the conversation. Eva sat in her chair at an angle, legs crossed at the ankles. She rested one elbow on the table, chin in her hand as she watched not only their group but also everyone else in the hall. Her black, alert gaze considered Pia thoughtfully.

Eva asked telepathically, Like what?

Following Eva’s lead, Pia switched to telepathy. How strong is your magic sense?

This time Eva didn’t bother with any taunting street talk. Pretty good. Miguel is the real magic user in the group, though, so his is the best out of all of us.

Pia rubbed the back of her aching neck as she tried to come up with the right words. I just picked up on something. It’s very quiet.

Hold on.

As Pia waited, she ran her gaze over the main hall again. Whatever it was, she didn’t think it was in the hall, but pinning a physical geography to the feeling was as difficult and slippery as trying to explain it with physical descriptors.

Then Eva said, None of us are sensing anything. Can you get any more specific?

She thought of how she had sensed the Goblins who had kidnapped her and Dragos in May. Dragos hadn’t sensed the Goblins either. Frustration gripped her. The feeling was growing all too familiar on this trip.

I can feel different Powers in the area, she said. Some of them are definitely people, although I can also sense the Wood. This other thing is lying underneath all the rest. It’s like a patch of black ice on the road. You might not be able to see the ice very well even though you know it’s there.

How dangerous do you think it is?

Dragos had thought her sensitivity to the Goblins might be connected to her Wyr form. Should she open that can of worms with Eva?

She shook her head. I don’t know. I’ve never felt it before. It’s making my stomach knot. I don’t know if I just became aware of it, or if it’s something new to the area since we arrived. She looked into the other woman’s sharp gaze. The last time I felt something strange, I was beaten and nearly killed. But this is a different situation. I don’t think this . . . thing is physically here in the hall. I’m not even sure that what I’m sensing is active.

Yet, Eva said. It might not be active yet. Bombs are inert until they go off.

Pia grimaced. Point.

Think we should take a walk, see what you pick up from different areas. I’d like to get an idea of how localized it is, if we can. Maybe Miguel can get bead on it somewhere else, or we can get a direction on it.

Pia said aloud, “After such a big meal I could stand to stretch my legs a bit.” She stood, and the rest of the people at the table, Elves and Wyr alike, politely stood with her.

“Miguel, come with us,” Eva said to their group, smiling. “The rest of you, relax and enjoy the music.”

Miguel winked at Linwe, stood and fell into step behind Pia and Eva as they turned away.

Pia kept her stride casual and her expression calm, while her heart rate sped up. Stupid, but there it was. She returned nods and smiles to people while she, Eva and Miguel worked their way through the crowd to the doors that led outside.

The night air was chilly and damp, and patches of fog had begun to appear again, drifting over the area like aimless ghosts. The other two kept silent as Pia chose to descend the main staircase beside the falls. Two lit braziers illuminated the bottom of the stone steps and other braziers dotted the open area, marking the entrance to paths into the forest.

Other people were outside, walking and talking quietly, with the occasional outburst of laughter ringing out over the clearing. A few were couples, arm in arm. She felt jarred and disoriented as she glanced around again and realized that the scene was actually quite pretty, and people were out to simply enjoy the night.

Choosing a direction at random, she walked across the shadowed clearing and stopped by the boulder with the subtle face. The Wood’s presence felt stronger at night. It pressed against her skin, unsettling and intoxicating at once. She resisted another urge to change and disappear into the dark foliage. Some Wyr went wild and never returned to their human form. For the first time she began to understand the lure.

Then she turned in a slow circle. At first she couldn’t sense anything beyond the Wood, but she cast out further with her mind.

There. She felt certain that the nearby quiet, intense glow of Power was Miguel, and that the weaker one was Eva. Then other, different glows came clear.

And there it was again, that slick, subtle patch of black ice. Certainty settled inside, and she knotted her fists. “It’s in the building,” she said.

“Damn.” Eva sighed. “Okay.”

Miguel said, “I still got nothing. I can’t pick up on whatever you’re sensing.”

“That means we have to rely on you,” Eva told Pia. “And if we aren’t going to leave, you need to speak up immediately if you feel it change.”

She nodded, frowning. Beluviel had been very kind to her, and it wasn’t the consort’s fault that events had given her a surfeit of houseguests and issues to attend to. While Pia was wary of putting herself in the shoes of someone who was so different in race, age and outlook, she couldn’t help but do so this time. Pia would want someone to tell her if something like that black . . . thing was lurking anywhere around her home.

She said, “I need to talk to Beluviel.”

Even in the shadows, she could see Eva and Miguel exchange a look. “For all we know, she might be responsible for it,” Miguel said, his voice pitched very low. “Needs to be considered.”

Pia shook her head and spoke just as softly. “I don’t believe that. It feels entirely alien from Beluviel’s energy, and even though there are some Powerful Elves here, it’s possible none of them can sense this anymore than you can.” She looked at Eva. “You know that experience I mentioned earlier? Dragos didn’t sense what I picked up then either.”

Eva sucked a tooth and looked sour, but she said, “All right. Let’s go find her.”

They walked across the clearing and up the stairs, and Pia stopped the first Elf in a house uniform that they came to, a woman with hair so blonde it was almost white.

“Please take me to the consort,” Pia said.

The woman regarded her with wide eyes. “Perhaps I can take a message and she can get back to you.”

“I know it is late,” Pia said gently. “And I know the consort has been very busy. But I need to talk to her right now, and you need to take me to her.”

The Elf’s posture grew rigid, but she said, “Yes, ma’am.”

What, you ain’t gonna tear her up none? I feel betrayed, Eva said telepathically. You lied to me. You ain’t got no bitch in you.

Keep pushing, Pia told her. And you’ll get to find out how much bitch I’ve got.

Sound like a good time to me.

Pia, Eva and Miguel followed the Elf through corridors and up a flight of stairs. They reached the end of a hallway where two attendants stood in front of double doors. Their escort spoke rapidly in Elvish, and one of the other attendants replied.

Pia asked in Eva’s head, Any clue what they’re saying?

Eva turned to Pia with her most limpid innocent look. They arguing.

Apparently Eva couldn’t straighten up and fly right for long. Pia angled out her jaw. She told Eva, I still hate you passionately.

Yeah, I still surviving, princess.

The Elves’ conversation had grown forceful. Finally the door attendant slipped inside the apartment while their escort studied the floor with her mouth folded tight. Clearly the woman felt like Pia had put her in a bad position, and Pia supposed she had.

A pungent herbal scent had wafted out when the attendant had opened the doors, along with a faint, unsettling whiff of blood. On either side of her, Eva and Miguel shifted into a tighter position until their shoulders brushed hers, and the invisible pincers at the back of Pia’s neck tightened as they waited.

She had lost her internal vision when they had traveled back inside, and she fumbled to retrieve it. Her concept of where the various sparks of Power had shifted with the change in her position, and that flat, black patch was so quiet and subtle anyway. . . .

The door opened again, and Beluviel herself stood in the doorway. For the first time since Pia had become acquainted with the other woman, the consort looked disheveled and tired. Beluviel wore a simple loose tunic and cotton trousers, and her long dark hair was bound haphazardly back from her face.

Pia’s internal vision settled into utter clarity. Whatever the dark thing was, it was in the apartment behind Beluviel. Could it be the emissary’s illness that Linwe had mentioned?

The strong, medicinal herbal scent, mingled with the scent of blood, wafted through the air again. Even though Beluviel held the door partially closed, Pia could see several individuals in the apartment behind the consort and hear quiet-voiced conversation. She glimpsed a few familiar faces of people she had seen in the main hall earlier that day. They stood in a tight cluster around a tall male she had never seen before.

All the Elves were striking in some way, and this man was no different. He had his own particular charisma, with gleaming chestnut hair pulled back from precise features, and eyes that were as green as the Wood and just as compelling.

The man turned and looked at her. Such green eyes, like a sunlit, beckoning glade that called so seductively to her.

A glade for her forest creature to get lost in, reveling in mystery and silence.

No, she was wrong. She had seen this man before. Of course she had. Somewhere. He was more familiar to her than any of the other Elves that were present. She had talked with him at length at some point, perhaps at one of the functions she had attended over the last seven months. Perhaps over dinner. . . .

With an effort she yanked her attention back to Beluviel. She said, “I’m sorry to interrupt you so late in the evening—”

Beluviel interrupted her gently. “This is not a good time, Pia. I am attending to something that cannot wait.”

She said to Beluviel in a low voice, “I understand this isn’t a good time, but I wanted to warn you about something I sensed. . . .” As she spoke she glanced at the man again. He smiled at her conspiratorially as though they were the very best of friends. And they were, weren’t they? The very best of friends. It seemed as though they had known each other for forever. She heard herself saying, “. . . But it appears you are already aware of it. Again, my apologies for interrupting you.”

The man nodded in approval and winked. It was wonderful to see her friend again, so wonderful she wanted to shoulder her way into the apartment and ask the man what his name was.

“Thank you for coming to find me,” Beluviel said. Pia yanked her attention back to the consort, who looked puzzled. “Let’s talk in the morning.”

Pia couldn’t help herself and looked at the man again. Yes, the man’s bright gaze promised her. We’ll talk. Soon.

“Certainly,” Pia said. Who was she answering again? She couldn’t remember. “Good night.”

Beluviel closed the door, and Pia turned to Eva and Miguel, who were frowning at her. Eva said telepathically, Did you tell Beluviel everything you needed to tell her?

Of course, Pia said.

She sent the Elf who had escorted them to the main hall with a message for the others, and soon Andrea, James and Johnny joined them in their apartment. Eva and Miguel updated the others while Pia stayed silent, lost in thought.

She felt like she was forgetting something. What was it? If only she could chase it down. The feeling was driving her crazy.

Eva asked her, “What did Beluviel say when you told her about what you sensed?”

“Hm?” Pia said.

Was it something she had forgotten? Or was it someone?

Eva studied her with a frown. “You did say that you told Beluviel about what you were sensing, so you must have had a quick exchange telepathically. What did she say?”

Pia frowned back at the captain. She did know that she had told Beluviel everything, while someone had watched her. Who was it again? He had such green, green eyes.

She had a feeling of something slipping past her, like a train of thought almost but not quite recovered. She told the other woman, “You heard as much as I did. She said we would talk in the morning.”

Eva’s lips tightened. “Fine,” said the captain. “Extra vigilance on watches tonight. I’ll take a double, since Hugh’s gone. Miguel, I want you on the second shift. Maybe you can get a better reading when things quiet down and at least most people are asleep.” She looked at Pia. “Anything else you want to add?”

It was a relief to turn her mind to other things instead of trying to chase down that maddeningly elusive memory. Pia said, “Maybe I should check on things during the second shift as well, to see if I can sense any changes.”

“Smart,” Miguel said.

“Other than that, we can see if Beluviel can give us more news or clarification.” She straightened her back, which had started to ache again. “Depending on how that talk goes, we may be leaving tomorrow. This whole trip may just be a case of poor timing all the way around, but there’s no reason to stay if we can’t accomplish what we set out to do.” And then because she had been a good, good girl that whole damn day, she looked at Eva and let herself ask, “I don’t suppose Hugh might still show up this evening with any news?”

Eva shook her head. “Not unless it’s urgent. He won’t try to fly into this Wood at night.”

Fuck. Unsurprised but still disappointed, she nodded.

Even though Eva’s gaze remained fixed on her, it was clear the captain was lost in thought. After a moment Eva said, “Everybody pack. There might be a simple explanation for what’s going on, but right now we don’t understand what we know, and I want to be able to move at a moment’s notice if we need to.”

“I’m never going to hear the end of this,” Pia muttered. “Somehow this will all end up being my fault.”

Eva slapped her on the shoulder. “’Course it will, princess. That’s ’cause it is.”

For the barest moment Pia resisted her impulse. She should not stoop to Evil Eva’s level. But then there it was. Her hand came up without her permission, and she flipped the other woman her middle finger.

Eva and the others laughed. As Pia went to bed, she consoled herself with the thought that at least the psychos’ laughter was friendlier than when they had first started out on the trip. Anyway, that was her story and she was sticking to it.

When she went to bed, she expected to toss and turn, and to chew on all her worries, but instead she fell asleep almost immediately.

Someone stood over her, swathed in shadows, looking at her with green eyes. He bent over to touch her.

No. That wasn’t right.

There wasn’t a man in her room. Someone was growling.

The peanut lay stretched out on her torso, long wings sleek against his supple back, his head on her shoulder. He was such a beautiful white dragon baby, every delicate feature etched in perfect miniature. She stroked a hand down his body and whispered, “Ssh, sweetheart, it’s all right.”

He lifted his head to look at her, and his dark violet eyes glowed with ferocity. Wow, he really was unsettled. He was going to be quite a force to be reckoned with when he grew up. She looked out the window where he had been staring. While the night sky was clear, there were no stars.

The sky looked so wrong that dread jolted through her. She gathered the peanut up in her arms and rolled to her feet to go to the window. Oh, thank God, there were some stars sprinkled across at least part of the sky.

As she watched, a few of the bright lights went dark. A man stood at her shoulder and whispered, “Nothing shines forever. Their deaths will pave a way to a new age.”

She glanced back at him. Green eyes smiled at her.

“No,” she said. Was she agreeing with him, or refuting him?

The peanut’s growling grew louder. She hugged him tightly. Either the stars were dying, or they were being smothered or eaten. Despite what the man said, it was horribly wrong, the most horrible thing she’d ever seen. A harsh, discordant clash sounded like a dirge, or perhaps it was an inhuman scream, and dread soaked the landscape like blood.

The dread was everywhere. It beat a dark, oily sludge in her veins and tried to black her out, swallow her whole. The man reached out to put his hand on her shoulder, and suddenly the peanut’s little head whipped around and he actually bit her—

She plunged awake, her skin damp with sweat. Dammit all to hell, that wasn’t the kind of dream she had been hoping she would have. A vague nausea roiled and she curled on her side, breathing deeply.

The baby was roused again, his presence draped over her, an invisible protective cloak spiked with aggression. She put a hand on her rounded stomach. What the hell?

The dark sense of dread had intensified. It saturated the air so thickly, she felt as though she were actually breathing it in like wood smoke.

Smoke.

She came fully awake, stabbed to alertness by a knife of adrenaline.

The acrid scent of smoke hung in the air. A sharp clash of metal sounded in the distance, along with shouting, and a red-tinged fog drifted across the window outside.

Or maybe that wasn’t fog. Her head ached fiercely and her ears rang as if she heard a high, thin scream.

There was no sound of movement in the apartment. Lunging to her feet, she ran out of her bedroom.

The embers of a fire pulsed brightly in the fireplace in the common room. James sat on the floor, slumped against the hallway door. Andrea sat in an awkward heap in front of the window.

They couldn’t be dead. They couldn’t be. Pia leaped to James and slapped him. He came upright with a growl and pressed the tip of his sword against her throat before she could jerk back.

The sharp tip nicked her skin. They stared at each other, wild-eyed. Then James jerked his sword away and said, “FUCK, don’t ever do that again. I could have sliced your throat wide open.”

She hissed, “You were asleep.”

Affront flashed across his handsome features. “I never fall asleep on watch.”

“Keep telling that to yourself as you go wake Andrea up!”

The sharp clashes of metal in the distance—those were swords. James leaped toward Andrea’s slumped figure as Pia raced for the nearest bedroom. Eva would never sleep through this kind of commotion, not unless she’d been drugged.

Eva and Miguel lay in a large bed. Miguel had the bedcovers pulled up to his chin while on the other side of the bed Eva lay stretched on top, wrapped in a blanket.

Having learned her lesson the hard way with James, Pia slapped Eva’s ankle hard and jumped back out of the way as the other woman lunged to her feet with a growl.

“You know that bomb you mentioned earlier?” Pia said. “It went off.”

She didn’t bother to stay and chat about things. Eva would figure it out. Instead she ran to her bedroom to get dressed, yanking her clothes and boots on with unsteady hands. She unwrapped her light crossbow—the only weapon she was comfortable enough with carrying—and slung a belt of bolts around her neck. If only she could get her head to stop ringing. That sense of a high, thin scream just on the edge of her hearing felt like someone was shoving a needle into her brain.

Eva strode into the bedroom as Pia shouldered her pack. By the growing light in the window, she could see that the other woman was dressed and armed. Red tinged Eva’s bold dark features and sparked in her furious black eyes.

“Every last fucking one of us was goddamn fucking asleep,” Eva said. “Every last one. I’m gonna kill us.”

Pia told her tersely, “It wasn’t your fault. Something wanted us asleep.” Even as she said it, she knew that wasn’t quite right. She remembered the shadowed figure of a man, and the oily black sludge trying to take her over before the peanut bit her and shocked her awake. “Not something. It was someone, and I think he wanted more than just our sleep.”

Eva’s gaze narrowed. “Got a description of this guy?”

“Call me crazy,” she said, scowling, “but I’m pretty sure he’s got green eyes. I keep . . .” Her voice trailed off as something slipped into place. “I just remembered. I’m pretty sure I dreamed about him the first night we were here.”

“Did you, now?” Eva moved to the window to look out, hands on her hips. “Dreams, spells and fire. That ain’t good, princess, but whoever this fucker is, he ain’t our problem. I sent Johnny and Miguel to scout out our best exit strategy.”

Pia didn’t argue. Eva was right. There was a time for sticking things out, and this wasn’t it. When they got safely back to Charleston, or better yet, New York, she could send a sympathy card to Beluviel and Calondir for whatever this disaster turned out to be.

She went to stand beside Eva. There wasn’t much to see outside, other than the smoke or the fog, except for a patch of dark water below that glittered with a tint of red. Man, her head ached like a son of a bitch. She said, “I wish we could see what was burning.”

“The walls, floor and ceiling are cool and our air quality is good,” Eva said. “Same out in the hall. If this building’s on fire, it hasn’t gotten close yet. We’re going to have to rappel out the window if the exits are blocked.”

Pia took a breath. Their windows looked over the river at the top of the falls, and the water rushed underneath the building to plunge over a deadly number of rocks before hitting the bottom. “I assume you have a plan to avoid going over the falls?”

Eva said, “One of the building’s main support pillars is underneath the common room window. We can use the pillar as an anchor and cast left with ropes. River’s edge is three pillars to the left. It’s awkward, and we’ll get wet and cold, but we can do it.”

Of course Eva would have thought of that. She had probably scoped that out as an emergency exit option when they had first arrived. Pia rubbed the back of her aching neck. If only she could think past this needle in her brain.

Eva said in an ultracasual tone of voice, “Guess this is when I point out how much help Hugh would be if he were still here.”

Pia just looked at her. They had made the only decision they could, given the information they had at the time, and the other woman knew it. “So why’d you let him go so easily, captain?”

The other woman laughed softly. “Touché.”

Light, running footsteps sounded just outside in the hall, and someone pounded on their door. Eva and Pia strode quickly into the common room as James checked outside. He stood back almost immediately. Miguel and Johnny had returned, and they brought Linwe with them. The Elf’s face was tear-streaked, her dark brown eyes stricken.

Pia said, “What’s happening?”

“People are fighting each other,” Miguel said.

“We knew that,” Eva snapped. “Be specific.”

“You don’t understand. People aren’t just fighting each other,” Linwe said. Her voice sounded hoarse and scraped raw. “Friends are fighting each other. It doesn’t make any sense. I just saw—I-I just saw Elyric cut down his best—his best—”

Johnny put an arm around her as she stuttered into choked silence.

Eva’s face had turned grimmer than ever. She said, “What’s burning?”

Miguel’s expression held an echo of the same horror that Linwe’s did. He said, “The Wood. The blaze is all around us. Someone set the whole damn place on fire.”

Pia’s stomach gave a sickening lurch as she realized what was causing the needle in her brain. The strange, beautiful Wood was screaming as it died.

If she thought Dragos was mad at her before, this was going to send him ballistic.

She muttered, “I’m never going to hear the end of this.”