One Fell Sweep

CHAPTER 12

I walked the length of the ballroom, making sure I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. Helen watched me, her eyes big and round. Beast lay by her, four paws in the air. When Helen forgot to pet her furry stomach, Beast wiggled until petting resumed.

I stood in the center of the floor where a mosaic depicted a stylized version of Gertrude Hunt, raised my broom, and pulled with my power. Bright tinsel and strands of golden lights spiraled out of the floor and wrapped about the beautiful columns. Garlands of pine branches studded with gold and white glass ornaments and wrapped with sparkling ribbons traced the walls. Vines sprang from the ceiling, dripping down large delicate poinsettias, their white and red petals glittering, as if dusted with fairy powder. Wing would like that.

The floor at the far wall split and a massive Christmas tree rose, growing out of a fifteen-foot-wide drum. I sank the drum just below the floor level and let the mosaic close over it. I’d gotten this tree last year, the second Christmas in the inn. It came to me cut, and then the inn touched it with its magic, and overnight it had rooted and grew. It was twenty feet tall now, full and healthy, its green needles ready for the decorations, which appeared out of the wall in a dumpster-sized bin.

I waved my hand and the inn gently plucked a five-point star from the top of the bin and lowered it onto the tree top. It blinked and glowed with golden light.

Helen stared at it in awe. “Christmas?”

“Christmas,” I told her.

The look in her eyes was everything.

“Look at this.” I reached into the bin and picked out a glass orb. About the size of a large grapefruit, and ruby red, it glowed gently, as if fire was trapped within. I held it out to her.

“Breathe on it.”

Helen blew a puff of breath onto the glass. A tiny lightning storm burst inside, the crimson lightning kissing the glass. She giggled.

“Where should we put it?” I offered her the sphere.

She pointed to a branch seven feet off the ground. “There.”

I held out the orb. “The master decorator has spoken. If you please…”

A thin tendril slipped from the wall, picked up the orb, and neatly deposited it on the branch.

“Is there more?” Helen asked.

“There is more,” I told her. “This whole box is full of treasures from all around the Ggalaxy. It’s a magic box for a magical tree.”

I dipped my hand into the bin and drew the next ornament out. It was a little bigger and crystal clear. Inside a tiny tree spread black crooked limbs. Triangular green leaves dotted its branches and between them clusters of light blue flowers bloomed. Everything within the globe, from the details of the roots to lichen on the trunk, was amazingly lifelike.

“Oooh. Is it real?”

“I don’t know. The only way to find out is to break it. But if we broke it, that would be the end of the mystery.”

She put her nose to the glass. Her eyes crossed slightly, trying to focus on the tree. She was killing me with cute.

“You can keep it,” I told her. “That can be Helen’s ornament.”

Her face lit up. Helen stepped toward the tree, turned, catlike on her toes, and looked toward the door.

The Hiru had left their room and were coming toward us.

“Don’t be afraid,” I told her.

“They smell,” she whispered. “And they look gross.”

“I know. But they are still sentient beings. They never hurt anyone. They are gentle and the Draziri hunt them and kill them wherever they can find them.”

“Why?” Helen asked.

“Nobody knows. Try talking to them. Maybe they will tell you.”

“Why do you protect them, Aunt Dina?”

“There are killings that are justified. Killing someone who is trying to kill you is self-defense. Killing a being who is suffering and is beyond help is mercy. Killing someone because you don’t like the way they look is murder. There is no room for murder in this inn. I won’t stand for it.”

The two Hiru made it through the door, Sunset in the lead, moving one step at a time, their mechanical joints grinding despite lubrication. The odor of pungent rotten fish hit us. You’d think I would get used to it by now, but no. I strained to not grimace.

The Hiru came closer. Helen looked a little blue. She was trying to hold her breath. The smell must’ve been hell on vampire senses. Sean never gave any indication it bothered him, but it had to be terrible for him.

Helen opened her mouth with a pop, pointed at the tree, and said, “Christmas!”

“Yes,” Sunset said, his voice mournful.

Sean walked into the ballroom and moved along the wall, silently, like a shadow. He leaned against a column, watching the Hiru.

“The needled one explained it,” Moonlight said. “It is a time for family.”

“Do you have family?” Helen asked.

“No,” Sunset said.

“Where is your father?”

“He died,” Sunset said softly.

“My father died too,” Helen told him. “Where is your mom?”

“She died too.”

Helen bit her lip. “Do you have sisters?”

“I had two.”

“Where are they?”

“They are dead.”

Helen hesitated. “And brothers?”

“Also dead,” Sunset told her. “We are what remains of our families, little one. We are the last. We have nothing.”

Helen pondered him with that odd intensity I noticed about her before, stepped toward the Hiru, and held out the ornament to him. “Here.”

“What is it?” Sunset asked.

“A gift for you.” Helen stepped closer. “Take it.”

He reeled. Servos whirled somewhere within the Hiru, desperately trying to deal with what he was feeling. “A gift?” the translation program choked out, turning emotion into a screech.

“Yes,” Helen put the ornament into his palm. “Now you have something.”

Moonlight made a choking noise.

The Hiru swayed. His legs quivered. Somehow he stayed upright. “It is very beautiful,” he said, his voice suffused with emotion. “Thank you.”

He turned and held it out to Moonlight. Their mechanical hands touched. They held it together for a long second and then she gently pushed it back into his palm.

“That one is yours, but there is more,” Helen told him. “Come, I’ll show you.”

She took a running start and scrambled up the side of the bin to perch on its edge.

The Hiru followed her, holding the ornament gently in his fingers.

“He is a tari,” Moonlight said quietly. “His family doctored the trees.”

“What did your family do?” Any crumb of information was helpful.

“We studied the pathways between the stars.” Her head swiveled toward me. “We came to tell you that you don’t have to help us anymore. We put you in danger. We put everyone in danger. The next Archivarian is in a place from where it cannot be retrieved. You don’t have to fight anymore.”

“That isn’t up to the two of you. You are my guests. I have duties and responsibilities and you can’t cancel them. Where is the next Archivarian?”

“In the Sanctuary of Eno. Only a select few gain access to it. We are not welcome. You are not welcome. Those of the Sanctuary will not release the Archivarian to allow us to continue.”

I looked at my Christmas decorations and sighed. The last thing I wanted to do was to leave now.

“She’s right,” Sean said.

Moonlight made a little hop. She mustn’t have realized he was there.

“The Sanctuary is run by some sort of cult,” he said. “They kill anyone who enters uninvited.”

“They’re not cultists,” I told him. “They are prophets. They see into the future. They won’t release the Archivarian, but it doesn’t mean what you think it means.”

“Inconceivable,” Sean said. “What do you think it means?”

“It means Holy Seramina wishes to see me,” I told him.

“You’re not going alone,” Sean said.

“Arland is injured. He put on a good show for his uncle, but he’ll need all the help he can get.”

“You’re an attractive target,” he said. “They take you out, they take out the inn’s greatest defense. Kiran Mrak is scum but he isn’t stupid. You need protection. Maud can’t come with you, because she’s the only other innkeeper we have. Arland is recovering. That leaves me. This is my judgment as a security operative.”

I told him I would follow his lead. It was time to step up. “Okay.”

He nodded.

“To get to Eno, we’ll need a transgate.” I rubbed my face.

“You can find one at Baha-char,” Moonlight said. “It will cost you many money.”

“Wilmos has one,” Sean said.

“Would he let us use it?”

Sean just looked at me.

“Okay,” I said. “Wilmos it is.”

I pulled up a screen and thought of Maud. My sister appeared on it. She was in our kitchen. Caldenia and Lord Soren sat at the table next to her, sipping something out of steaming mugs.

“I have to go out,” I told her.

“Where?”

“The Sanctuary of Eno.”

Maud whistled.

“I know it’s a lot to ask with Arland still recovering, but can you hold the inn for several hours?”

Lord Soren squared his massive shoulders and bared his fangs in a happy grin that would give most people a lifetime of nightmares.

“Yes,” Maud said. “We’ll hold it. Dina, you might want to look outside. At the driveway.”

“Front window,” I murmured and the screen changed into the image of the street. On it, a black and white cruiser sat parked at the mouth of the Avalon subdivision. Two figures in gray hoodies stood on the sidewalk. Officer Marais loomed over them.

Oh no.

“Enlarge.”

The screen grew to take up half the wall.

“…in violation of Article 3, Subsections 1 through 3, 7, 12, and 16 of the Earth Treaty,” Officer Marais said with methodical precision. “You’re endangering Earth’s neutral status by facilitating the discovery of outside civilizations and contributing to a breach of said Article which will result in a permanent ban of your species from this waypoint. Move along.”

The two Draziri made no effort to move.

A truck drove by, followed by a Ford Explorer. Nobody paid the scene any mind. The presence of a black and white was like magic—everyone concentrated on driving under the speed limit and punctuating their stops at the stop signs.

Officer Marais sighed and pulled a metal baton out. It snapped open in his hand, individual parts moving and sliding to reveal an inner core of golden light. I almost did a double take. The two Draziri froze.

“Disperse,” he ordered.

The hooded killers spun around and sped off down the sidewalk.

“Sean Evans?” I asked. “How did Officer Marais get his hands on a subatomic vaporizer?”

Sean smiled.

We slipped into the streets of Baha-char wrapped in two nondescript brown cloaks. The day had come to an end and a short Baha-char night was just around the corner. Lights ignited on the terraces, some golden, some white, others lavender and blue. Garlands of tiny lanterns traced the contours of the stalls and elaborate lamps marked the entrances to the shops, each lamp more odd than the last. The trading was still in full swing. Life at Baha-char never stopped.

We turned the corner and blended with the multicolored crocodile of shoppers crawling through the street.

“So. An errand, huh? You gave him a subatomic vaporizer.”

“He’s a cop. He enforces the law. He can’t enforce it if he’s hopelessly outgunned.”

“You gave him a weapon that can turn any living creature into a cloud of gas. Where did you even get a subatomic vaporizer?”

“I gave it to him because he won’t use it unless he absolutely has to.”

Nice how he ignored the question. “What if he gets confused and accidentally vaporizes his wife? Or himself?”

“How do you know he has a wife?”

“She has a knitting blog. I follow it. Stop ducking my questions. They have two kids. What if they find the vaporizer?”

“Marais knows how to store his weapons properly. I keyed the vaporizer to his DNA and his thumb print. It’s double locked. It’s almost impossible to accidentally discharge it. It operates on a telepathic link via an implant, so he would have to actively imagine someone blowing up for it to discharge. If one of his cop buddies finds it, they’ll think it’s just a novelty nightstick. A child can pick it up and whack baseballs with it all day and there is zero chance of it discharging.”

Sean put his hand on my elbow and sped up.

“Are we being followed?”

“Yes.”

“Draziri?”

“Yes.”

“Did you actually put an implant into Officer Marais?”

“Yes.”

“Sean!”

“It’s a two-millimeter organic implant. It’s in his scalp.”

“What if he has to undergo an MRI because he has a concussion?”

“It’s organic. It won’t show up. Stop being a negative Nancy.”

We wove through the crowd.

“I’m not a negative Nancy.”

“You’re just mad because I didn’t tell you about it.”

“Yes. Yes, I am.”

“Oh baby, I do all sorts of things I don’t tell you about.”

Ass. “Is that so?”

“Yep.”

We were almost running now. Sean’s eyes flashed amber. A dark line of tattoos crawled up his neck under the skin, shielding vital points.

“I have to maintain an air of mystery. Chicks dig a man of mystery.”

“You don’t say.”

“You know what else chicks dig?”

“Subatomic vaporizers?”

“And werewolves. Chicks really dig werewolves.”

“Poor you, having to smack all of those chicks off with a flyswatter just to walk down the street.”

“You don’t know the half of it.” He glanced back, scanning the street. “I know it’s very difficult, Dina, but try to resist me. We’re being chased and all.”

“Are there a lot of Draziri chasing us?”

He nodded.

“How many?”

“Too many. We need to run now.”

We sprinted.

Ahead a single blue lantern illuminated the entrance to Wilmos’ shop.

We burst through the door and stopped.

The shop was full of werewolves. Grizzled, dressed in leather and dark clothes, they lounged in the chairs, drinking. A table to one side held baki, a wargame played on a large board with armies of glittering rocks. We’d run headfirst into a mercenary convention.

Sean moved in front of me on liquid joints.

“Is that him?” someone asked.

“Yes,” Wilmos said from the right, where he was leaning against the counter. “That’s him.”

The werewolves looked at Sean. Sean looked at the werewolves. Everyone seemed calm, like nothing important was happening.

“What do you need?” Wilmos asked.

“Transgate. I’m taking my girlfriend to the Sanctuary of Eno.”

He said I was his girlfriend.

Sean’s voice was measured and casual. “We need some alone time but it’s almost impossible for us to get away.”

“What’s the galaxy coming to?” someone quipped from the back.

“Something on your tail?” Wilmos asked.

“Draziri,” Sean said.

“How many?” someone else asked.

“Twenty-three,” he said.

“ETA?” an older female werewolf asked.

“Forty seconds,” Sean said.

A massive dark-skinned werewolf gave an exaggerated sigh. “If only we had some weapons…”

Wilmos hit a switch on the counter. The walls spun around, displaying hundreds of weapons in every shape and style imaginable. The werewolves bared their teeth.

“Well, look at that,” the older female werewolf said. “So many lovely toys.”

Wilmos nodded toward the back room. Sean took my hand and pulled me through the room to the back.

“Hey, alpha. Let’s see it,” the older werewolf called.

Sean paused to glance at her.

“They won’t let you into Eno in your human skin anyway,” someone else said. “Let’s see it.”

Sean let go of my fingers. His body tore in a split-second and a huge monstrosity spilled out, shaggy, dark, a terrifying hybrid of human and wolf that somehow looked natural and whole.

Everyone stopped. They stared at him, and I saw respect in their eyes. Respect and a shadow of something deeper, a strange kind of longing, as if they were looking for someone all their lives and suddenly found him.

The monster grabbed my hand into his clawed fingers and pulled me to the back room, where the metal arch of the transgate waited by the wall.