Elemental Light (Paranormal Public Book 9) (10 page)

The Rapier outside my door informed me that dinner was being taken in Lanca’s sitting room. I tried to hurry, but my hips were stiff, my legs hurt, and my feet didn’t really want to carry me. After achieving a disapproving look from the watching vampire I hobbled away, too eager to get the latest news to rest any longer.

So much had happened in such a short time that I was amazed when I heard about everything I had missed.

Lanca, Vital, Lough, Sip, and a man I had never seen before were in the sitting room.

“Charlotte,” said Lanca, standing and smiling. “Sip just got here as well.”

The werewolf grinned ruefully at me and said, “Lough had to carry me here.” She sat on a couch with a red velvet blanket that looked more like drapes lying over her legs.

“She’s not a good patient,” Lough commented, sipping what looked suspiciously like tea Sip had made. “She keeps trying to walk and do things, instead of resting.”

“There’s a lot to get done,” Sip argued. “We can’t just sit here, not after Risper . . .” Sip paused, blinking rapidly. I glanced at Lanca. Vital must already have debriefed her, because her mouth was set in a grim line.

“I’m sorry you had to see that,” she said. “I’m sorry I put you in so much danger. It was not my intention.”

“It was our choice,” said Sip. “We were fine. Vital took care of us.”

“We took care of each other,” said Vital with a slight smile.

Sip turned a slight shade of pink and sipped her tea.

“Charlotte, this is Gargoile,” said Lanca. “He’s a werewolf.”

Gargoile was massive. When he stood up and extended his hand, I shook it. It felt warm, but not clammy. There were callouses on the palm, telling me he’d spent years working hard.

“A pleasure to meet the last elemental,” he rumbled, his sharp eyes taking in my face. “I’m here on behalf of the werewolves who are still fighting.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Gargoile has an idea about how to stop them,” said Lanca quietly.

“Oh?” I asked, my curiosity roused. Lough handed me a cup of tea and I settled on the other end of the couch Sip sat on.

“They have to vote,” he said. “Anything this major requires more than just President Caid to make the decision. The whole council votes, and then the High Council votes. Given how few safe places there are left for paranormals given Public’s fall, all of the council will convene at  the Circle. It’s the safest place now. All the paranormals still free will be gathering there to witness the decision. It will be the largest gathering of paranormals in decades. Caid and his men think the vote is a formality, but I want to show them otherwise.”

I shook my head, several questions flying through my tired brain. “What does that have to do with us? Or with me? And Lanca’s coronation wasn’t a large gathering?”

“Queen Lanca,” said Gargoile, emphasizing the “queen” as if I’d done something wrong, “did not have as large a gathering as this will be. Emergency workers and such were not present; they will be now.”

“There are nineteen members of the council,” Lanca explained.

“They all have to agree to a war at Public before there can actually be one,” Sip added.

“There’s a spot for a twentieth member, but it has to be claimed by an elemental,” said Lanca, watching me closely.

Now I understood, and I didn’t like it one bit. “You want me to claim a spot on the paranormal council and refuse to vote for war? Don’t we need to fight? Isn’t Caid acting exactly the way we’ve wanted, instead of continuing to sit back and let Malle overrun towns, cities, paranormals?”

“Not this way,” said Gargoile, his eyes bright. “They’re going to get all the paranormal police killed if they march on Public now. They aren’t strong enough to fight, not with all the Objects on the Wheel in the hands of the enemy and available to be used against them.”

“Do they have all of them?” I asked breathlessly.

Gargoile looked grim. “We haven’t heard anything about the Mirror Arcane. I know they’ve attacked Astra several times and been rebuffed. My understanding is that there’s a small group of rebels holed up there. A ghost and the personification of Public let them in and are carrying on the defense with their help, or at least that’s the rumor.”

I smiled a little at the thought of some of Public’s more colorful characters. “Sigil and Martha, what a pair.”

Sip clapped her hands. “I bet Dacer, Trafton, and the Duchess are with them. Bartholem too.”

“I bet that’s an interesting household,” said Lough, shaking his head.

“There’s a box in Astra that I need,” I said, chewing my lower lip. “It would strengthen my position.”

“We might be able to help you there,” said Gargoile. “Like I said, an army marching on Public is a bad idea, but I think one paranormal could sneak in.”

I didn’t tell him that I needed the Key of Light too. I would just have to find out where Dobrov was on my own and get it back from him. I took it as a good sign that he apparently hadn’t given it to his sister.

“You mean you want Charlotte to sneak into Public?” Sip asked, aghast.

Gargoile shook his head. “Way too dangerous for her. Let me explain.”

I finally sat down, and Lough brought me a plate of food, bits of cheese and chicken with slices of bread and strawberries. I took it gratefully. I hadn’t eaten in two days.

Once everyone was seated again, Gargoile sat forward and clasped his hands. His eyes were intense.

“President Caid has done what he could under extraordinary circumstances. We do not fault him, just like we don’t fault him for not anticipating certain events, like your reappearance, the takeover o
f Public, the gathering of the Objects on the Wheel, or the treason of Lisabelle Verlans.”

Sip shifted a little, but didn’t interrupt.

I kept my eyes on Gargoile, hungry for any information.

“However, we have always known that Caid was governed by Paranormal Law and the paranormal council. There are serious constraints on the ways in which he can operate.”

“You need something outside the law,” Lough supplied, as Gargoile took a sip of tea. The werewolf nodded.

“Thus was born a secret organization. Unlike Ms. Quest, who sought to reform government regulations and actions, we always knew that wasn’t our bend. We don’t think that the government can be saved, or stopped. Instead, we have worked as a secret underground, helping paranormals in any way we can as we fight darkness.”

“Illegally,” Sip sniffed. My friend had a deep love for law and the order it provided. She would never condone working in any other way, as Gargoile seemed to be advocating.

Gargoile inclined his head. “If you wish. I’m not sure it will be a conciliation for you to know it, but both your parents, Helen and Hyder, are members of the resistance.”

I saw her eyes go wide briefly, then she shook her head. “Hippies.”

Gargoile smiled. “I’ve never met braver paranormals.”

“Thank you,” said Sip. “I hope they’re well.”

“They are,” he assured her. “They are busy clearing out a town that the demons are closing in on even now. After that they’re heading for the Circle.”

“How many are in this resistance?” I asked, wondering if they could take on an army. Also, how many different sides were there going to be? Wasn’t that one of our problems to begin with?

Gargoile sighed. “We have several hundred members, but most have other posts and other work to do as well. Professor Zervos is a member, but he isn’t active. He merely supports us in our attempt to achieve our goals by any means necessary.”

I swallowed hard as my friends and I exchanged looks. Could we really trust an organization that Zervos was a member of?

“He’s a good vampire,” said Gargoile, seeing our expressions.

Sip took a very long drink of tea.

“Gargoile wants you to go to the Circle and assert your right as an elemental, particularly an elemental royal,” Lanca explained. “You can make your own decisions about what’s right after that.”

The decision had been building in me even as the discussion went on, and although my true thoughts were much more complicated than any simple answer could convey, the simple answer was the one I had to give.

“I’ll do it,” I said. “I’m just not sure I’ll vote against fighting for Public.”

Gargoile nodded. “I understand. We just think it’s high time the elementals had a voice.”

I wasn’t sure I agreed with him, or that he meant what he said, but I kept silent as the conversation flowed on to other topics. Recently I’d been thinking that it might be best if the elementals disappeared, if I took Ricky and simply ran away. So I wasn’t sure even in my own mind why I had agreed to take the opposite course.

“Charlotte?” Lanca’s voice cut into my thoughts. “I’m sorry about Risper.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded gratefully, too upset to speak.

“Thank you,” I said. “Me too.”

“I can’t believe the Verlans girl would do such a thing,” said Gargoile, shaking his head. “She always had so much darkness, but I can’t believe it extended to harming a member of her family.”

Okay, so it was getting really hard not to glare at Gargoile. It was also ever clearer that we had to talk to Lisabelle. But how? I had no idea.

“She went up against Malle and won,” Lanca mused. “That puts her second in command of darkness, though I still have a hard time believing she is on their side.”

I smiled a little, grateful that Lanca remembered the girl Starter at Public and ignored the current myth.

“She’s playing with fire,” Gargoile argued. “Everyone loses when they do that.”

Sip and I exchanged looks. I played with fire all the time. It was part of me. You can’t win or lose when it’s part of you.

“Are the roads really so bad?’

The werewolf looked grim. “There is no traffic, only demon patrols from here to Public. Our resistance members have been working around the clock to secure the safely of paranormals who need help, but we haven’t been able to get to everyone. We’ve lost friends.” He swallowed as the rest of us sat in silence.

Gargoile shrugged and went on. “I realize you all have a lot to discuss, especially if we’re leaving at dawn.

Once we had said our goodnights and the werewolf had departed, I reached out to Lanca. “I don’t want to leave you,” I said.

She smiled. “It will be good for you to visit the council,” she said. “It’s about time the elementals had a voice.”

I wasn’t sure that was true. If I took Ricky and disappeared, I wouldn’t be any more trouble to anyone except myself, but I couldn’t say that to my friends, not when so many sets of eyes were looking at me hopefully. In fact, I was liking this werewolf and his ideas less and less the more I thought about what he seemed to be aiming for.

“What about fighting for Locke?”

Lanca sighed. “I need help,” she explained. “I can’t do it on my own. So this will be good, because maybe members of the council will hear you. At least Gargoile will bring their shadow organization out into the open, and paranormals will know that the resistance is taking many forms, and not everyone is blindly following President Caid.

I sighed. I just wasn’t sure any of them would listen to me, so what was the point? I wished I had the stuff I had left at Astra; the elemental crown would go a long way toward gaining me some respect. But I didn’t have any of it, and I had no idea where Dobrov was or even if he was still alive.

“We should rest,” said Sip. “We’ll leave in the morning.”

I simply nodded.

In the morning, Lough, Sip, Gargoile, and I would make for the Circle. The roads were dangerous and beset by the unexpected. I wasn’t looking forward to it. Before we departed I’d have to tell Ricky he couldn’t come. If the roads were nearly impassable at this point, he would have to stay here. I knew he wouldn’t like it.

Lough went across the hall to the room he shared with Ricky. Rake was already gone; almost as soon as we’d arrived at Dunne ai Dorn he had left to try to help his family get to safety.

Once Sip and I were alone on our room she collapsed onto her bed.

She glanced at me. “She had no choice when she killed Risper, right?”

I swallowed hard. I clung to that hope. In my wildest dreams I never thought I’d see Lisabelle do such a thing. Now that I had, it turned my stomach. Every time the event replayed in my mind I wanted to jump up and scream.

“Should we have stopped her?” Sip whispered.

“Sip,” I said, feeling wretched, “there was nothing we could do.”

My friend shook her head. “I just can’t get those images out of my mind. How am I supposed to keep looking for a way to help her when she’s done something like that?”

“Maybe if you help her she won’t do it again,” I said quietly, having no idea if I was right. “She has so much darkness in her right now she didn’t have a choice.”

“Like that would make everything better,” she said. “When I woke up this morning, I was looking for spells to help Lisabelle, but I couldn’t find any.”

I had to admire Sip for remaining determined, even in the face of what she had seen. Or maybe it was
because
of what she had seen.