“Maybe the Fae have lost their nerve? Should we
provide a little incentive?”
“No. We wait. The Vampires’ forces from their old
country build in the tunnels; the Harpies are excited, as the old ones are
prepared for war. If the Fae have lost their nerve, this bodes well for us. It
will be a complete slaughter, for the Vampires will never negotiate.”
Alecto laughed, but her cackling was cut short as
Tisiphone entered the cavern. “Sisters, there is word that Lady Jung Suk was
lured to a séance and destroyed.”
Megaera waved her hand and drank down the contents of
the scrying bowl. “After we breached their Sidhe, of course the Fae would try
to get the last vestiges of the demon out of Amy Chen’s body, now that she has
become one of their strong allies’ wife. The empress was a fool to allow
herself to be lured into such an obvious trap. We no longer need her. She gave
us the spell, had her dark coven cast it; now all we need is for Fae bodies to
fall.”
Hours had passed as the Fae healers worked tirelessly
on Shogun while Sasha and Hunter used all that they had to bring Silver Hawk
around. The elderly shaman’s back was raw, but his determination and spirit had
never been stronger. Doc ministered to Amy, slowly bringing her around and
helping clear out any vestiges of dark energy with Clarissa’s and Bradley’s help.
Esmeralda was the easiest and first to heal, simply because the demon didn’t
want her—the demon wanted lodging in a member of Shogun’s family or with
someone who had the power of the Were, something that would hurt her nephew
deeply and scar him for life.
The cruel irony was, however, she’d possibly done
that, if Shogun lived, by forcing everyone’s hand to keep him held and burning
beneath a silver net.
“How is he?” Hunter asked, wiping the sweat from his
brow.
“Still touch-and-go,” Garth said quietly. “It was
truly bad going for him this time.”
“Then with me, Sasha, maybe even Grandfather.
we can try to help with his healing,” Hunter said anxiously, trying to push
past Garth.
Garth shook his head and gently touched Hunter’s arm.
“You two are almost depleted, and like Amy, Silver Hawk shouldn’t do anything
but rest for at least twenty-four hours. We will need you on the battle lines,
soon. Your man Bear Shadow has arrived with five thousand wolf soldiers and you
will have to lead them. Shogun’s cousins arrived with twenty-five thousand
Asian Werewolves strong, trekking for days through the Arctic and down through
Canada into the U.S. to be at this battle. We need you there, just as Sasha
must lead her human forces, should they join us again.”
“Stay with your brother and grandfather,” Sasha said
to Hunter. “I’ll go to the front. I have to communicate with Colonel Madison
anyway. I haven’t spoken to him all day, and after last night who knows what
has happened on the base? By now the Joint Chiefs might be ready to launch
ICBMs at Dragons in the air, they could be so freaked out.”
Hunter stepped in front of her. “No, Sasha. Rather
that you be here with Shogun and Grandfather helping them heal. I
just can’t have you go out there after what almost happened in the magick
room.”
“Hunter, I don’t know what’s gotten into—”
“To the swamps!” a Fae guard yelled, running down the
hallway. “Battle stations! Gargoyles and Erinyes are positioning in the tunnels
for a sunset strike—so say the Gnomes!”
“Go,” Garth urged, grabbing Hunter by both arms. “What
would your brother do? Would he stay and keep you alive just so that your wife
and her parents could perish once the castle was stormed, or would he fight?”
Sasha looked at Hunter, touched his face, and then
turned to follow the sounds of chaos. Within seconds he was at her side,
exiting the sidhe through the secret tunnel Garth had shown them.
Fae archers were everywhere. Horsemen thundered toward
the dark interior of the bayou as the sun kissed the horizon. Sasha ran beside
Hunter with her cell phone pressed to her ear, talking to Colonel Madison in
fits and starts.
“Seal off the area to all civilians,” she said,
panting as she leaped over fallen logs, swamp bog, and branches. “Clear the
airspace over New Orleans—yes, sir, the whole area. The sky is gonna be lit up
with dogfights like it’s the Fourth of July. Dragon air strikes are on our
side. But be ready to scramble jets, and our boys might need to come into a
situation hot. I will make contact; until then, keep ’em back. They might shoot
friendlies and there’s no time to explain how to tell the difference, sir.” She
paused for a moment and stopped running as she listened to the terrible news.
“Hostages? How many?”
Hunter skidded to a halt beside her, listening, and
then resumed running ahead of her, calling out for Sir Rodney.
Sir Rodney turned back, dismounted from a tree, and
landed in front of Sasha and Hunter. “What news from the humans?”
“A hundred and fifty humans were abducted,” Sasha
huffed, catching her breath. “No doubt an insurance policy by the Vampires to
keep us from blowing lairs by day.”
“We had no intention of doing that, so—”
“But it means they didn’t believe Cerridwen’s missive
to Vlad,” Hunter said as they jogged deeper into the bayou.
“The Vampires never allow themselves to be backed into
a corner without room to negotiate,” Queen Cerridwen said, gracefully appearing
from behind a tree. She then raced alongside the leadership, finally coming to
a halt when they’d reached the dark glen. “We will call the court to rise,” she
said, slightly winded, “and through our evidence, we will obtain the release of
the humans.”
“We cannot go to war over New Orleans,” Sasha said
quietly to Hunter, Sir Rodney, and Queen Cerridwen. “We covered up the other
incidents with very thin media spin, but E-3 AWACS and F-16s over the city
won’t be a flyby training mission no matter how much damage control we attempt.
and if Dragons and gargoyles start falling from the sky with a hundred fifty
dead or missing. are you all hearing me?”
“Rodger that,” Hunter said, catching his breath and
glancing around at the outrageous show of force on the ground, in the trees,
and now circling in the air. “Maybe we won’t have to, if all goes well in
court.”
“Precisely,” Sir Rodney said. “But it is always good
to let them know that if they want a battle, so be it.”
“I call the United Council of Entities court to
session!” Queen Cerridwen shouted. “May the crone of the court arise up the
great hall!”
Thunderous applause greeted Queen Cerridwen’s request,
and just as swiftly as the building began its laborious ascension from the
murky swamp depths Elder Vlad stepped from the shadows with an army flanked by
gargoyles.
“Yes, allow the court to rise from the depths so that
we may enter into the record the Fae’s complicity in attacking six of my
viceroys with no evidence of foul play.”
Electrified tension hung in the air under the weight
of the moon. No one watched the building rise; all eyes were on the other, on
the enemy. They waited in the stillness, poised for attack lest anyone cough.
The doors of the courthouse eerily creaked open. Frogs and crickets, all
nightlife, were deadly silent as the old crone of the courts made her way
methodically past the huge columns and down the swamp-slicked marble steps.
“Book!” she screeched. “Bring plenty of ink for the
ledger. Tonight what we have here is an unprecedented show of power. Who speaks
the first complaint?”
Queen Cerridwen waited until the ancient black tome
took its place in the air, hovering above the crone’s right hand and beneath
the raven quill pen. “I speak,” Queen Cerridwen announced, and proudly stepped
forward.
“You
dare
to be the first to lob a complaint,
Cerridwen—you
traitorous
bitch—after you opened Ariel Beauchamp’s tomb
to daylight to avoid prosecution in the first trial?”
“I’d advise you to watch your tone, Vampire!” Sir
Rodney shouted across the glen amid murmurs of discontent from all camps. “Hiss
and spit all you like, Vlad Tempesh, but our fair Fae
queen
has the
floor.”
“Thank you, Sir Rodney,” she said, giving Elder Vlad a
glacial stare. “Today we had a séance and called forth Lady Jung Suk—”
“Out of order!” Elder Vlad yelled. “A known criminal—”
“And I’m not concerned with that part of her past,”
Queen Cerridwen said, keeping her gaze steady on Elder Vlad. “I agree that it
is complicated.” She paused for effect, watching the ancient Vampire subtly
release a breath of relief, admitting neither his wrongdoing nor hers before
the assembled armies. “What is of importance is that we learned the Erinyes
have a benefit in bringing the Fae to war with the Vampires. We believe they
have double-dealt the Vampires and through sleight of hand, using our Unseelie
battle tactics, have made it look like we were the culprits in opening your
viceroys’ graves.”
“Preposterous!” Elder Vlad shouted as his army of
Vampires and gargoyles jeered.
“If we are right, then you have killed sixty innocent
Fae!” Sir Rodney called out once the noise died down. “But we are prepared to
offer you a truce. Stand down against the Fae and fight with us against the
Erinyes and we will not hold the Vampires accountable for our losses.”
Fae soldiers grumbled amongst themselves as Elder Vlad
remained passionless.
“Rather that we lose sixty good men at the border, due
to mistaken identity,” Queen Cerridwen said, “most of whom were from my
Unseelie ranks, than lose thousands on this battlefield tonight. What will it
be, Vlad, your ego or a rational truce?”
Elder Vlad smiled and shook his head. “Cerridwen,
Cerridwen, Cerridwen, so much fire beneath all that ice, till I fear you shall
melt away. as always in our interactions,” he added, baiting Sir
Rodney and attempting to embarrass the queen with innuendo.
“I assure you that shan’t be the case,” she said,
sending icicles across the trees and causing mist to puff from her lips as she
spoke. “I have reserved a cool head and a cold heart for all of our dealings,
Vlad. The only one ever fear that I melt away from his attentions is my king,
Sir Rodney.”
Chuckles from the Fae ranks followed the queen’s
statement, but it was clear that both Sir Rodney and Elder Vlad were still
rankled.
“I believe your offer of a truce is based upon your
understanding that your troops will be decimated, should the Vampires elect to
go to war. I believe that you began a campaign that you were ill prepared to
continue, once you saw the extent of our wrath. so now you have
come to grovel.”
Sir Rodney swept his arms out to either side. “Does
this look like groveling? Be rational and be strategic, old Vampire. From the
air there are Dragon squadrons ready to meet your gargoyles and fliers. From
the ground, the infantry and cavalries speak for themselves, and many of you
that became night embers have already met our archers.”
Elder Vlad narrowed his gaze. “As you have met our
mercenaries, but have yet to experience our European forces from the Old World..
Legions will crush you under their boots.”
“To what end, Vlad? That is a complete waste of
resources all around and you know it. Stop this folly now and at least be sure
you have the correct information,” Queen Cerridwen said in a bored tone. “Let
us settle this by the only reasonable way one can. Call the Erinyes.”
Another collective murmur rippled through the crowd.
“Are you serious?” Vlad said, and then smiled, baring
fangs. “You want the crone to call demons up and question them as a matter of
record? Then you will owe them, and have nothing substantial to bargain with.”
“Correction,” the crone said, breaking the standoff.
“The Erinyes will testify for the court and all members of the UCE will have to
put in something that they want—unless they are found guilty of a crime against
members of this court.”
“I’m banking that they are guilty as sin,” Queen
Cerridwen said coolly. “You know me well enough to know that I wouldn’t call
demons and be left in a position to owe them unless I thought they’d come away
owing me. On this they will owe the sixty Fae lives that were lost due to
inciting the Vampires against the Fae. Hence why Sir Rodney and I are willing
to allow bygones to be bygones, once we have their testimony.”
“It is a good deal, Vampire,” the crone said, shaking
her head. “I would take it if I were you. Erinyes, if called by the court for
the truth, will not be able to lie—it is the conjuring province of the spells
cast for eons by the UCE.”
“Then call them,” Elder Vlad said between his teeth.
The old crone chuckled. “I thought you would take that
sane way out.” She walked the perimeter of a small circle and began her ancient
incantations as the glen fell silent under the light of the moon. Soon
billowing yellow sulfuric smoke rose from the center of the circle that she’d
walked off; then a tall burst of green light shot up with a screeching Erinys
inside it.
“A complaint has been lodged,” the old crone said.
“And we ask you—”
Before she could finish her sentence the swamp floor
erupted with warring Erinyes. They flew at the Vampires and Fae alike.