Lies and Prophecy (28 page)

Could they deceive my body like that? I'd walked this path a thousand times. Surely my feet would follow the right course without thought, would notice if my surroundings went askew.

But I couldn't be sure.

By the time I reached Wolfstone, my nerves were frayed. I reached out reflexively and scanned the building, feeling the comfortable familiarity of the place, the gentle pulse of the various shields on people's rooms. My own room. I didn't think the sidhe could fake that.

We paused inside the doorway, gear-shifting again from potential Unseelie targets to a pair of young people in the awkward early stages of a relationship. An involuntary grin crept over my face at the ridiculousness of it. Julian showed amusement as well, but before we could decide what constituted an appropriate goodbye between a standoffish wilder and his girlfriend of two days, a voice came from the stairs. “Hey, Kim. Hey, Julian.”

We twitched apart, as if we'd been caught doing something scandalous. Michele crossed the entrance hall, studying the two us with obvious curiosity. Then her eyes widened. “Lord and Lady, Kim—what happened to you?”

I'd forgotten about the cuts on my face. “A botched PK exercise,” I improvised. “The glass exploded, and I, being stupid, got hit.”

“Ouch. Weren't you wearing any protection?”

“Obviously not enough.” Michele made a sympathetic noise, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “What are you doing here?”

“Liesel asked me to come by. She and I meditated together, and then did a couple of protective spells.” She nodded at Julian. “For you as well as for the rest of the Circle.”

Julian only said, “Thank you,” but I rather thought he was surprised. “And thank you for the healing work—I sent everyone a message, but I also wanted to say it in person.”

I hadn't even thought about that. I mean, I'd thanked them, but somehow it never occurred to me that Julian would think of it, with everything else on his mind. I hadn't considered what it would mean to him, that people he wasn't good friends with would do that for him, a wilder.

“You're welcome,” Michele said. “Hey, not to be rude, but I've got something to tell Kim—do you mind?”

He shook his head. “I've got to head off anyway. Kim, I'll see you later.”

“Bye,” I said, and inwardly cursed Michele for not having come downstairs thirty seconds later.

When he was gone, the Circle leader said, “I guess I could have said this in front of him, but—well, I had a weird dream last night, about you.”

First my mother, now Michele. At this rate we weren't going to keep things secret much longer. “What happened?”

“The whole Circle was there, but you were standing apart, looking at us in a strange way. And there was this band of mist between you and the rest of us, and I was afraid to touch it or walk through it.”

My precognition twinged ominously. “Any idea what it means?”

“None whatsoever.”

I shrugged with my best imitation of carelessness. “Me neither. Thanks for telling me, though.” Everyone was warning me lately. Grayson's reinforcements could not arrive fast enough.

“You're welcome.” Michele looked uncomfortable. “I have to go. Just—be careful, all right?”

I nodded. “I will be.”

Alone once more, I climbed slowly up the stairs. Whatever Grayson was busy doing, I couldn't sit on my hands—not where my own safety was concerned. I would try to get information tonight.

~

This time the four of us ate in Liesel's and my room in Wolfstone. Back in the days when we had nothing to hide, we'd rarely taken our meals out of the dining halls. Now it was becoming routine. We couldn't talk about the sidhe in public, and our conversations were about little else.

Even when the topic wasn't the sidhe, it was still indirectly about them. “So, did you hear about the idiot who set an imp loose in Talman?” Robert asked dryly as we ate.

I blinked, momentarily confused. Then I made the connection. “What the hell did Grayson do?”

“Covered your tracks—yours and the Unseelie's.” Robert shook his head in admiration. “The woman works fast, I'll give her that. She conjured up an imp and persuaded it to run all over the mess, covering the magical traces with its own, and then subdued it before anyone else arrived. Not that she'd find that last a difficult task. I've yet to see the imp that could look Grayson in the eye.”

I glanced at my textbook from Lesser Banishing Rituals and shuddered. Imps were, at the moment, beyond my skill. They were pissants in the grand scheme of things, being nothing more than the embodiment of humanity's baser urges, but they were bloody nuisances, and sending them back to the weird quasi-plane they inhabited could be a frustrating task. The only thing that made them useful was that they were marginally more intelligent than constructs, and could be drafted for more complex tasks. “Why the hell would anyone let an imp loose in the library, though?”

“To do his research,” Robert said blandly. “Except that the creature had ideas of its own.”

Gods. I could just see some of the idiots on campus doing that. “Who'd she blame the summoning on, though? And how'd she handle the issue of permits?”

“According to rumor, it had been loose for too long, so she could not tell who called it. It was gone before the other Ring anchors got there, so they could not check her story. And presumably the fellow responsible is taking a summoning course. The University may try to investigate who among those currently studying summoning would have an interest in divination books, but since they cannot be certain that was the section the imp was directed to, they will likely give it up as a waste of time.”

Smooth. Grayson had covered amazingly well, and with little time to plan. Guardians were used to doing that, after all. “What about the checkout boy, though?”

“He was discovered locked in the broom closet.”

“And….”

“He corroborated Grayson's tale of the imp, insofar as he was able. The imp, he says, locked him in the aforementioned closet. The rest, he obviously was not there to see.”

I blinked. “He mistook the Unseelie for an imp? And that bastard, who threw screens at my head, only locked him up?”

Robert shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. Either you are correct, or Grayson got to him first and implanted a ‘suggestion' of the proper story. Only she can say.”

That latter sounded more plausible to me. If it was the case, though, Grayson had, in the space of ten minutes at most, summoned an imp, directed it to run amok while she doctored the checkout boy's memories, and then banished it once more.

Were
all
Guardians that good?

We finished our meals and stacked the dishes by the door, then began setting out candles. Liesel had asked Julian and Robert over to help reinforce the shields on our room. What we currently had blocked us from sensing our dorm-mates' nightmares or other nocturnal adventures, but she wanted something more substantial. I wondered how much good it would do us against the Unseelie. Our idea of a shield might be laughable to them.

Julian led our circle, of course. He'd taken more shielding courses than the rest of us put together; I didn't even recognize most of what he did. I tried not resent the fact that I was just there for power, but it was hard.

How quickly I'd gone from ignoring CM with all my might, to wishing desperately that I knew it all.

The ritual was over and I was snuffing out candles when a thought occurred to me. I might be uneducated compared to Julian, and I might not have a fraction of his power, and I might not know anything of use—but there was one thing I had done that no one else had.

“I want to talk to Falcon,” I said.

All three of them blinked in unison. I fought an urge to laugh. “Now?” Liesel said blankly, sounding utterly confused.

“Yes. Now.” I glanced at Julian. “I have questions for him.” And I was going to get answers if I had to take the sidhe by his pointy ears and shake him.

Julian rose immediately. “I suggest we go elsewhere. The Arboretum would probably be best.” Always the bloody Arboretum. I tried not to sigh.

Liesel and Robert also climbed to their feet. Startled, I said, “You're coming?”

Robert snorted, and Liesel looked like she wanted to do the same. “Of course I am. I haven't even met this guy yet; you think I'd stay behind?”

So she hadn't. I'd forgotten that. “I just hope he doesn't run at the sight of a stranger.”

~

I cupped the carving in my hands and studied it. The other three watched me patiently, their breath clouding in the chill air.

Falcon said I'd know how to contact him. No, that wasn't it; he said I had the
skill
to reach him. Telepathically, no doubt. And, since I wasn't at all familiar with his aura, this carving would—if my guess was right—be my link to him.

I glanced up at the others from my seat on a log. “I think I'm going to have to trance to do this. If … if something weird happens … well, you'll figure something out.” The last time I'd stuck my nose out like this, the Unseelie had nearly snapped it off. I prayed this wouldn't be a repeat.

“I'll follow you,” Julian said.

Of course he wouldn't let me go off on my own. The
geis
probably wouldn't let him. There was no guarantee the two of us would be any safer than one alone if the Unseelie detected our presence, but having him along wouldn't hurt.

“You guys stand guard, then,” I said to Robert and Liesel. They took up stances on either side of us as though they meant it physically as well.

Julian and I slipped into trance easily, and linked mental hands in a firm grip. Here, the power of his presence was reassuring instead of unsettling; it
belonged
to this realm. The carving now manifested as a glowing line, much as I had expected. I'd read about similar tools, though never used one. But this one led off in a weird direction—as though my world had only two dimensions, and this was headed into a third. Frowning, I followed it.

Or tried to.

I couldn't find the knack of it. Every time I moved to follow the line, it was like I slid sideways, staying in the flat plane of my own world. Frustration made my trance ripple; I calmed myself and studied it.

Like this.

I watched Julian.
See?
he asked. I studied him carefully before indicating understanding. He was doing it weirdly, but I thought I could imitate it….

It felt ass-backwards, but it worked. Exhaustingly. Instead of reaching for something naturally, I was having to very carefully twitch just one tiny muscle, letting it lead the way. Damn Julian; it seemed much easier for him.

Of course it did. With that thought, I realized what we were doing. This line led toward the Otherworld. To follow it, we were having to follow our sidhe blood. Tiny muscle, indeed. Four-tenths of one percent.
He
got to use a whole twenty-nine percent.

We slid along the glowing line, leaving behind the comfortable surroundings of our own world. My skin began to tingle, as if the human part of me knew this was not native territory. What would it be like, when our two worlds combined? Would everything feel like this?

And we reached the boundary, the physical plane of the Otherworld looming ahead.

In theory we might be able to send our spirits through to manifest visibly there, but I had a suspicion that would be more difficult here than in our world. Probably by orders of magnitude. It wasn't necessary anyway; we only had to summon our target.

Julian indicated to me that I should make the call.

Falcon.

It reverberated along the line and passed out of sight.

Falcon. Come to us; we must talk.

Assent. He would come, and reasonably soon. I could pick up no more than that—no surprise, nothing.

Let's go.

At Julian's suggestion, we began to back away. Returning was far easier than going out, with my mortal blood pulling me rapidly toward its home. I understood better now what Falcon meant about our world not being comfortable for him. What would it feel like if I entered the Otherworld physically?

Back in our bodies, Julian and I opened our eyes. Robert and Liesel relaxed with twin sighs of relief. Glancing at my watch, I saw that the journey had taken remarkably little time.

“Did it work?” Liesel asked.

“Yeah, he's coming. Soon.” Julian and I rose to our feet, stiff with cold, and we all waited, wary, looking in seventeen directions at once. To pass the time, I tried to explain to the other two what the journey had been like, but I saw from their expressions that words did a poor job of describing it. They would have to feel it themselves.

“Not I, my lady,” Robert said with a stiff laugh when I suggested bringing him along the next time. “I fear such tricks are best left to those with more telepathic ability than I.”

“What do you want?”

Liesel made a strangled noise and whipped around. I'd forgotten to tell her that Falcon had a habit of appearing without warning.

The waxing moon was intermittently covered by clouds tonight, so Falcon seemed to fade in and out of the shadows. His green eyes glowed unnervingly, like a cat's, reflecting what little light there was. Liesel was close enough to me that I could feel the tension in her body. I sympathized. I remembered what my first encounter with Falcon had felt like.

A lot like it did now.

But I refused to let his strangeness put me off-balance. I'd taught myself to cope with Julian, back when I first met him; I would do the same now.

“Impatient, are you?” I stepped forward to catch his eye. “I'll get to it, then. What are the limitations of glamours?”

Falcon's eyes traveled the length of my body appraisingly. From a human it might have been lascivious, but from him it was just a flat evaluation. “You look well. We had word of your adventures last night.”