Darkness Divides (Sensor #3) (14 page)

“We’ve already got a list of questions for you to ask. That is all you will need,” Nienna said, gathering her robe where it lay across a chair.

“No, it’s not.” I took a step toward her. “The first thing you should know about me is that I was an interrogator in the army. I’ve questioned hundreds of people while serving in combat zones. Interrogations were always more successful when I had as much information to work with as possible. I’m not some telemarketer who can just go off some list of questions and never break script. Not if you actually want to catch whoever who did this.”

She pulled on her robe. “The list of questions was carefully considered before your arrival and I will be with you if there is any information you need. There should be no way for a witness to lie to you.”

I smiled. “Really? What if this person has been compelled? What if they were coerced to act on the behalf of someone else and then made to forget what they did?”

“Then you would have no way of knowing that?” Elros said, finally entering the conversation.

“That’s where you’re wrong.” I shook my finger at him. “Compulsion is a tricky thing. The vast majority of supernaturals are lazy and give general commands that fail to fill in details. It’s not what a person says, but how they say it. If their answers lack specificity, there is a good chance their memory has been wiped, but I might still be able to draw some details out. That’s only possible if I know as much as possible about what happened that day and how it happened.”

The two druids stared at me. They were seriously considering what I was saying.

“Give us an example,” Nienna said.

“Let’s say I ask what they were doing at the time of the attack and they say they were eating. Then I’ll ask the follow-on question of what they were eating. This was a huge event, so while most people might have a tough time recalling what they ate a week ago, they shouldn’t if the events surrounding it were memorable enough. On the off chance they truly don’t remember, I would also ask where they were eating, who they were with, and where did they go to escape the big blast. At the very least, they should remember most of these details if they weren’t compelled.”

Elros rubbed his chin. “I still don’t see why you need to see the blast site. It wouldn’t help you with figuring out this sort of questioning.”

“It does if their home was near the place the explosion originated,” I pointed out. “Those who lived nearby may have information about any activities around it just before it happened and those are people we must pay special attention to.”

“Very well,” Elros said after a moment of eye contact with his partner. “We will let you see the places you need to see after we’ve broken our fast.”

“Please tell me there will be coffee involved.”

Elros pulled on his robe. “You’re lucky to have druids as your escorts. We can assure you that wherever we eat, there will always be coffee.”

Maybe I could learn to like these two yet.

Chapter Fourteen

“Okay, tell me what I’m seeing here,” I said, sipping from a mug of coffee I’d brought with me.

The druids were doing the same. We’d gone to the palace kitchen to eat and gotten the coffee while we were there. As long as we brought the ceramic mugs back, we’d get more next time. I’d learned that the druids did a stint out in the human world for a while and had taken a liking to coffee. They had deals set up with those who traveled to the city often, so that they could keep it stocked. For that alone I could learn to like them.

“You see over there,” Nienna pointed to a row of crumbled stones. “That was once a twenty-foot high wall that circled the city. It was our outer layer of protection and what the attackers had to take down first.”

I ran my gaze along the ground and saw the rubble continued in both directions. There was one bare spot not far from us where the wall had been completely obliterated. That had to be the original blast point. We were a couple hundred meters from the entry gate I’d come through the day before. The druids had told me on the way here that this had been the most densely populated part of the city before the attack.

“What did they use to take the wall down?”

She shrugged. “It’s still standing around other parts of the city, though damaged from the second blast. This is the only section that completely fell. We think human-made explosives must have done it, especially since there were no traces of magic when we examined it later.”

I figured as much, but it would have been nice to know exactly what they’d used. It would have given me an idea of what type of people may have attacked. Had they used homemade materials or military grade weapons? The type of resources they had could narrow the suspects. Too bad the fae didn’t have surveillance cameras with offsite recording. That would have been helpful.

“Okay, what did they do next?” I paced around the site, trying to make sense of it.

“Once they breached the wall, they would have had to deal with several layers of traps. The designers mixed them up with human-made devices and magic to account for any type of attacker. Land mines came first, followed by a trigger spell that would cause fire to rise up in a wall of flames. It worked even if someone flew over—provided they were no more than fifty feet high. The last layer had pits concealed with sticks and earth on top to look natural. Anyone who fell in those would land on pointed spikes.” Elros pointed at the area in question about ten feet from us.

I’d thought it was just a drainage ditch. A lot of dirt and debris had fallen into it, covering the spikes, but it must have been at least ten feet deep before. Anyone trying to get across would have had to jump fifteen feet. My guess was they brought something like a plank to get over it, but that would have been destroyed in the explosion. To accomplish what they did, they must have had an inside source to be prepared for it all.

“I take it the magic shield came after that?” I asked. There was a thick line of scorched ground paralleling the ditch and wall. The line was closest to us, indicating it was the final layer of protection.

“Yes.” She nodded. “It took centuries to boost it to the strength it was at when the blast hit. The shield was shaped like a dome and designed to hide us from human eyes and technology, as well as protect us against magical attacks. It would have taken a sensor blowing themselves up right next to it to take it down. A small bit of their blood wouldn’t have been enough.”

Maybe a grenade? They would have needed their blood to splatter all over it.

“How did the fae make it so strong?” Most magic spells didn’t require more than a dab of blood to disable, though I occasionally ran across one that needed a little more, but not a full body’s worth.

“We traded favors with everyone powerful who visited the city, asking them to feed their magic into it.

Hmmm. “So when immortals come here for
the sleep
, is that what the fae ask for in return?”

A lot of the longer-lived races got tired of life after awhile.
The sleep
gave them a chance to rest so they could wake up rejuvenated and ready to face a different and more interesting time period. Most chose to go under for at least a few decades, but they could request to sleep for centuries if they preferred. The fae watched over their bodies during that time. It was also their magic that put the sups into the state where they wouldn’t wake until their requested time.

“You know about
the sleep
?” Surprise reflected on Nienna’s face.

“Micah just came out of it about a year and a half ago, didn’t he?” Actually, I’d heard about
the sleep
before that, but it was easier to mention Micah than tell them how I’d had a sensor mentor train me for several years on all things supernatural.

“Of course.” She broke eye contact and cleared her throat. “Reinforcing the shield is among the favors the fae trade for watching over sleepers. They don’t always collect right away, which is useful now that we need to rebuild.”

I looked over the land once more. “Based on what you’re telling me no one could have gone straight for it. They would have had to breach the other layers first and that would have caused some kind of commotion—especially if they used explosives and set off the mines. Did no one try to stop them?”

“There were guards nearby but they’re dead or missing, along with most of the residents close to here, and unable to tell us what happened.” A flash of sadness reflected in her eyes. “Even with protection spells on the nearby homes it wasn’t enough. Many of us in other parts of the city heard the attack, but when the shield began to fracture all we could do is seek shelter. Everything happened very quickly.”

I was willing to bet the missing guards might have been in cahoots with the attackers. The ground surrounding the city had been cleared for nearly half a mile. There was no way they could have snuck up on the place. Not to mention all the supplies they would have had to bring with them to pull this off.

“How did you know to get underground?” I asked.

“We’ve conducted drills a couple times a year ever since the sensor war,” Elros said, referring to what I called the supernatural war. “Human civilization was advancing ever closer at that time and the elders feared we’d eventually be discovered. Humans would not be able to find us, but the sensors who came with them would. The one disadvantage to such a powerful shield is we knew it would shatter violently if your kind decided to attack it.”

“I used to avoid supernaturals as much as possible, rather than try to go after them,” I said, thinking back to the old days. Other than Lucas and my friend Lisette, I’d done a pretty good job of staying away from them until almost two years ago.

“What happened to change that?” Nienna asked, cocking her head.

“Vampires kidnapped my best friend. I had no choice but to work with Nik, Lucas, and others to get her back. There was no way I could do it on my own.” I shook my head at the irony. “Under the right circumstances, enemies can not only become powerful allies but people you come to trust and depend on.”

“Is that how you came to be claimed by Lucas?” Nienna flushed as soon as she asked the question.

I wanted to laugh. Lucas still hadn’t cared for me much then. I suspected the only reason he’d helped me at all was because he’d felt some obligation to Nik—who did like me.

“No,” I answered the druid. “We might have worked together then, but he still hated me. It wasn’t until the demon outbreak in Juneau that things changed.” I still wasn’t sure which had been the bigger battle—fighting the demons or each other.

“There are many women here who envy you. He is generally revered as a hero in this city.” She couldn’t meet my eyes when she said it. I suspected that was partly because the warrior caste of druids took vows of celibacy. Nienna wasn’t even supposed to be thinking such thoughts.

I really didn’t want to contemplate anyone envying me about my relationship with Lucas. They had no idea what I’d gone through after giving into my feelings for him, or the sacrifices he’d made because of me. They might consider it romantic if they knew, but it was a living hell for us.

It was time to move on to a different subject. “Why don’t we head over to Micah’s quarters? I think I’ve seen everything I need to here.”

The two druids gave me a strange look, but they didn’t argue. We made our way back north, passing destroyed houses as we went. Almost no one was around, but the atmosphere made me think of lost hopes and dreams. Many people had died here and would never be coming back.

Every once in a while the druids would shudder. I followed their gazes, but saw nothing. They must have been seeing the ghosts of those killed in the blast. For those who refused to move on, it took time for them to fade away.

All the homes closest to the shield were nothing more than piles of rubble and ash, but after a short distance we started seeing the random house that had held up. A little farther and the damage was mostly to the cobblestone streets where they’d buckled in multiple places—no one had bothered to put protection spells on them. Closer to the shield there was nothing but dirt, loose stones and ruts left to show for them.

I sensed Nik and Felisha long before I saw them. They were huddled close to each other in a dark, windowless alley between shops. I averted my gaze, not wanting to alert the druids to what I’d seen. It was clear the vampire and fairy were arguing. Nik’s posture was stiff and Felisha was poking a finger into his chest.

She’d been coming over to his house more frequently in recent months. It was forbidden for fae to have any kind of romantic involvement with a vampire, but the emotions I’d been sensing from them weren’t of the platonic kind. They needed to be careful or they’d be caught. I had no idea what the fae would do about it, but it wouldn’t be good.

A horse-drawn cart came up behind us and we moved out of its way. It seemed most people preferred to walk in Feidlimid, but they did use wagons and other old-style means of transport to move large amounts of goods. The one that passed was filled to the brim with vegetables and was pulled by two donkeys. There had to be a market around here somewhere, but I’d yet to see it.

“Would it kill you guys to get some cars and trucks in this place?” I asked.

One of the donkeys had just taken a dump. I’d just moved back into the narrow street and almost didn’t see it in time. The fae kept their city surprisingly clean, but whoever was doing the work couldn’t react that fast to remove the mess.

Elros gave me a condescending look. “Human technology is going to destroy the earth. The elders have forbidden its use here.”

It’d probably be a good idea not to mention the taser I had sitting in my pack, then. It was bad enough they’d taken my other weapons. I’d have to be careful about using my iPod too, though the battery wouldn’t last long if I had to stay here awhile anyway.

“So what about the modern toilets and plumbing?” I asked.