eldritch files 07 - elemental blood (8 page)

Crwys realized there was something else that Levi wasn't saying.

Dharma held onto Ivan as Kyle rubbed at his forehead. "I'm gonna call Solomon and see if he's been keeping up with this. He might know how to open the basement."

"Good idea," Crwys said as he, Tas and Levi headed to the door. "It might be good if everyone gathers at a safe location?"

"This place is as good as any," Arden said.

“No,” Crwys said. “Those Risi gated right into this shop, through the wards you and Kyle set up after Sam left. That means they can come right back in again when they want” —he looked at Arden—“unless you have a counter spell?”

Arden shook her head and sighed. “No. I don’t. At least not yet. So let’s meet at Gypsy Gardens.”

“Should we leave the King alone in the basement?” Dharma asked.

Crwys shrugged. “I don’t think anyone’s getting to him any time soon.”

Once the three detectives were out the front door and in the car, Crwys looked to his right at Levi. "What was it you didn't want to say? Is there a new body?"

"Yes."

When he still didn't answer, Tas put her hand on the back of his seat. "Levi?"

He hesitated. "The Captain was upset. So, I don't know if what I heard is what she meant. It's not one body…it's twenty bodies…as one."

EIGHT

"So," I began, after we were packed and while Bastien loaded the SUV. Brahms had reassured us the gate he would make would be large enough to drive the SUV through. And we would come out on the other end in a safe area. It had occurred to me that this was just as risky as when Dags opened a doorway, or gate, or whatever it was he called it and ended up driving an eighteen-wheeler through the front of the store. "Exactly why do you have these Quests instead of just making a successor out of the kids of the present king? Everyone else does it."

"Our history proved that's not an option for us. Children don't inherit."

We stood beside the SUV. The morning sun crested above the trees and dew covered the rich, loamy ground as well as the lichen-encased trees. Everything about Oregon spoke to old legends, ghosts, and dangers. Maybe that's why I'd never wanted to settle here.

I'd showered and put on my usual business attire. Jeans, boots, black t-shirt, and one of Crwys's plaid shirts. Bastien had on his normal
oh-my-god-that-is-so-tight
shirt and jeans. And Brahms…

Well, I'd tried to put him in my clothes and they kind of swallowed him. He was a lot smaller than he looked. Bastien's clothing was out of the question. No way they would fit. So Brahms insisted he use his delphynad clothing and let it create something similar in fashion. It created the appearance of a black hoodie (to hide those horns), jeans, and very white sneakers. I noticed the side didn't say Nike, but Nisse.

Great. A Risi with a sense of humor.

"Why not?" Bastien said as he came around the front of the SUV.

"Blood is very important to us, to the land, to our world. The Nisse, all classes and races, are tied to the land by blood. When one blood line continuously mixes with another, it grows stronger."

"How do you mean?" I asked.

"My father's name is Bounderfoot."

I really, really had to stop myself from laughing at that. "Oh-
kay
."

"It's a noble name among the Trolls. But because I come from that family, and I'm a Pathfinder, I am not eligible for the throne. Blood is both a boon and a curse." He crossed his arms over his chest. "The mix of my mother's Risi blood with that of a Troll of the Bounderfoot family makes my blood very strong. Hypothetically, if I were to become king and mate with another Risi, our child would be even stronger at magic than I am."

"And if you wed a Troll?" I had to ask.

"That child would be even stronger still, because of the magic of the Trolls." He looked at both of us. "Centuries ago, the Nisse roamed this world, what we call the Greater Kingdom or the Dreamlands. There was fighting between our peoples, such as Troll verses Purs or Risi verses Jötunn. But these small skirmishes were kept in check. Until it was discovered the Trolls were breeding Risi for specific powers. They wanted to create a new Nisse race with the powers of all the other races. A Nisse who could be a prophet, control nature, curse, cast stone, fight—" He shook his head. "No one knew they were doing this until their armies stormed Windhold, the castle at the heart of our kingdom."

"Windhold?" I felt a tingle when I said the name. My Elementals stirred.

"It's the Risi home. These soldiers looked like Nisse, but they were so much stronger. They fought like berserkers from the south. The other races were no match, and for a hundred years the Trolls ruled the kingdom with the Risi by blood."

"I thought you said the Trolls were the mages, the healers, or like a peaceful race."

Brahms nodded. "They are now. But not then. Back then they believed magic was might, and their goal was to become strong enough to overtake the Greater Kingdom."

Bastien leaned against the SUV's passenger door. "I take it this did not happen?"

"One of the families in the new Troll armies, the Windsongs, didn't like what the Trolls were doing. The use of so much magic and might took its toll on the ley lines, draining the Faerie's four kingdoms. The Faerie ruler, a King named Oberon, met with the Matriarch of the Windsong name and…” Brahms lifted his shoulders. “They created a child who would prove to be even stronger.”

“They created a child…between a Risi and a Faerie?” I blinked. I don't know why I found that odd. I knew a guy whose father was human and his mother a Faerie.

“Not just any of the Faerie kind. But a Leanan Sidhe. The strongest, most beautiful and devastatingly powerful of their people.”

Wow.

"Satar Windsong challenged the Trolls' rule by the blood of this new addition to his family, which started a war between the Risi and the Trolls. The other classes stepped away and gave support to the side of their choosing." Brahms gave us a sideways smile. "Windsong won, but with heavy casualties. Many Nisse died. Of all classes, the hardest hit were the Risi."

I didn't say anything.

"Windsong's people met with the Purs, who acted as mediators, and they came up with the Quest, a means to change the blood of the throne every time a new King was needed. The Purs made it so the throne could never be made into an ultimate power."

"
Mon Dieu
," Bastien said softly.

"The Trolls and the Risi had to put a stop to the massacres. There was so much hatred directed at them for what they did. All in the name of power." He gave a short sigh. "So the Quest is there…but it is a failure."

"Because of the need of a Dragon's heart?" I said this, trying really hard not to betray that I knew where a Dragon was. But there was something bothering me. “Which…doesn’t make any sense.” I held up a finger. “Hear me out. Why a Dragon Heart? I’m assuming this whole peace thing happened a long time ago. And from what I’ve learned, there aren’t any more Dragons. So why use their heart? I mean, that’s just setting the future up for failure.”

“When the Quest was formed, Dragons were more prevalent.” Brahms ducked his head. “This was indeed a long time ago.”

“But weren’t there only like…five Dragons?”

“Five
Elemental
Dragons,” Brahms said. “There were always Dragons. Offspring without the magical capacity of the Elementals. The legends were the Elementals weren’t always Dragons, but those chosen by the God Mother to carry Her might,” Brahms said. “I don’t believe the Purs ever believed such a strong and powerful race of beings could ever die out.”

Bastien leaned forward. “Then it is failure, no?”

"Yes. There are no more Dragons. They are all gone. So the Quest will be the end of us if Windsong is truly dead."

"We should go," Bastien said and opened the door for me to get in.

I put a hand on Brahms's shoulder and squeezed. "We'll find the truth."

The Nisse nodded before he moved to stand in front of the SUV. Bastien got in on the driver's side.

I watched as Brahms held out his hands at his sides and threw his head back. He screamed something into the wind, but I couldn't understand what he said. The air in front of him bent and twisted as if it were made of water and ripples were being created.

All of my Elementals appeared at once, but in small form, each big enough to sit along the SUV's dashboard and watch as the gate formed.

They spoke in my head, all of them chattering happily about actually moving through a Risi gate. Apparently, this was Disney for Elementals.

A flickering, moving circle of words rotated around the edge of the gigantic hole as it spread out, and I thought I could see a street through the opening. Brahms disappeared from view, and Bastien and I jumped out of the car and ran to the front. He'd collapsed in a heap in front of the grill. Bastien pulled him up and he was semi-conscious. He had warned us that the gate would zap his strength for a while and he'd need sleep and food to recover.

And since we were heading into New Orleans, food was not an issue.

I RECOGNIZED the Cairn the moment the special effects of Brahms's gate disappeared. It was the Cairn in Gypsy Gardens, the one beside the cabin on Arden's property. We sat still for a few seconds, Bastien and I. Watching him, I knew he was communicating with the pack through his link, which meant they would be arriving soon.

There wasn't any way around doing a bit of demolition to the stones and small grape vines around the Cairn as Bastien eased the SUV out of the protective circle. I mentally promised to come back out and fix what the tires pulverized. He slowly drove down the short two-rut path to the cabin, a two-room nestled next to a copse of hardwoods, and parked.

I ran to the cabin while Bastien lifted Brahms out of the back. Finding the key under the mat, I unlocked the door. After a glance inside, I saw Arden had replaced everything, from the sheets to the rugs, and had restocked the shelves with canned goods and put some basics in the fridge. I grabbed bread, condiments, a pack of roast beef and some Swiss cheese and started making a sandwich before Bastien had Brahms on the bed.

I'd seen Crwys on that bed and the memory chilled me. Being within miles of him had re-established something I hadn't realized was missing.

A connection to him. I smelled him on my skin as I rubbed my nose with the back of my hand. There was a hint of cologne in the air. He was close, and my body and soul craved him in a way I could never crave Bastien. Crwys and I were destiny locked…or that was the phrase that kept coming up in my mind. There would never be anyone else for me.

And if he rejected me for abandoning him…well…I'd been alone before. I could do it again.

"He is awake," Bastien said as he came toward me. I smashed one side of the sandwich down on the other and started making a second. "Is it normal for such a power to exact such a toll?"

"It can," I said as I worked. I was also sensing something else around me.

Arcane.

And a lot of it. But it wasn't the usual type of stuff. This felt more like the stuff I'd encountered when I first touched Brahms. "Bastien, can you sense anyone else near the cabin?"

He lifted his face and sniffed the air. "
Non
. But if you are worried the Risi are near, I'm afraid I could not smell them."

I smashed another sandwich together. "You mean there's actually a race you can't scent?"

"The Nisse smell like the forest. That is what I smell now."

“So…is the scent real strong? Like…are you smelling a lot of forest?”

“
Oui
.”

"So they're nearby."

"Or they've already come and gone, no?"

Yes. I would have to agree. I handed the plate with the two sandwiches to Bastien and poured two glasses full of sweet tea from a jug. Bastien helped Brahms sit up to eat.

My senses were on overload. And it wasn't just the presence of that odd Arcane. There was something else altogether in these woods now. Something I'd barely scratched the surface of all those times I'd been out here. A hint of some flavor I'd never been able to pinpoint before. I'd always just assumed it was how wood smelled.