Exile: Sídhí Summer Camp #3 (39 page)

I glanced toward the dark trees; the river
called to me. Trellick Valley covered the same area of land as
Tulsa, but in my home valley the river area was surrounded
wilderness, not a big city. I wondered if the river looked as
different as it smelled.

On impulse, I turned off the paved path,
heading into the forest of trees that skirted the river. The wooded
area that lay between the walkway and the river wasn't very wide,
but it had a thick undergrowth of spindly trees and bushes.

A dozen feet into the wooded area I found a
small clearing, not very big and not at all interesting. I crossed
it with quick steps, eager to see the river before Fritz came
looking for me. I was nearly at the far edge when the sudden
presence of a gateway stopped me cold. The surge of power tingled
across my skin, forcing chill bumps to bloom across my skin.

Gateways existed all across the world, but
since they didn't normally pop into existence, at the drop of a
hat, the presence of one spelled trouble.

I shuddered and fear skittered down my back.
A random gateway was not normal; a single wild gateway might open
every thousand years, but that was it. Whatever was going on, it
must be really bad.

Yeah, I was a true pessimist; it made me feel
better when the bottom dropped out.

I held my breath and turned toward the source
of the surging power. Sure enough, less than ten feet away from me,
a gateway stood open. A mundane human would never see large
archway, but to my Sídhí eyes it glowed with a soft yellowish-white
hue. I glanced past the edges and into an expensively decorated
room, realizing it definitely wasn't a wild gateway. I really wish
it had been.

~ ~ ~

“Chi’Kehra!” Duke Kin'Tick called from the
end of the long hallway. His short, plump legs pumped as he rushed
toward the elvish monarch. His blond hair streaked with darts of
contrasting black, flopped around his shoulders. His brown elvish
eyes sparked with eagerness; he looked like a squealing pig waiting
for dinner.

Chi’Kehra stifled a groan, ignoring the
urgency in the man's voice. With a swift move, Chi’Kehra entered
his private suite of rooms, letting his guards deal with the pest
who had shadowed his every step the entire morning.

He was sick of the constant court intrigue;
the never-ending plays for more power. It seemed like everyone
wanted something from him; even the royal advisors had one or two
or a dozen ulterior motives. The few people he completely trusted
rarely visited the capital.

He detested his trips to Elfheim, the capital
city, which lay sprawled across the entire width and length of the
Valley of Elfheim. The city was filled with spiraling towers, vast
gardens, beautiful art, and – constant – political games. If it
hadn't been for the nasty games and the political backbiting the
elvish nobles played, he might have enjoyed the occasional
trip.

Unfortunately, Duke Kin'Tick was only one of
many courtiers who fought for more power, loving the intrigue of
court life. Every noble, within the elvish royal houses, hoped to
gather power by currying favor with the ruling monarch.

The fake flattery was sickening, especially
when he was the recipient of so much of it.

He shoved the tedious thoughts away and
walked through his sprawling suite of rooms, passing silent guards
and a half dozen extravagantly decorated rooms, before sighing in
relief.

He closed the door to his receiving room and
leaned against it. Only here, did he have true privacy. The entire
royal suite had a silencing layer around it, - manipulated synth
crystal added into the very walls of the castle by the Court Fairy,
- but his private study and bed chamber had an extra layer, one he
added himself.

“Chi’Kehra,” Mirk said warmly, slightly
bowing. His body servant, of eighteen hundred years, was one of the
very few people ever allowed within his inner sanctum.

“Afternoon Mirk, I'll be in my study.” He
turned to leave, but stopped when Mirk shifted from foot-to-foot.
After so many years together, he knew Mirk's silent way of getting
his attention without actually asking for it.

He sighed, knowing he must have forgotten a
meeting of some sort. He had hoped to have a free afternoon of
reading the latest novel by W.L. Kylupspur about a dragon –
shapeshifter – who found out his predestined lifeMate was a fairy,
a fairy that fell through a wild portal and got stuck on Earth.

“Yes,” he questioned, raising his eyebrow in
query.

“Ah, yes, well,” Mirk's tiny feet shuffled
and he pointed to the new fairy 'appointment calendar' sitting on a
wide table near the windows at the far end of the room, “it's been
beeping every few minutes. The message screen says: Meeting on
Earth.”

Chi’Kehra groaned. He hated new gadgets,
especially fairy made; they never worked right. “My meeting with
Gerald isn't until next week.”

Some five hundred years ago, he had sent some
of his best spies to Earth. He checked in with one or more of them,
once a month by opening a temporary gateway, which connected Sídhí
to Earth.

When he first opened a gateway to Earth he
had been excited, hoping to reconnect with the lost houses of the
Elfhiem. That hope died a quick death. The constant bickering and
in-fighting was bad enough on Sídhí, but the elves on Earth had
continued the war against all the other races.

At the time, he made the difficult decision
to remain a silent observer.

He kept the connection between Earth and
Sídhí completely secure, which wasn't as hard as it sounded. As
Chi’Kehra, he was the only person on Earth or Sídhí who had the
power to create a gateway. The synth crystal flowed through his
body like a living organism, answering his mental orders. Only the
fairy or dragons could come close to manipulating the synth
crystal, the pure energy created by the Ancient Ones, like he
could. And comparing their abilities to his was like comparing the
strength of a flea to a dragon.

His spies on Earth kept him updated, reports
of the ongoing war between the various races continued. He honestly
didn't know why they continued fighting, not after four thousand
years. The previous Chi’Kehra started the Great War, because he
thought vampires were evil, bloodsucking monsters. An entire war
fought over a racial belief that was not true.

He was very thankful he wasn't in the middle
of the continued fighting and even happier that Earth didn't have a
native born Chi’Kehra.

An Earth-born Chi’Kehra would unite the
elvish houses on that world. Once that happened, and after the
elves destroyed all the other races, the Earth Chi’Kehra might turn
his attention toward opening a gateway to Sídhí.

He shuddered at the very thought, praying to
God that never happened. He would have a war, to end all wars,
dropped in his lap. Earth's modern technology increased his worry;
from what his people on Earth said, the weapons of that world had
the destructive ability of an exploding synth spring. One bomb
could easily wipe out the entire capital city, the surrounding
mountain, and the valley.

“Hckrum,” Mirk softly cleared his throat,
gently pulling Chi’Kehra from his morbid thoughts.

Resigned to losing his afternoon, he
approached the new gizmo. The flat screen of synth crystal woke-up
at his approach, beeping its urgent message. 'Meeting on Earth with
Gerald – ten minute warning!' appeared on the screen.

Frustrated, he shook his head and looked
down, some three feet, to his diminutive companion. “Mirk, tell me
I didn't set it up wrong.”

Mirk grinned at him, adding to his sour
mood.

“Fine, please tell Gabe I'm opening a
gateway, but shouldn't be long.” He glanced down, watching Mirk's
uncharacteristic quiet agreement. “You've already told the Captain,
haven't you?”

“Yes, Sire,” Mirk said formally.

He grunted. The only time Mirk became formal
was after he did something questionable. “What did Captain Gabriel
bribe you with this time?”

Mirk was tight-lipped and utterly loyal when
it came to serving him, so it had to be something of extreme
value.

“I would never disclose your appointments to
anyone, except the captain,” he said primly, ruining the effect
with another gap-mouthed grin. “He offered me an entire bushel of
fiskberries if I warned him the next time you planned on opening a
gateway to Earth. You know how nervous he gets when you refuse to
let him send guards with you.”

Chi’Kehra tried suppressing a chuckle. Gabe
must have been desperate. “Fiskberries are out of season.”

Mirk grinned bigger. Sharp teeth gleaming,
his head quickly bobbed up and down. “I told him I'd only accept
the freshest and plumpest of berries.”

Chi’Kehra nodded his acceptance, not really
surprised; the two had gone behind his back, bickering and working
together, for over a thousand years. His personal guards and
household staff were more like family than servants. Pleasure
tightened his chest; he'd have it no other way.

He glanced toward the row of windows. The
snow covered mountain loomed high above; frozen in place like a
sentinel. Its massive presence guarded the castle, which was carved
in the side of the lower mountain that sprawled outward down the
valley.

He walked toward the window’s archway – not
that it mattered where he opened a gateway – and raised his hands.
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Mirk race from the room,
no doubt fetching the captain of his guard. He wasn't worried. Even
if he was attacked, not many people could injure him, much less
actually kill him. As Chi’Kehra, he was nearly indestructible with
synth laced bones and instant healing.

With a mere thought, he gathered energy from
the synth crystal, feeling the raw power hum through his veins. It
sizzled and burned through him like a wild animal released for the
first time. He focused, tightening his grip on the volatile power,
and mentally imaged a tunnel, a gateway leading from Sídhí to
Earth.

He funneled a tiny part of his vast power
into his desire. The air shimmered and a gateway opened, connecting
Sídhí to Earth. It opened in a grove of trees. The small strip of
trees was part of a public park that lay on the edge of a river,
which flowed through a large town.

The gateway opened. As planned, it was the
middle of the night on Earth. A casual observer was not likely.

He stepped into the glowing archway and
froze. The park was not as deserted as he thought it would be.

Near the tree-line was a young woman, frozen
in mid-stride. Her long white-blonde hair swung around her hips,
rippling down her back in layered waves. Her scent drifted toward
him on the gentle breeze and he inhaled the purest aroma he had
ever smelled. Like a mixture of midnight roses and a hot summer
breeze, her scent woke a part of him that had long been
dormant.

After such a long life, females all looked
alike to him; he'd grown bored with their song and dance a thousand
years earlier. Their constant attempt to manipulate him rubbed him
raw and he refused to put up with it.

This willowy female – he inhaled her
mouth-watering scent again – might change his view toward
women.

She turned toward him, slowly, as if fearing
what she might discover. Her intense blue eyes, the color of a
shallow sea cove, widened in fear and her heart raced. He watched
as she argued with herself, trying to decide if she had any hope of
out-running him.

His pure-blood elvish core trembled in shock;
he was attracted - and completely smitten - with a halfling. The
scent of her vampire/elf nature should have warned him, not tempted
him beyond rational thought. Her beautiful blue eyes, not elvish in
shape, and tiny pointed ears peeking through her thick hair shouted
her impure bloodline.

He didn't care, briefly wondering if he could
convince her to return to Sídhí with him. She would make a
magnificent concubine. He would keep her until he found his
destined lifeMate, perhaps even longer.

He ground his teeth together, realizing he
didn't have the luxury of offering her a choice. No one but him –
the dreaded Chi’Kehra – had the power to open a gateway. If he
didn't remove her from Earth, she'd scream her newfound knowledge
to anyone who'd listen.

Copyright 2011 by Jodie B.
Cooper

Dragon Valley: Day of Arrival

Hate was a sin, but Katie couldn’t help it.
At the moment, she truly hated the Dragon Council. The dragons
destroyed her summer. Forcing her to attend camp with hundreds of
full bloods was not her idea of fun. She’d have to watch her back
every single moment or she might find a dagger plunged through
it.

“
Katie, you okay?”
Mitch asked. His
deep male voice appeared in her head without warning.