Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1) (33 page)

Instead of answering him I concentrated on eating the food in front
of me. It wouldn’t do if I pointed out how long ago I could
have solved this.

“We’ll go talk to Evan and figure it out.” Julianne
offered.

The wrapper from my sandwich was thrown into the bed of the truck.
With one arm, I shrugged on my jacket and started towards where I had
seen Evan.

It would be nightfall by the time we caught up. Candy would probably
be there long before us. Her affinity for the trees was a huge
advantage. I could close my eyes and practically see her form dashing
through the trees. Dainty feet skipped along the ground while barely
making contact.

Then there was Evan. I didn’t tell the others, but when I
tracked him down the elf had looked unaware. His body was completely
out of it. Just like at Julianne’s house. The old elf tended to
him by pouring liquid down his throat and muttering in a language
that sounded like wind chimes left along an ocean cliffside.

The siblings never stopped talking. Neither one showed any fear as we
walked through the woods. They had probably roamed pack lands most of
their lives. Thomas would smell any remaining predators with ease.
Their rambling became background noise while I considered the
connections between the number of stars in the sky and trees in this
forest.

Building a link to Candy and Evan was growing increasingly easy. Both
multicolored cords snapped together without an ounce of effort. Each
had differences in how they presented. Evan’s thread was weak
and barely pulsed. Candy’s thrummed with irritation and panic.

The female elf was far, far ahead of us. Each attempt at connection
would result in her pausing. These connections weren’t just a
tentative thing. They were providing intense amounts of feedback.

I felt a tiny hand grip over her chest. A sharp rock dug into Candy’s
palm. A weight pressed against the object as she barely avoided
buckling. Moments later the elf splashed water over her face. The
chill of liquid sent shivers all over that I had no way of explaining
to Julianne.

An hour later we found a stream. We were catching up. Nearby was a
boulder that had been drug up from the earth’s depths to sit
alone in the riverbed. I had felt both the water and rock well before
seeing them. My palm pressed into the same position that Candy’s
had from my tracking sensations.

“She’s been through here,” I said.

“How do you know?” Thomas asked behind me. He sniffed the
air while looking around.

“I told you, he’s my own personal tracker,”
Julianne grunted as she stepped across the stream.

“Yeah, I heard he’d flaked out and left.” Thomas
remained shirtless but was all human right now.

“Shush, there’s some stuff there you don’t want to
get mixed up in.” The tiny bartender said.

“Drama? How bad? I don’t need details, give me a number
on a scale of Ricky’s wife to Little Bob’s high school
reunion.”

“At least a seven, maybe an eight.” She sounded
thoughtful about it. Her face wasn’t visible right now as the
tiny Indian woman was behind me.

“So not a contender for Drew’s sudden countdown
embarrassment.” Thomas continued his banter with an entertained
grin. He was parallel with me as we stalked towards Evan’s hide
away.

“Not quite.” Julianne laughed.

I walked on and ignored them. My brain was only half in the now
anyway. Everything was strangely out of focus. A fog had settled over
my perceptions. Moments became hard to pick out. There was a wall of
sensations pouring back from both elves.

My thoughts circled through the same pattern constantly since
returning home weeks ago. Answers would be within reach regarding who
or what I was. My mind would compare the current Jay to the prior. An
itch would happen on my arm and I would end up distracted.

Feet moved forward with an absent-minded hustle. My senses that split
across the miles to Evan were reporting small changes. Occasionally
he shook and thrashed. Other times he lay there barely breathing. The
older silver-haired elf that had been caring for him was somewhere
else.

Continued tactile feedback came in. Candy had halted up ahead. She
was very close to Evan now. We, the siblings and I, were nearly a
step behind now too.

Approaching nightfall, during that fleeting dance between a parting
sun and the horizon’s edge, a tree branch appeared in front of
my face. Unlike other branches, this one was new. My senses snapped
back together with a rush of panic.

Julianne was shouting. Thomas growled and ran past. Another chunk of
wood sunk into the trunk right in front of the brother. He displayed
better sense than I and took cover behind a tree.

“Hold it right there.” The voice sounded almost like a
cowboy. There was far more than a hint of western to it. “Close
enough for you all, I think.”

My eyes gradually focused on the shaft of wood I had nearly been
penetrated by. The item itself was firmly lodged into the tree trunk
and oddly shaped. I tried to comprehend the details. There was a
feathered end attached to the thinly carved shaft. Its angle was odd
as it jutted from the tree.

Hell. Someone or something had actually shot at me with an arrow. I
had nearly been shafted and still barely returned to my senses.

“Jay, for the love of God, back up.” Julianne’s
hiss made it through my addled brain. I looked around trying to
figure out if the voice and the arrow had come from the silver-haired
elf.

“Are you with Evan? The one feeding him liquid from a leaf? One
sip at a time?” I shouted. My eyes weren’t focusing all
that well. The last few hours had been spent staggering forward while
seeing and feeling a completely different place from my body.

There was silence.

“Is your hair silver?” I tried again. Maybe by announcing
what I had seen while tracking Evan, things would go smoother.

“Who are you? Wolves here to steal my boy away again?”
The other man yelled. His voice seemed to echo through the trees.

“I need to speak to Evan!” I couldn’t tell if all
this shouting was going in the right direction. The person who shot
at us had to be the other elf. It had to be.

“It ain’t happening. He’s come back from you all
nearly broken not once, but twice now.” The elf's accent was
intense. “You all can scoot back to where ever you came from.”

Going home wasn’t an option. Shouting that I was a Lord would
be dangerous. Candy affirmed rather explicitly that mentioning a Lord
around elves was tied to being sacrificed. That advice seemed sound
even though she was dead set on getting to Evan before I did.

“Julie, help out here.” Thomas motioned.

“I don’t know what to do.” Julianne was keeping her
head firmly planted behind the tree she’d picked to huddle at.

“Didn’t the pack find him out here?” I asked.

“Yeah, but they slipped past this guy. Might not have been a
good idea.” Julianne said.

“You all can just turn about those heels and head home.”
The western sounding elf yelled. “Go on, get!”

“Not without answers!” Julianne yelled back at him. “Tell
us where Arnold Regious is and I’ll happily go away.”

Three arrows sprouted on a tree near us. Each one was further to the
right. The man must be running around to get a better angle on us. I
shoved Julianne further around the edge of the tree in time to see
another shaft embed itself where she had been.

“Don’t ask about Arnold.” I tried to keep my voice
low.

“Your buddy there has the right idea.” The unknown person
was closer and had definitely switched locations.

“Ask Evan who I am, he’ll vouch for us!” I roared
back. Evan wanted us out here, me anyway. The first few shots had the
feeling of warning shots.

“I don’t like this.” Thomas was behind another tree
nearby.

“Feel free to charge out there,” Julianne responded.

“And get shot in the eye? I’ve read the history books,
during the civil war elves shot wolves through the eye sockets.”
I could see his hands waving about from here. “Then while they
were down and blind, finished them with silver.”

My eyes shut while they complained at each other about their limited
choices. Thomas was right, charging out there wouldn’t work.
Elves at range had always held the advantage. This one also had the
home court. This was a bad scene all the way around.

Evan had to wake up. He was able to sense if I called for him and
that might solve our problem. Tactile senses barely started to expand
out when my body automatically dodged another shaft.

“I can wait here all night,” He said. I could hear the
chewing tobacco in his thick accent.

“Jay, what’s the call?” Julianne asked.

“Shush.” I closed my eyes tight and pressed my head to
the tree as I hugged what little cover we had. Julianne hunkered
nearby, hiding behind me.

“Jay?” Her words crawled at me from miles away. My senses
had reached out to Evan, who lay on the ground completely still. Mats
of forest debris were piled around him. One young tree was nearby,
dirt freshly disturbed.

I could feel Evan muttering to himself. Words sunk into plants and
trees swaddling the sound. Mother? Picking up words in a new
environment was tough.

“Evan!” My voice gave an odd double echo, one inside my
head, once in the forest where my body and Julianne huddled.

“Evan answer me!” I demanded.

The elf stirred a bit. His eyes were unfocused and bloodshot.

“Evan wake up!”

I concentrated on him. Part of me tried to reach across the distance
to shake him. Evan had said I was his Lord, Candy had said I should
be able to call him back. Neither one explained what that meant.
Could I pull at him like I had with the rabbit? If I was a Lord, did
that make him a vassal?

“Evan! I command you to wake up!” I tried shouting at
him. His elven name might have garnered a reaction. Wait, Evan had
said that an awakening was needed. Blood had worked the first time.

“Listen, you kin stealing igit, the next shot won’t be a
warning!” In the background the older elf yelled.

My eyesight snapped back to reality. It took an act of will to keep
my head still and try to focus quickly. Evan was a ways north, but if
I ran, maybe I could make it to him. A little bit of blood and a few
seconds, then he’d come back to again.

“Dear god, he’s going to kill us.” Julianne was
muttering next to me.

“What?”

“I should never have come out here.” She wasn’t
paying attention. “I should have stayed at home where it was
quiet.”

“Julie, it’ll be okay. We just need to back out, we can
call pack in for the rest of it.” Thomas was nodding briskly
while talking.

“We won’t get away, didn’t you hear him? He’s
not firing warning shots anymore, and he’s waiting there for us
to stick our heads out.” Julianne was huddled against the side
of the tree, her knees pulled up to her chest.

“Thomas?” I whispered.

“You back from your fucking trip?” The brother said.

“I know where Evan is.”

“That’s fantastic. Did you learn the magic password to
get past the gatekeeper over there?” Thomas stuck his head out
a little too far and another shaft of carved wood flew past. He
swallowed and both eyebrows pinched together. “Because we could
really use a secret code, or handshake, or anything.”

“Do you think he and Evan have a secret code?” Julianne
had recovered instantly in the light of her brother’s playful
commentary.

“An all clear call sign?” Julianne was sweating. I could
feel her heart speeding along compared to the normal, calm woman
behind a bar counter.

“We could tie a white flag to one of the arrows.” Thomas
was slowly gaining composure. The lingering sensations of my tracking
abilities were providing all sorts of extra details.

“Wave it in the air,” She said.

“Thomas.” I tried to interrupt them.

“You got your underwear on still?” He was caught up with
his banter.

“Not white anymore,” Julianne said. She wiped at her
forehead and wasn’t making eye contact with either of us.

“I’ll settle for red.” The elf called out from a
distance.

“Thomas!” I was trying to keep quiet. Elves had different
ears, but their hearing wasn’t exceptional. Thomas should be
able to hear me if I could get a word in.

“Just talk, he’s listening,” Julianne whispered
next to me. Her head shook and then nodded.

“Don’t have red yet!” Thomas yelled back. He
motioned his hands at me to get on with it. I could see him staring
at Julianne with a worried expression. His back rolled as he stayed
behind his tree.

“I know where Evan is. I’ll run. I need a distraction.”
My voice was hushed.

“You really want to risk our lives on Evan pulling through?”
Julianne said. Her brother looked at me briefly then shook his head.

“Not a risk, Thomas can heal right?” I protested.

“So can you. Doesn’t mean it won’t hurt.”
Julianne whispered back to me. She sounded offended at me using her
brother as a defensive screen for arrows.

“Got another option?” I glared at her. The siblings
shared a glance and Thomas shrugged.

“No,” He said.

Julianne took a deep breath. “Countdown?” Thomas nodded
back. “From three, break on zero.” She put a hand on my
back and looked up. “I’ll cover my brother as much as I
can.”

“With what?” I asked.

Julianne pulled out a small handgun. I whistled.

“Only a few shots, short range, but it might scare him.”

“When did you get that?”

“When I stopped by the bar.” She’d picked up the
handgun after dealing with Daniel.

“Who wants the next shot? I’m open to requests, legs,
arms, lungs, tell me where you poachers want ’em.”

“I’d prefer you air ball all of them!” Thomas
yelled back. He was looking directly at me, though. One hand was held
up with three fingers.