Shadowlands (58 page)

“The stars beneath the
Shaghana’ak
Abyss,” Fox said, his tone soft and far away.

“Hunting the white stag in a forest of living Trees.” Wolf felt a
tune stirring in his throat, in one minute, in two, he would remember the Song.

But Fox shook himself, straightening to his feet, and the Song was gone. “You’re still the same, brother. Always looking back.”

“I am not looking back now,” Wolf said. “I look forward. I look to the life I now have before me. The life you, too, could have before you, if you wished it.”

“It’s that easy, then?”

Was there a longing in Fox’s voice? Was his brother finally listening to him? He’d listened once before, long ago. Wolf had to take this chance that Fox would listen again.

“I will not hide from you that there was pain,” Wolf said, remembering the tearing agony, the dragon fire as it burned through him. “But pain is something we know well. Pain is nothing that we fear.”

“No, we don’t, that’s so.” Fox straightened until he was no longer leaning against the back of the couch, and Wolf allowed the small flame of hope to grow. “And the others?”

“Will they not be led by you?”

Fox grinned, his mouth, for one heartbeat, too large and too full of too sharp teeth. “That they would be,” he acknowledged.

Wolf stayed silent. Now was the time to let his brother think over all that he had been offered. Push, and Fox would push back. Finally, Fox tilted his head, looking up at Wolf from under his eyebrows. Wolf focused on his brother’s left ear.

“I’ll give that some thought. I will. I’ll think about what you said. In the meantime, you think about what I’ve said. You’ve got until sunset.” He pointed at Elaine with his chin. “
She
knows where.”

A rush of air, and Fox was gone.

S
OMEHOW THE DINING ROOM felt like the safest place to show them the Horn. It probably had something to do with the lack of windows. It seemed important that no one be able to see us. I pulled the well-wrapped package out of the front of my T-shirt and laid it on the table, slipping off the tie and flicking the edges of cloth aside. Viewing it for the first time here, in my own world, I saw that unlike my clothes, or Wolf’s—or the cloth it was wrapped in, for that matter—the Horn itself looked exactly as it had on Ice Tor’s workbench, like a tiny flute made of old ivory.

“Ice Tor told us ours is made from fewer elements, and maybe won’t be as strong.” This time I added what I hadn’t been able to say out loud until now. “It might not work at all.”

Alejandro was shaking his head. “It is unlikely that it would take on the form, without also having the function. But have you touched it,
querida
?”

I licked my lips, looked from one face to the other. Nik scrubbed at his chin, his look of determination overlaid with curiosity. Alejandro looked at me, not at the Horn, concerned, as if he thought I might somehow be hurt by it.

I stretched out my left hand and laid my index finger on the breathing hole. [A sound I couldn’t hear; cavernous darkness; howling; a horn; a unicorn; flash of
gra’if.
] “It
will
sound,” I heard myself say. “But only once.” Alejandro shifted, as if he’d like to touch the Horn himself, but I now knew that he wasn’t the one, so I folded over the thick black felt and once more tucked the artifact away in the front of my shirt, hoping that no one saw my hands shaking, and asked me any more questions. I couldn’t share everything I’d read.

I was saved from further questions by a
whoosh
of displaced air that made the papers on the kitchen corkboard flutter. Alejandro went immediately to investigate, his sword in his hand. He was waving me back with the other, but I knew it could only be Wolf, so I was right behind him, in time to see Wolf laying Elaine down on the daybed in the sunroom. Nik made an incoherent sound behind me, pushing past us to Elaine’s side.

“Where is Moon?” Alejandro’s voice was quiet but sharp.

“The Hunt has her.”

It felt like there was something stuck in my throat.

“Elaine knows,” Wolf was saying. “She knows where we must go to regain Moon.”

“Is she…?” Nik was trying to take Elaine’s pulse. Instead of pushing his fingers up under her jaw, he had her by the wrist, which even I knew is the most difficult way to do it.

“Here,” I said, taking hold of his sleeve with the fingers of my right hand. [His shirt was made in Germany by a left-handed man.] Nik licked his lips, and held out Elaine’s wrist, stepping back to give me room.

I didn’t feel for a pulse, but instead took a firm grip on Elaine’s hand and lower arm. Her skin felt elastic and cool and, better still, she felt [a laundry basket full of potatoes?] strange, but
whole
, her pieces gathered and tidy.

“She’s okay,” I said, and I heard Nik let out a breath, and felt it on the skin of my neck. “He didn’t take her
dra’aj
.”

“Who,
querida
?”

“Fox,” I said. I didn’t look around, not even when someone hissed. Touching Elaine was easier than usual, and I wondered if that was because she was unconscious. What I was reading was clear, but that
didn’t mean it made any sense. “Why do I keep getting Maple Leaf Gardens?”

I turned around in time to see Nik and Alejandro exchange looks. Wolf caught it as well.

“You know the place?”

“We do.” It was clear from the tone of Alejandro’s voice that Wolf wasn’t on his good list any longer.

“You’d better tell them, Wolf.” I folded Elaine’s arm across her chest in what I hoped would be a comfortable position and covered her with the lambswool afghan that lay at one end of the daybed.

“Fox says he will return Moon to us at sunset,” Wolf said. “If we meet his demands.”

“And Maple Leaf Gardens is where he’ll meet,” I said.

“Where is she now? Is that where he is holding her?” Alejandro turned to me.

I shook my head. “That’s more than Elaine knows. They’ve Moved together, and to some extent imprinted on each other, but…Moon’s alive, that much I can tell, but not where.”

“We have badly miscalculated,” Alejandro said. “I thought we would have more time. Does he have new demands?” Somehow his cool question made everyone relax just enough to listen.

“What he has already asked for,” Wolf said. “The Shadowlands, the closing of the Portals.”

“He wants to exchange Moon for this?” It didn’t make any sense to me.

“She is the sister of the High Prince. Foxblood believes Truthsheart will be more likely to listen to him now.”

They all looked at me, but what could I tell them? “I’ve never had a good reading from Cassandra, not after she was wearing all her
gra’if
.” I thought about it. “But I have touched Moon, and I’d say Cassandra would sacrifice her sister, if it would mean saving or helping the most people.”

“Valory is correct. Truthsheart would not give the Shadowlands to the Hunt, not even for her sister.” Wolf had his eyes squeezed shut, but his voice, though faint was firm.

“This may turn to our advantage.”

We all looked at Alejandro, but he was focusing inward on his
own thoughts. All at once he blinked, as if he realized we were staring at him.

“We need a place to call the Hunt. The time is not of our choosing, but why not this place?” Alejandro looked around at us. “We can have our own allies there. If Fox has Moon with him, we can blow the Horn. He will be unprepared to have the rest of the Hunt suddenly appear. Whatever plans and provisions he has made will be completely overturned. We can take them.”

Wolf shook himself. “I ask that you delay in using the Horn, even if Moon is there,” he said. “I have spoken with Foxblood, and it is possible that he has listened.”

Nik had more color in his face, but from the way he was rubbing the bridge of his nose, he wasn’t entirely happy yet. “And do you think he’ll listen to you this time?”

“I was Pack Leader; he has had to listen to me in the past. He may do so again.”

“You’re going to have to tell them,” I said. Wolf looked at me, his lips parted. He knew I was right, but the habit of protecting his brother was so strong he couldn’t bring himself to speak. I had to say it for him. “Foxblood is Wolf’s brother.”

“And that is why you have not killed him, though you have had the opportunity.” Alejandro’s voice was so deadly quiet, it was worse than yelling.

“I have not killed him, and he has not killed me.”

Alejandro stood, his hands in fists.

“Oh, come on.” To my surprise, Nik spoke before I could. “Would
you
trust someone who could kill his own brother just like that?” He snapped his fingers. “Even if he’s only some
thing
that used to be his brother? I mean, he
knows
there’s a cure.” Nik fell silent. He took hold of Elaine’s hand again and was looking at her when he spoke. “This is his brother. All he has left. He’d want to give him every chance.”

Wolf put his hand on Nik’s shoulder.

Alejandro blinked slowly, amber eyes clouded as he looked inward. His shoulders relaxed, and his hands opened. I’d thought it was safe to tell him the truth, and I was glad to see that I hadn’t called it wrong. Finally, he nodded. “Still,” he said, “you have not explained why this should delay us in using the Horn.”

“I know my brother well,” Wolf turned away from Nik and leaned against the edge of the table. “Always he could be led, but never pushed.” His throat worked as he swallowed. “I have offered him the chance of Healing that the High Prince has promised to the Hunt.” He looked around at everyone. Alejandro was in the doorway, arms folded in front of him. Nik was half-turned toward me, sitting on the edge of the daybed. “He listened to me, I know that he did.”

“But he didn’t agree,” Nik said.

Wolf swallowed again, forcing the muscles of his jaw to loosen. “No.” He held up one hand before any of us could speak. “But it would not be his way to agree quickly. Always he must be courted and persuaded. But he will agree in the end, as he always does.” Wolf looked away, and I thought I knew what he was hiding. “And when he agrees, as Pack Leader he will bring the whole of the Hunt with him.”

“It is a weighty consideration,” Alejandro said and Wolf looked back with hope. “We would succeed without bloodshed. And further, without the element of the Hunt to complicate matters, the Basilisk Warriors can be dealt with more straightforwardly. Guards at the Portals should be enough; they would not need to be closed.”

I had to say something, though I hated to. I’d been hoping all along that maybe Wolf was right about his brother, and Fox could be persuaded. But that was before I’d touched the Horn. Before I could put the images I’d received from it together with the ones I’d just gotten from Elaine. Now I had a definite, disturbing, picture. Once again, I had to say it.

“But it won’t happen,” I said. “Fox won’t agree. He never meant to.”

Wolf rounded on me, lips pulling back from his teeth. Nik stood up between us, but it was Alejandro who, with his hand on Wolf’s shoulder, made him sit down.

“You cannot know this,” Wolf said, as if he and I were the only people in the room. I could also see the heat in his eyes. He felt betrayed—and why not? When we’d talked about this in the Lands, I’d been on his side. I wished I’d been able to explain in private the difference between then and now.

“Of course I can know it.” My hands had formed fists, and I had to force them open. Did he think I
wanted
to tell him this? “I don’t just know the things you want to hear,” I reminded him. “I touched
Fox—and now I’ve touched Elaine. I know what his plans are. He won’t give it up. Not the Hunt, not the
dra’aj
. Not now that he has his new dream. Now that he believes he can have this world. Whatever it is we know about Cassandra and what she will and won’t do,
he
doesn’t know it.”

I reached toward Wolf, but he turned his head away.

“Look,” I said. “If I wasn’t sure about your brother, I would have said so. I’m sorry, Wolf, but he won’t change.” My breath hitched as I took it in, and I pressed my lips together to stop them trembling. Last thing I wanted to do was cry. “I wish we had time to let you try, to prove it. You’ll just have to trust me.”

“Valory is right,” Alejandro said. “What she knows, she knows. We have believed her about you, Stormwolf, and we must believe her now. If there was cause for uncertainty, she would say so. I say we do not wait.”

“I agree.” Nik held up his hand. “I vote with Valory,” he said.

We were all looking at Wolf now, waiting for him to speak. To decide. “You will blow the Horn regardless,” Wolf said as though he were thinking aloud. “My saying ‘no’ will not stop you.” He brought his head up, his gray eyes, now stone cold, boring in on Alejandro. “Will you trust me to be there?”

When Alejandro hesitated, I put my left hand on the table, my missing finger on display. “I trust you,” I said. Wolf would try to save his brother, I knew that as well as I knew anything, but I put as much certainty into my voice as I could.

“Then I, too, vote with Valory,” Wolf said.