Thorn Fall (23 page)

Gunshots fired in the distance, from the direction we were heading. Maybe there
was
a crazy shooter in the mix. More likely someone was shooting at an invisible blob in the sky. I hadn’t yet heard the drone of its wings—or whatever the creature possessed that made that noise—but there were a lot of dried leaves on the ground down here, and the crunching of our footsteps might be drowning it out.

Above us, the trees and grass changed to houses, then buildings. We were getting close to Uptown.

“It’s gone,” Simon said, waving his phone. “More than three dozen people got pronged and some are already unconscious. The police have everyone locked up in the stores now, while the paramedics come collect the injured people.”

“That’s on the news?” I asked.

“Someone’s social media site.”

I snorted. “A reliable resource then.”

“Hey, stuff gets shared a lot faster that way than it gets broadcast.”

“Does that mean you’ve already updated
your
blog?”

He shook his head, serious for once. Temi chose a spot to go up, a narrow trail winding through dense brush and up toward a street. We scrambled up the slope after her.

A dark form glided out of the foliage and grabbed her.

I swore, snatching for my whip, even though Simon and Naomi were between Temi and me. She spun, facing her attacker, half pulling the sword from its scabbard. But she stopped at the same time as I recognized that black leather…

“Jakatra,” Temi said, then glanced toward the street, as if it ask why he was delaying her.

“It ran out of ammunition and left the area,” Jakatra said. “But the one who set the trap remains.”

“Trap?” I slipped around Naomi, who was staring at Jakatra, even though his customary wool cap hid his telltale ears.

“Yes, bait. Placed in one of the buildings to attract the
jibtab
.” Jakatra looked over my shoulder at Naomi, and she stepped back. He did have one of those unfriendly soul-shriveling kinds of gazes. But when Temi spoke, he returned his attention to her without commenting on our tagalong.

“Bait?” she asked. “Like my sword is bait to the monsters?”

“It’s nothing that valuable. More like… you would use, what? A fish to trap a feline?”

“There’s monster food in a basement up there?” Simon asked.

“I have not located the bait yet, but I believe it simulates something that attracts the
jibtab
.”

“Why does someone want to bring the
jibtab
here?” I waved toward the backs of the shops.

“I believe she is indifferent to the
jibtab
…
and humans, as well,” Jakatra said. “But she knows you seek to slay it. With that sword.”

“She? The other elf from your world? You’re sure it’s a she now? Because you didn’t seem to know last night.”

“Female, yes. We met face-to-face this morning. Her name is Yesathra.”

“You know her?”

“I know her information now. I looked her up with a… you would call it perhaps a face-recognition program?”

I nodded. “She doesn’t by chance work for that portal-monitoring service, does she?”

Jakatra stared at me. “She does.”

Temi held up her hand. “If we don’t find this bait before the
jibtab
regenerates its thorns, it will return, is that right?”

“Likely,” Jakatra said.

“Then tell me what the bait looks like, and I’ll go find it and remove it from town so more people won’t be in trouble.”

“I’ll come too.” Simon waved his phone again. “I can probably even get help from those reporting the details of the attack online.”

“It is…” Jakatra looked toward the street—was Eleriss up there somewhere?—then dipped a hand into the pocket of his leather jacket. He fiddled with something, then held out his palm. A small blue cube rested there, a blinking oval on one side and a hole on top. The outline of his hand was visible through the box, so I assumed it was a hologram or the elven equivalent. “It will look like this,” Jakatra said, “but it will also emit a scent you may find pungent.”

“Worse than a dead fish?” Simon asked.

“I do not know how your olfactory system ranks smells.” Jakatra looked toward the street again. It was probably my imagination, but I had the distinct feeling he was wishing Eleriss would show up and be the one to talk to us, as was usually the case.

Temi started up the hill. “I’ll find it.”

“It may be well hidden,” Jakatra said.

“Will it show up with the metal detector?” Naomi hefted the Dirt Viper.

“No,” Simon said. “At least the old portal opener didn’t.”

Jakatra gave him a sharp look. “The what?”

I tried to give Simon a don’t-tell-him signal, but he wasn’t looking at me. I didn’t want the elves taking the only example we had of their technology, even if it might be seven-hundred-year-old technology. Simon held it up for Jakatra’s perusal.

“Odd,” Jakatra said. “That model would be found in a museum.” He reached for it.

Simon slipped it into his pocket again first. “Finders keepers.”

Jakatra regarded him coolly.

“We better go,” Simon ordered, though he seemed to be talking to Naomi rather than me. They scrambled up the scree and dirt, grabbing the branches and tufts of grass where it was too steep to ascend without help.

“Guess he’s found a new research assistant.” I switched to Greek. “Alek, how’s your sense of smell? Shall we go look on our own?”

Alek was busy glowering at Jakatra, and it took him a moment to focus on me and give a curt nod.

I started after Simon, but Jakatra said, “Wait,” and stretched his arm out in front of me. I thought he meant to stop me, nothing more, but Alek brushed past me and caught Jakatra’s arm, pushing it aside before it could impede me.

Glaring at Jakatra again, Alek said something terse and sharp. In a language I didn’t understand. “Don’t touch her,” was my guess. He was standing straight, his chest thrust out, doing his best to loom over Jakatra, which was tough when he stood downslope from the elf, and they were the same height.

Jakatra returned the glare blandly and responded in kind, his words almost as brief. My guess for it was, “I knew you knew our language.”

Alek’s chin came up, but he didn’t speak again. I’m not sure what it said about me that I was more pleased that I now knew for certain Alek might be able to teach me the elven language than that a handsome man was standing up for me, but that
was
the first thought that flashed into my mind. The second was to wonder what else Jakatra wanted.

“Afraid we’ll leave without you?” I asked him. “No need for concern. You’re welcome to join us.”

“You have been researching the sword.” Jakatra stared into my eyes, but it was probably more about making a show of ignoring Alek than any real interest in what was going on in my mind. “Eleriss has gone to attempt to negotiate with Yesathra, but this is made difficult by not knowing the full value of that which she seeks.”

“Negotiate? I thought you guys were planning to take care of our spy in a more… forceful manner.”

“That would be unwise for us. Akin to you attacking one of your police officers.”

“Ah.” I’d been pleased when Jakatra and Eleriss showed up, saying they would help with our green-eyed spy, but I now wondered how much help they could actually be. I glanced at the back of the shopping area above us. Was Eleriss negotiating with the elven woman now, somewhere outside of town, or was she up there, attempting to make further trouble for us? “Is—”

“The sword,” Jakatra interrupted. “You have learned more about it.”

Yeah, and his brusqueness wasn’t making me want to share with him. But he had told us about the bait and showed us what it looked like. He might not personally be a fan of humans, but he
was
here.

Before answering, I pulled out my phone and sent a group text to Simon and Temi, telling them to watch out for Green Eyes and meet up at the pet store at the end of the shopping complex if they found any trouble. That and the coffee shop were the only places I remembered from our drive through town.

“We haven’t verified it,” I said as I tapped in the message, “but we think the sword can open portals.”

Jakatra didn’t look surprised, but he wasn’t nodding as if he had known all along, either. “Interesting. I studied it when we had it, and it doesn’t have exterior… controls.” He made a face at the word, so I assumed it wasn’t the best one. “Any manipulation must be done mentally. I would not have expected a weapon from that era to have that sophistication, especially one that was left
here
.”

“I don’t think Temi is giving it any commands, but it seems to direct her toward things. It really wanted her to visit the Cow Pies.” I waved in the direction of Schnebly Road.

“Cow pies.” Jakatra said it in a flat tone, like he either had no idea what it was or he knew and wasn’t amused. “There?” He pointed through the rocks in what was probably a more pinpoint direction of the formation.

“Yeah.”

“It guides her toward
meselkshomaleshialae
. Interesting.”

Mes-what? A few more syllables and that would have made a decent German compound word.

“I will speak with Artemis,” Jakatra said. “She should not feel compelled to go where the sword leads. In this case, I would recommend against it. I doubt the portals here can still be opened, but they do not lead anywhere humans or
Dhekarzha
could go and survive.”

“They can’t still be opened?” I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. If evil things could come through them, relief would probably be in order, but how many times did a girl get to see a portal to another world?

Jakatra said another incomprehensible word in his language, considered me, then said, “The movement of the stars over time, this is understood here? There is a word?”

“Stellar drift?” I guessed, though Simon was more of a space nerd and could speak more intelligently on the subject.

“Potential bridges between worlds and dimensions come and go with the eons. These, and a couple of others in your world, were what first drew my people to explore here.”

“Not an undeniable fascination with humanity, eh?”

It had been a joke, but Jakatra’s scathing response stung a little, anyway. “No.”

“Well, now that you know everything I know, I’m going to go help my friends search. It doesn’t sound like we have much time before the monster is back.” When Jakatra didn’t move to stop me again—Alek was watching him through hooded eyes—I started up the slope. But I paused after a mere two steps, an earlier thought jumping back into my head. “How could you be certain the
jibtab
was out of stingers, anyway?”

Jakatra tilted his head. “I saw the empty holes in the carapace.”

“You can
see
it?”

“I can see all of the
jibtab
.”

“We saw the last one, too, but this one is invisible to our eyes,” I said.

Jakatra flicked his fingers, as if to dismiss this as a trivial point. “Then it is slightly farther into the dimension of its origins than the other one was. Our people see a wider… spectrum than yours. That is not the right word. It refers to light, yes? Perhaps there isn’t a word here.”

“Oh, I’m sure some science fiction show or another as covered it.” I wished I had recorded this chat for Simon. He would be dancing and asking a thousand questions. Not that Jakatra looked like he wanted to speak further.

I glanced back at Alek to make sure he wasn’t too engaged in a stare-fest with Jakatra to follow me, then clambered in the direction the others had gone. Simon had answered my text:

Crystal lady won’t let us detect in her store. Doesn’t want the coils to destroy the energy fields around her stuff.

In other words, he hadn’t found anything. Temi hadn’t responded yet. I sent her another message, asking where she was, then hauled myself over a railing and into the parking lot. There were a couple dozen cars in the spots, but we were the only people outside.

“Are you fluent in their language?” I asked Alek as we hiked up yet another hill to the main street. At least this one was paved.

He gave me a wary look, and I could already tell he wouldn’t be excited at the prospect of teaching it. “I spoke it rarely.”

“But heard it a lot?” I guessed.

“Too much.”

We reached the street, and I paused before stepping out onto the sidewalk. Here and there, people stood in front of shop doors, but for the most part, the usually busy area was devoid of pedestrians. The barricade wasn’t visible, thanks to a curve in the road, but there were other police cars and two fire engines parked in the middle of the street, their lights flashing. At the moment, all of the cops appeared to be helping the paramedics who were loading people into ambulances. Given my long conversation with Jakatra, it had to have been well over a half hour since Autumn had first texted us. How many people must have gone down if the EMTs still hadn’t managed to collect them all?

I shook my head, wondering what would happen if we didn’t find this bait box before the
jibtab
was ready to fight again. There weren’t any caves nearby, and it was probably too big to be lured into the shops.

A couple of thorns abutting the base of a brick building caught my eye. The thorns I had tried so hard to get samples of earlier were now scattered all over the street. And being plucked out of people’s flesh, no doubt. I was tempted to run up to the paramedics and tell them what the “poison” was, but as Autumn had said, the hospital must already know by now.

I spotted the crystal shop Simon had mentioned. If he was searching on this side of the street, we should start with the restaurants and stores on the other side. Would the police notice us if we ran across? And if they did, would they try to stop us, or would they be too busy?

Simon stepped out of the crystal shop, looked both ways, then waved for us to join him. Maybe Temi was already searching the other side of the street. Or maybe he needed help. As Alek and I jogged toward him, I spotted people’s faces pressed to the window of the first store we passed. Men, women, and children were staring out, noticing us, yes, but also watching the paramedics. They must have been ordered to stay inside.