Elves Invasion

63

“She made them,” Isaac answered. “There’s something you need to know about the Woven.”

Isaac switched between English and Cherokee in order to explain everything to Alaric. When words failed him, he showed his stone kin what he had seen in mindspeak, keeping Ava in the loop as he did so.

Images of Bower City, its busy port, its wealth, and the exceedingly long and healthy lives of its citizens were passed to Alaric. Then Isaac showed him the antique womb combs and explained what they had been used for two centuries ago. Alaric didn’t say a word. He just sat there, staring at the fire. When Isaac finally showed him Grace and the confrontation in the redwood grove that had ended in Juliet’s death, Alaric barely moved.

“She’s an Outlander,” was all he said, past anger. After a few more moments of staring into the fire, Alaric stood and faced Ava. “You can take all the braves safely to Bower City, and away from it again to get them out of danger?”

“In an instant,” she replied.

“Then you may dismantle my last bomb. I have no quarrel with the Thirteen Cities anymore,” he said. Ava breathed a sigh of relief, but Alaric waved a hand, cutting her off. “Don’t celebrate yet, because I agree with Mia. She’s still got a bomb of her own, and I don’t doubt she’s going to use it.” He laughed mirthlessly. “Can you believe it? I nearly killed you for saying this last time we met, but I agree with Mia,” he said musingly. “Bower City should burn.”

“No, wait. You don’t understand. The citizens don’t know what Grace has done,” Ava started to argue. Alaric turned away, uncaring.

“Put Erye Son of Anoki in the yoke,” he ordered, and Erye was dragged off.

“The people of Bower City are innocent,” Ava pressed, but Alaric ignored her.

Leave him be, Isaac advised Ava in mindspeak. Give him a chance to cool off.

Alaric stopped in front of Juliet. “I’m sorry if I offended you earlier with my over-familiarity,” he said politely.

“Not at all. I’m sorry for your loss,” she replied in kind. Alaric bobbed his head in acknowledgment and limped away from the fire. Juliet’s eyes followed him.

“Alaric, I still need to claim you,” Ava called after him. “I can’t jump you if I don’t.” He didn’t stop. “You’ll be left behind!” she hollered even though she knew it wouldn’t do any good. Alaric was even more stubborn than she was.

Ava woke and found Isaac sleeping next to her again. His hair had fallen across his eyes and she resisted the urge to brush it away.

She left him in her tent and went out into the camp before dawn. The night was mild outside of Richmond, and there was a faint layer of mist between the ferns and the sycamore trees. She touched some of the minds of her braves and asked them where he was. She followed the faint tugging of their minds to the other end of camp and saw him chained up next to a giant armored cart.

She thought she’d approached silently, yet he raised his head as she neared. His chains clanked and she rubbed the marks on her wrists at the sound. Erye was locked in an oxen yoke, arms suspended alongside his head, the heavy wood of it dragging down his upper body.

She looked at the armored cart behind him. Its wheels were sunk deep into the soft earth. Ava trained her witch’s eye on it and saw no radiation, but she did detect a large amount of lead.

“Ava,” Erye rasped. He said her name a lot. She didn’t know if he knew how it unnerved her. “Don’t worry. I already disarmed it.”

“So that’s the bomb?” she asked, gesturing to the armored cart.

“The only weapon more dangerous than you,” he said, laughing with the effort to keep his head raised. “Maybe that’s why you and Mia are so obsessed with it. You can’t bear the competition.”

Ava’s brow pinched at the troubling thought, and she glared at him. “The only thing I’m obsessed with is saving as many lives as I can.”

“Liar. You think I don’t know you?” Erye smirked. “I know you. Better than that pretty brother of mine. Oh, he sees the magic of you, but what he misses is the blood. All you witches are magic and blood. You more than most on both counts. You like the blood as much as you like the magic, but what you don’t know, that I can teach you, is you need the blood.”

She kept her face neutral by dint of will alone. “Where’s Mia’s bomb, Erye?”

“If I told you, would you set me free?” He saw Ava’s lips purse at the thought and chuckled. “No. Because you’d never set a monster like me loose in the world. So why should I tell you?”

She knew that there was no point appealing to his humanity, no point in pleading for the lives of the people of Bower City. For Brick’s life.

“You’ll tell me because you need me,” she said. “Mia is dying. Who’s going to claim you when she’s gone?”

She saw the thought glinting in his eyes—a spark across the flat black of his inner life. “You’d claim me?” he asked, hopeful but cautious.

She nodded once. “Because I’d never set a monster like you loose in the world.”

A smile crept up his face. “I don’t know where Mia’s bomb is. She acquired it while I was following you in your world,” he said. “But I will find it for you.”

“Find it. Disable it. And when Mia’s gone, I’ll claim you,” Ava promised. When she saw him smile—a thin reptilian upturn of the lips—she felt a part of herself lie down and die.

Ava, what are you doing?

Ava turned to see Isaac coming toward her, shirtless, barefooted, and angry. He carried one of the silver knives from his belt in one hand and a torch in the other. It took everything in her not to run to him.

Making a bargain with the devil, she told him in mindspeak.

“Missing something, brother?” Erye taunted.

You shouldn’t be with him on your own. Erye is dangerous, even if he is bound, Isaac told her in mindspeak.

I know. But I need him—

Isaac stiffened and his head whipped around, interrupting her thought. Both his and Erye’s eyes were already darting into the murky edge of the firelight before Ava could hear what the two of them heard—the absence of sound. The tree frogs had gone silent. Not one owl hooted.

“Let me out,” Erye said in a low, desperate voice. “Brother. You can’t defend her alone.”