Elves Invasion

65

You may stop now, she told Blueback. Go join your family, but watch for the stolen human.

She reached out to Isaac, only to hear from him what she had already learned from Blueback. The Woven trails broke off into over a dozen different directions and there was no way to be sure which group had taken Red Leaf. She called her mechanics back.

We know where they’re taking him, Ava told them, trying to quell her unease.

“Breakfast. Red Leaf is the other you,” Ava said. “You can reach him in mindspeak.”

“Ah—I’ll try,” he said uncertainly. His face scrunched up in confusion. “How do you contact another you?”

Ava smiled, remembering what it had felt like when she heard Mia whispering to her across the worldfoam.

“You have to go a little crazy,” she replied.

Ava had no idea how long it would take the simian Woven to get Red Leaf to the edge of the Hive’s territory, and from there, how long it would take them to get all the way west to Bower City, but however long it was—days, maybe weeks—that was all the time she had to get her army assembled and ready to jump into battle. In the meantime, something had to be done about Grace’s control of the wild Woven.

Grace was in a conspicuously fine mood that morning, which was terrifying.

Brick pulled his gaze from the bow of the yacht as it dipped into the surf and looked across the brunch table at Mala, hoping she didn’t c***k. Grace’s good humor seemed to hide a thousand threats, and the Warrior Sisters perched in the rigging didn’t help. They looked down on the forced merriment, twitching their heads and shivering their wings with malice. Brick could practically hear Mala chanting she knows under her breath.

Of course, it would be a miracle if Grace didn’t know. Brick and Mala had been meeting with malcontents for the past week to gather up opposition, and hopefully, some kind of fighting force. They had plenty of support from foreign sources. Every other country in the world wanted what Bower City had, and they risked little by pledging money, weapons, even soldiers. It wasn’t their home that would be destroyed in a war with the Hive, or their lives that would be left in tatters afterward. Every meeting where he spoke in code and exchanged microcapsules of pre-written terms with a handshake had left Brick feeling like a traitor. None of those foreign forces cared if Bower City fell, just as long as they were the first to get the formula for making willstones, and because of that Brick had forgone accepting their help. So far.

The homegrown opposition that Brick really wanted was harder to come by. The natives knew what would happen if they tried to fight the Hive. They knew the Hive wouldn’t hesitate to kill them all.

“Brick?” Grace said, as if she were repeating herself.

“Sorry,” he said, shaking his head and giving her one of the more charming smiles from his repertoire. “I was miles away.”

“And I can understand why. You haven’t been getting much sleep lately,” Grace observed casually, as if it were normal for her to know something as private as his sleep schedule. She spooned more caviar onto her crostini. “Lunch with the minister from Japan. Then drinks with the foreign trade envoy from Germany. And that was just yesterday.”

A Worker ambled toward him across the tablecloth, feeling her way through the salt spray in the air with her antennae. Brick watched her slow progress and concentrated on his breathing. She was trying to taste his sweat. If she did, all she would taste was fear.

“I’m always looking to improve our relations abroad,” he replied when he knew he could do so without his voice breaking.

Grace’s eyes narrowed over a brittle smile. “Are our relations in such bad shape that the two of you feel you must repair them with every nation?”

Mala hadn’t moved a muscle in too long, which is difficult to do on the deck of a yacht. Brick looked at her and laughed, letting the sun bounce off his upturned face to show how carefree he was. Mala joined him a beat late, but at least she broke out of her frozen posture.

“Mala and I have come to an understanding recently,” he said, reaching across the table for her hand. She took his cue and looked at him with a simpering fondness that he forced himself to duplicate. If they were going to play lovers, they might as well play it to the fullest. “And we decided it was time to think about our futures. If we ever want a family, we’re going to have to focus on our careers now while we can.”

“Family?” Grace asked. She looked between the two of them, stricken. “I never thought of you as the type to want children.”

Brick shrugged a shoulder in a way that could be seen as apologetic, allowing her to assume that he hadn’t wanted children with her. If they were lucky, Grace would be so derailed by the blow to her ego that she would overlook the fact that both he and Mala were sweating.

There was something about being on a boat with someone you didn’t trust. It didn’t make much sense, seeing as how Grace could have both of them killed anytime she wanted, but out on the open water where there were no witnesses, Brick still felt less secure than he did on dry land. He couldn’t shake the image of his body being dumped overboard, never to be found. He could tell Mala was thinking the same thing from the way she kept peering over the railing, contemplating the deep, cold waters of the bay.

“So you can see why we’re eager to be indispensable to you, Grace,” Brick finished.

“Yes,” Mala said, her voice gravelly with disuse. She hadn’t said a word yet, and was now forcing an overly animated smile to make up for it. Clumsy. Especially considering the fact that she had nothing more than “yes” to add. Brick poured them some more wine. Maybe if he got her drunk she’d calm down.

“So, to what do we owe this little excursion today?” Brick said. He’d hoped to sound lighthearted, but the abrupt change in topic was as jarring as grinding gears to his ears. He winced a little at the awkwardness of it.

“I’ve had some good news and I was looking to spend the morning with two indispensable people,” Grace replied.

Brick didn’t know if he should laugh at her play on his words or not, so he settled on looking inquisitive. “What news?” he asked.