Crimson Veil

Chapter 14

As Rodney led us through the hall, it ran through my mind that if the golem could sense a dangerous energy, then whatever it was had to be strong. Rodney wasn’t the brightest bulb in the psychic socket, and he’d never been one to be sensitive in any other direction either.

The area we were in looked like it had been tunneled long after Underground Seattle had come to be, but it wasn’t new or fresh. I wondered who had originally built it, and why? Had it been Lowestar, or had the original architect been up to some other low-life project?

The walls were cool and slightly damp, and they were shored up by a dark brick façade. Whether it was dirt or stone beneath the wall, I didn’t know and it didn’t really matter. The floor was smooth, and I thought it might be concrete. Lights—electric and dim—ran the length of the corridor.

We hurried, making quick time. We’d been lucky since we killed off the guards back at the secret entrance, but who knew how long that luck would hold up?

As we rounded a corner, Rodney pointed to the passageway that unfolded in front of us. “There are your cells.”

Along the tunnel, on either side, were iron-barred cells. They were dank, and Camille and Delilah coughed. I deliberately inhaled, and the smell of feces and urine, of mold and decay, filled my lungs.

“Great Bastus… I’ve been here before.” Delilah quickly began to move forward, not touching the bars but looking through them. “I was here when I was in Gerald’s mind—when I saw the girl sitting in the cell. And—there she is!”

We hurried forward, but not before I noticed another woman in the cell next to hers. The woman looked up at me, and in the depths of the despair on her face, a hope blossomed. Hell yes, we had to get them all out.

I stared at the iron bars, willing them to break open. Of course, they didn’t. But Smoky moved to the front, with Morio beside him. They motioned the rest of us aside, and Morio took his demon shape. Smokey took hold of one bar, Morio took hold of the one next to it, and they pulled, their muscles straining against the heavy iron bars. I wanted to help, too, but the bars were unalloyed iron, pure and harmful to me. Even though I’d heal, it would be a nasty burn to my hands since my half-Fae nature still ran within my veins.

The bars groaned as they bent, resisting the call to open. And then, a moment later, a siren pierced the air.

“Fuck! Alarm!” I turned, readying myself for a fight.

“Enough with this.” Smoky closed his eyes and vanished. Within moments, he appeared on the inside of the cell. The woman looked up at him. “Is your name Violet?”

She nodded, speechless, and he broke the chain that tethered her to the wall, gathered her up, and vanished. Roz raced down to the cell next to hers and did the same, only he used one of his firebombs to blow the chain out of the wall. Since he had originally been Fae, he groaned when the iron shrapnel singed his arm. But ignoring the burn, he gathered up the woman in his arms and vanished.

That was all well and good, I thought, but we still had three prisoners, and now we were down two of our best fighters.

Delilah, Tanne, and Rodney took one side. I took the other, and Camille and Morio stood in the middle, preparing a spell. We had no clue what was going to answer the sound of those alarms, but no doubt, something would.

A moment later, we had our answer. Something swooped in on us. It wasn’t a daeflier—that much even I could tell. No, it was translucent and hard to see, except for the concentric circles rippling around it, like stones landing on water in a pond. Whatever it was made no noise, but the next moment, it soared up toward the ceiling and dove for Camille and Morio.

They raised their hands, joined together, and shouted, “Reflect!” and a thin shield of purple covered them, emanating out of their hands. Another second and the creature bounced off it, spun in the air, and came toward me.

I had no clue how to fight it, or whether its attack would even be physical. But that question was put to rest as it slammed into and through me. A rush of icy cold air curdled my veins, making it hard to move. I was fairly immune to the cold, so whatever this was must be damned chill because if it could affect me, I dreaded to think what it might do to the others.

It launched itself at me again, and this time, I tried to fight back—swiping at it as it came near, but my hand hit the rippling air and pain nearly knocked me senseless. I reeled back as it barreled through me again, and this time I could barely move; it felt like my body was frozen.

“What the fuck is this thing?”

Tanne ran to my side. “I think I know. I fought one of these in the Black Forest. I’m surprised to see it here!”

“W-w-what is it? H-h-how can we fight it?” I was stuttering, my lips barely able to form words. Every movement was a struggle, like I was sinking in quicksand or molasses.

At that moment, Smoky reappeared, along with Roz.

Tanne motioned to Roz. “A sichbarmon is attacking her! ‘Invisible ghost demon’ is the best translation I can give you. They are from the Netherworld and they use the power of cold to drain the life force from their enemies. We fight it with fire. The fiery explosives you have? Do you have more?”

“Will they work on a ghost?” Roz hunted through his pockets.

“If they are magical, they will.”

At that moment, the creature dove at me again and, once more, blasted a wave of snow and ice and bone-chilling cold through me. If I’d been alive, I’d now be a corpsesickle. I let out a croaking sound as Camille and Morio fired off a spell at the thing, but their magic bounced off.

The next moment, Roz shouted, “Close your eyes!” and I struggled to obey. I’d no sooner shut my eyes than a wave of warmth and heat spread over me, and a shockwave so loud I couldn’t hear a thing after that except for a nasty ringing in my ears.

But the paralysis began to lift and I was able to move a little. Tanne raced in, grabbing me and dragging me to the side, as the sichbarmon dove again. Roz tossed another bomb at it, and this time, the ripple in the air lit up in a brilliant flash, then vanished.

Tanne’s mouth moved and he said something but I couldn’t hear it. Then he turned to me. I watched his lips. “Are you all right?”

I nodded, slowly dragging myself up to my feet, using his shoulder to balance on. “I can’t hear. How long will this ringing last?”

Everybody stopped and turned to look at me. Great, I was the center of attention and so not for a helpful reason. Tanne turned me to face him and pointed to his lips. I nodded and watched as he mouthed, “It will wear off of you quickly, being vampire. But if you were human? Or Fae without the vampire? You’d be dead, as well as deaf.”

Smoky and Roz hurried to bring the other three prisoners out. I couldn’t make out any of the conversation, but Smoky grabbed two of them around the waist—a man and woman—and Roz took hold of the last woman, and they vanished again.

Delilah grabbed me by the arm and motioned to turn around. Torn, I resisted. We’d come this far—could we find out more? But then the realization of our current state hit me. We’d found Violet. We’d rescued the other four prisoners who were trapped there with her. I was running zero in the hearing category. And we were dreadfully undermanned for a mission of this sort. We’d managed to luck out with some nasty bruises and scars, but who knew what lay farther beyond in this complex. Reluctantly, I nodded, and we headed back the way we had come at a quick jog. The sooner we were out of here, the better.

By the time we reached the secret passage, I was relieved we’d turned around. I was also beginning to hear again. Lowestar would find out about this soon enough, and he’d probably bring an army with him. Morio, Camille, and Tanne’s magical signatures were probably all over the place, and no doubt they’d figure out who had rampaged through, killed the guards and hellhounds, and stolen their merchandise.

And tonight, I really didn’t want to find myself on the end of a pissed-off major daemon.

We made it out without incident, skirting the dead bodies. I stopped and picked up several of the bullwhips by the entrance to the secret passageway. They fascinated me and I thought it might be fun to have them around.

Morio confined Rodney to his coffin again and the bone golem went without so much as a peep.

“We don’t have far to go, but the longer we stay down here, the more nervous I get.” Camille glanced around. “I have the feeling something is looming and I don’t know what, so it’s making me antsy.”

We sped up, and by the time we reached the door with the alarm, Smoky and Roz were waiting on the other side.

“We figured that you would be on the move, so we decided to wait here for you rather than try to backtrack and find you. Come on—we’ve accomplished this mission and we better not hang around. Besides…” Smoky paused, then drew a long breath. “Trenyth called on the Whispering Mirror. News from the war front. Not good, he says. But he wouldn’t tell us till you get home and are there to hear.”

Great. Another thing to worry about. But I tried to focus on the positive. We’d rescued five people tonight who would otherwise have been sold into slavery. They couldn’t go back to their daily lives, though—too much chance Lowestar would track them down and wreak revenge, or try to silence them before they could give out any information.

In fact, the thought occurred to me that, once he realized they were gone, he couldn’t just go back to his SOP. We knew too much about his operation, and so he’d either have to hide it beneath something else, or ramp up some other aspect of it. Suddenly unsettled, I realized that our actions tonight would have far-reaching ramifications. And considering we didn’t have a clue as to how powerful he was, or what the extent of his reach was, I wondered just what the fuck can of worms we’d opened up now. But we’d had no choice. We couldn’t leave five prisoners there, set to be sold. We had to rescue them, regardless of the fallout.

We reached the cars and split up, hightailing it out of there as quickly as we could. All the way home, Delilah nervously watched the rearview mirror, making certain that nobody was following us. I called Camille, and Morio answered.

“Put me on speaker. I don’t want to wait till we get home and caught up with whatever Trenyth’s news is to tell you what I’ve been thinking about.”

“One sec… okay, go ahead. You’re on speaker.” Morio’s voice crackled with the static that speaker phones always picked up.

I spilled out what I’d been thinking about. “I think we may have just escalated whatever this thing with Lowestar is. We threw a nasty monkey wrench in the works, and who knows what he’ll do next?”

From Camille’s car, Smoky’s voice sounded. “If he’s truly trying to raise some ancient, crusty demigod, that might become his major focus. If he knows we’re on to his slavery operation, he might decide to bring in the big guns, so to speak.”

I groaned, and so did Delilah and Camille.

Camille’s voice came over the phone. “Just what we need, but I have a nasty feeling you’re right. Okay, good to keep in mind. Don’t want to keep it in mind, but we have to be ready for anything at this point.”

And with that, I hung up and we drove on into the silent night.

When we reached home, we took a few minutes to clean up and the others grabbed snacks. Hanna had left a message for me—Roman needed to see me. I glanced at the clock. It was two in the morning.

Our rescued prisoners had all been cleaned and bathed and were huddled in the parlor under the watchful eyes of Nerissa, Vanzir, and Shade, who had been gathering as much information as they could without traumatizing them. We’d talk to them as soon as we put out whatever fire Trenyth had for us.

Camille slipped into the seat in front of the Whispering Mirror and activated it. A moment later, the mist cleared and a guard faced us.

“Allow me a moment and I’ll fetch Lord Trenyth.” His eyes were sober and clear, but something about his expression told me the elf had been through hell. He stood and disappeared to the right, out of our view. True to his word, a moment later, Trenyth slid into the vacant seat.

“I don’t have time to linger, girls. But I wanted to keep you updated. Trillian, are you there?” It was obvious that Trenyth hadn’t slept in days—deep lines underscored his eyes, and he yawned even as he spoke.

Trillian grunted. “Yes, I’m here.”

“The storm has rained its fury on Svartalfheim, I’m sorry to say. The sorcerers did their best to deflect it, and good thing, or the damage would have been worse. But the city is still a smoldering mess. Luckily, they took less damage than Elqaneve, but it’s still bad. Several thousand dead, we think. King Vodox managed to survive, but there is much damage.”

“And the storm?” I asked. “It is still raging?”

Trenyth let out a long sigh. “What mages survived our onslaught tell me they think it has weakened a bit, but yes, and it marches on toward Gylden, the city of the Goldunsan.”

Crap. Gylden was a relatively peaceful city of Fae who lived in the mountains. Reclusive, the Goldunsan were seldom found in cities other than their own. Golden-skinned, they were beautiful in ways that made most Fae glamour seem like a knockoff. But the fact that they had few dealings with outsiders meant they didn’t often form alliances. The storm could trash their city to the ground.

“We’ve alerted them, of course. But now we have a new worry.”

And it just kept coming.

“We’ve received a message from Ceredream stating that there’s some sort of activity happening on their borders. But they sat on the fence too long. We have no reserves left to send them at this point. King Gwyfn of the Nebulveori Mountains is closer; he is sending scouts to the City of the East to find out what they can.”

“So the dwarves are fully involved.” Delilah frowned. “I almost hate to ask but what’s happening in Y’Elestrial?”

“They are prepared—they have gathered every sorcerer and witch they can. They’re all working on war efforts, both in fortifying the city, and in discovering any weakness they can in Telazhar’s army. If we can discover where Telazhar himself is, we can attempt an assassination coup.” He paused. “Your cousin Shamas showed up. We’ve put him to work here—it’s too dangerous for him to attempt the roads to Svartalfheim right now.”

Camille winced, but said nothing.

“And Elqaneve?” I didn’t want to ask, but we had to know. “How are you doing? You look like crap, Trenyth.”

He smiled then, wearily, but it was a smile. “You think I don’t know that? Of course I do. I haven’t slept in days. I’ve been run ragged. Sharah looks just as tired as I am, but I’m making sure she gets as much rest as she can, given that she just had a baby. Is Chase there?”

“No.” Camille started to stand. “Do you need me to go get him? He’s probably asleep at Iris’s.”

“No, let him rest. Sharah misses him terribly. I have a feeling when this war is over, she’s going to drag Elqaneve in directions we have been resisting for years. The people love her—what better heroine than a woman who had to choose duty over the love of her life and her child?”

“Then she’s told your people?” Somehow I couldn’t imagine Sharah keeping her mouth shut.

“Oh, yes. Sharah has a backbone of steel, regardless of that quiet demeanor. Over the past few days, she’s made no bones about mentioning that she left her family back Earthside, and I guess that people here are just too shell-shocked to care if her family happens to be a mostly FBH and a half-breed child. I don’t know how they’ll work it out once the war is settled—may it be settled—but by then, I doubt if any of the former proscriptions regarding heritage will matter.” Trenyth looked both pleased and irritated.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Good. And that’s the way it should be. We put up with enough crap as children because we were half-breeds. You have to know where our sympathies lie.”

He laughed in return. “Yes, I most certainly do. And trust me, I understand.” After a brief pause, he added, “Camille—Derisa wants to see you as soon as possible. I told her it might not be for a few days, considering what’s going on. She said she may make the trip Earthside, given how dangerous it is over here, now.”

Camille stared at the mirror, her expression blank. “We are in the middle of something big here. I can’t possibly come back right now.”

“Oh, she understands that. This war will not go away in the next day or two—whatever it is, it isn’t an emergency, though she did stress it’s important.” Another pause, and then, “And Trillian? We finally received word from Darynal. He and Taath survived, but Quall is dead. They can’t make it back to Elqaneve right now, given the chaos happening, so they’re headed toward Y’Elestrial.”

“From the desert?” Trillian gnawed on his lip. “That means they’ll have to travel through the Shadow Lands.”

Trenyth nodded, his look matching Trillian’s. “Yes. I know… but it’s the only way. There’s so much unrest in the Southern Wastes that they don’t dare stay there. If they tried to make it up to Nebulveori, chances are they’d be spotted on the way and killed. The goblins are up in arms, and so are the mountain bogies. The dwarves are picking them off right and left. That leaves the Shadow Lands, if they want to work their way back up north.”

“Darynal has family in Svartalfheim. He needs to find out if they are safe or if they perished.” Trillian slowly lowered himself to the sofa. “I have to do something.”

Camille paled. “But the Shadow Lands—you can’t go to the Shadow Lands. Damn it, you know what perils hide there.”

Trillian held her gaze. “Of course I know. But you also know that he is my lavoyda . . . my blood-oath brother. How can I turn my back on him when I know he’s in danger?”

“I do understand.” She stared back at him for a moment. “If you must go, you must. But remember: We need you here, too.”

Trenyth interrupted. “Trillian, listen to Camille. The Shadow Lands are deep and long with history—many who have attempted to pass through their borders are never seen again. For now, Darynal is safe, but if he chooses that route… there is a good chance he will never return. And if you go after him, you, too, may vanish.”

The Shadow Lands were a valley that separated the deserts of the Southern Wastes from the eastern lands. The valley had been the last refuge of those who fled the great forests destroyed during the Scorching Wars. They raced into the canyons, and there, Telazhar and his armies had hunted them down and slaughtered them en masse. The entire area, including the bordering Ranakwa Fens, were rife with the spirits of the dead—angry and frightened and still missing their homes.

Trillian fell silent, but by the look on his face, the wheels were turning fast and furious upstairs.

“How many sorcerers do you think that Telazhar has gathered, Trenyth?” It was a question we probably didn’t want the answer to, but it was important that we knew what we were up against.

“Last report I got from Darynal’s group before they disappeared was… well over three hundred. Telazhar swept through the Brotherhood of the Sun and gathered up the entire cult. And most of the guilds in the Southern Wastes threw their weight behind him. We’re talking an army of magic-wielding psychopaths twice as large as the one he commanded during the Scorching Wars. One sorcerer can destroy a village if he’s powerful enough. Three hundred—”

“Can rule the world, especially when they have an army of grunts behind them.” We all fell silent for a moment. All it took was one charismatic orator who held true power, and you had the makings for disaster. Put a Demon Lord at his back and a spirit seal around his neck and there was the beginning to the end.

“Right. I need to get back to matters at hand. I’m trying to find out how many villages in Elqaneve still stand, but the going is rough and gathering data is dangerous. There are so many dead here, girls. I don’t know… the Elfin race will rebuild but I don’t know if we’ll ever be the nation and people we were a week ago. Telazhar was trying for total annihilation, and he damned near achieved it.” And with that, he signed off before we could say any more.

I sat back, sighing. “I guess we should talk to Violet.”

Tanne, who had been watching silently, shook his head. “You really are up against the wall. For rescuing Violet… any time you need me? I’m ready and willing to go for it. All you have to do is ask.”

I realized that Tanne now knew far more about matters than we’d planned. But he seemed like an ally worth having.

“I’m surprised you aren’t in there, making sure she’s okay.” I cocked my head, wondering at how calm and pulled together he was.

“You know little about what I’ve faced, and the people I’ve lost. I’ve learned to focus on the matters at hand, to push everything else to the side, even when it’s ripping me up inside. I’ve learned how to separate my personal life from what needs done. My mother trained us well. The Hunter’s Glen Clan has a reputation of being the hope of last resort. People come to us who have tried every other outlet and failed. And we seldom fail.” He leaned back in his chair and a shock of his tousled blond hair fell in his eyes. He brushed it back, a faint, arrogant grin on his face. “Living in the Black Forest breeds strength.”

“We welcome your help.” I glanced at the others. I had a good feeling about Tanne. He was an oddball, but he was one of the good guys. “Before it gets much later, we should talk to Violet and the others. You know, of course, we can’t let them go home. We can’t chance Lowestar looking for them. He’d probably kill them outright, hoping to keep them from talking. Or out of spite.”

“That’s going to present its own problems. Where do they go?”

“We’ll decide that in a little while. Meanwhile, bring them in and let’s find out what we’re facing.”

By the looks of them, Nerissa had seen that they’d had showers and they were comfortably dressed in clean clothing that she’d scrounged up from our various wardrobes. By now, we were used to lending our clothes to stragglers who needed a change.

But the haunted looks in their eyes told me they’d been through hell. Violet started when she saw Tanne, and she broke into a run, racing into his arms. He held her tight, kissing her brow, kissing her lips, but then he gently disengaged her and pushed her to arm’s length.

“There will be time for us later,” he whispered. “Now we need to talk to you. To find out everything you know.”

Violet let out a long breath, sounding exhausted. “We’ve already talked to the dragon and Were. They know everything we know, and they wrote it down so we wouldn’t lose anything.” She turned to us, and a soft smile played over her lips. “Thank you. Thank you more than I can ever express. I didn’t think I’d ever make it out of there.”

Nerissa stepped forward. She gave me a light kiss before introducing the others. “You know Violet already. Meet Shay, Daisy, Fray, and this is Weaver.”

The four of them nodded, looking confused and more than a little dazed. Nerissa settled them onto the sofa, while the rest of us took the other chairs. Violet joined her comrades, looking a little less shell-shocked than the others.

Nerissa turned to us. “Shay was in there over a year. The others have been prisoners for between two and five months. Violet was the last one captured. They told us they’ve seen at least four Fae and two Weres come through the cells in the past five months. Shay doesn’t know how many were laundered through during the period between when she was captured and when Weaver was put in the cell next to her five months back.”

“So it’s not first in, first out.” I frowned. “I wonder what the criteria are.”

Weaver spoke up, his voice shaky. “I know. I managed to get one of the guards talking. He said that sometimes the transfer takes a while, and once in a while, a buyer reneges on the deal. Then they have to either find a new one, or they have to work out whatever the problem was.”

“The guards—were they all daemons?” Camille shifted to allow Hanna room to bring in a tea tray and some cookies. It was obvious that our housekeeper had been in bed; she was in a nightgown and her hair was braided back. But she never missed a beat—just like Iris, she was always on call.

“No, there were a few humans, too.” Weaver shook his head. “They’ve got a tight operation. By the way, I have to contact my superiors. You’re going to find out sooner or later so I might as well tell you.”

Shade glanced up. “He’s an operative for the Fly by Night Investigations Agency. A freelancer.”

Again with the FBN agency. Twice in one night meant it might be time to pay a visit to the business, especially since it was being run by a vampire. But that could keep.

“What were you doing there?” I accepted the bottle of blood that Hanna handed me. After the experience with the daemon’s blood, I thought I might stick to bottled for a while. The whole out-of-control thing had been frightening.

“Searching for Shay. Her family reported her missing, and the last known contacts were through Supernatural Matchups. Alex hired me to do some research. It led to me getting captured. We thought we were dealing with a kidnapper or serial killer—we had no clue the villain was the dating service itself. By the time I realized what was going down, it was too late. I have no idea why Alex didn’t come sniffing around—he takes good care of his people. Even those of us who freelance for him.”

“We’ll try to find out. But here’s the deal, peeps. You can’t go home. You can’t even come out of hiding. If Lowestar Radcliffe—the daemon who runs the slavery operation—finds out where you’re at, he’ll come after you. He won’t know if you’ve spilled any info or not, but he won’t take any chances. If nothing else, he’ll try to shut you up. Or he’ll kill you out of spite.” I shrugged. “You have to stay missing for a while.”

“She’s not kidding.” Delilah waved a cookie at them. “I saw into the mind of one of their now-deceased partners. They’re vicious, they’re sadistic, and they have absolutely no conscience when it comes to trafficking in people. Or in killing those that cross them. The fact that we rescued the five of you? It’s going to go down in a bad way and the last place you want to be is on the receiving end of their anger and revenge.”

“Then what do we do? Our families must be worried sick—can’t we tell them we’re okay?” Daisy spoke up, her voice wavering.

“I’m afraid not. If they find you, they’ll try to find out who rescued you before they kill you. And then they’ll find out about us. We can’t risk that. Chances are they’re going to discover it was us anyway, but you don’t need to be in the middle of it.” I glanced over at Camille. “We need to figure out where to hide them.”

“We need to start our own underground railroad, given the number of peeps we seem to be running through lately.” Her gaze flickered and I knew she was thinking of the Keraastar Knights.

“We can’t keep them here.” Smoky leaned against a wall, crossing his arms. “If Lowestar figures out we’re the ones who rescued them, we can expect a raid sooner or later, and if they’re here, they’ll be in just as much danger as they would at home.”

Nerissa started to say something, then paused. We all looked at her and she shrugged. “I might know of a place, but I’m not at liberty to say just yet. I’ll have to talk to… someone… tomorrow. For tonight…”

“I think I know where we can keep them for tonight. You guys wait here. Vanzir, Smoky, you’re with me.” Camille jumped up and grabbed her keys.

“You’re going out? But you’re exhausted.” Trillian rested his hand on her arm.

She shook her head. “This won’t take long. We’ll be back soon. For now, get them down in Menolly’s lair. She’s not going to bed just yet. I just don’t want to chance anything—not with life as precarious as it is lately.”

And with that, she was out the door. I motioned to Nerissa. “Take them down below.” As she and Vanzir led the Fae away, Tanne gave Violet a long kiss before letting her go.

Meanwhile, I put in a call to Roman. “What’s up? You need to see me?”

“Yeah, there’s some heavy shit going down and we need to talk.”

I glanced at the clock. Three A.M. Realistically, I could get to his place in half an hour, but I wanted to wait until Camille got back safely. Sunrise was about three hours away. “I don’t know if I can make it tonight. Is it really important?”

“It’s important, but not dire. I know tomorrow night is your Samhain celebration—but afterward, perhaps you can come over?”

I thought about it. It seemed insane to make promises of more than a day now, with so much chaos surrounding us, but we had to keep on the move, keep acting like there was a tomorrow we could count on.

“Menolly?”

“I’m nodding,” I said. “I’ll be there tomorrow night—I don’t know what time, so I’ll call you before I leave.”

“Good enough. I lo…” He stopped, to my relief. And then quietly he said, “Be safe, my love.”

I stared at the phone, wanting to say, “I told you don’t fall in love with me. It’s dangerous, I’ll break your heart if you let yourself love me.” But in the end, all I said was, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” That was all I could say.