Bone Walker (27 page)

Jude sat down beside me on the bed and joined me in petting the cat. “I asked her just after you disappeared. She decided that if she couldn't make her amends to the heir of House Kirlath, she'd make them to those the heir cared for. The House backed her up, and I didn't even have to bargain for it. They did it out of debt to you.”

I blinked at this, several times, and then hesitantly nodded. “It was a good call,” I said. “If they meant it, the debt's clear as far as I'm concerned.”

“Oh good. I figured you'd say as much, but it's nice to hear you say it.” Her expression gentled a bit, though her eyes remained alert. More alert than I'd ever seen them, in fact. They didn't have the jewel-bright intensity of the eyes of any of the Sidhe, or even my own. But they were sharper of focus than they'd been before, more like Millicent's or Christopher's. “And it's nice to have you back finally,
chica
, but goddamn, it really has been only a couple hours for you, hasn't it? You look so shocked.”

“Understatement of the year,” I mumbled, my cheeks hot.

“Are you okay?”

Was I?

Physically at least, I felt closer to it than I had the night before. Mentally, I wasn't so sure. The surprise trip to Faerie and everything that had involved, the state Christopher had been in, and all of the damaged, flooded parts of the city we'd seen on our way to my house were bad enough. But on top of all those things there was a dragon on the loose, a dragon carrying the ghost of the wife of the Unseelie singer who'd gone from ‘trying to kill me' to ‘disturbingly kissable'—and exactly when the hell had that happened, anyway? I was reeling from all of it, badly overloaded. Now on top of it all, for crying out loud, my best friend was carrying a sword.

“Not really, but I'll get over it.” Sooner or later. I hoped. “We've got too many other things to worry about at the moment. Freaking out is not an option.”

Jude canted her head. “So does that mean this would be a bad time or the
best possible
time to mention Melisanda and me?”

“You already mentioned—” Then I stopped, and I blinked several more times as comprehension dawned. I'd known Jude was bi; that part wasn't the surprise. The prospect of the Sidhe relation I'd only barely just begun being able to deal with being anybody's romantic prospect was another question entirely. “Wait, Melisanda and you as in, operative word being ‘and'?”

“Well… not quite yet.” Her eyes, the eyes that still looked human and yet something a bit more now, twinkled. “I haven't clued her in yet that I want that option on the table. I'm letting you know now, just between you and me, just because you look like you aren't up for any more surprises at the moment.”

That sounded so familiar, just like the Jude I expected—the Jude who hadn't been attacked by the bone walker—that I couldn't help but giggle and lean over to hug her. And if my giggle had a bit of a hysterical tinge, yeah, well, that was why we were having this conversation in private. “Thanks for telling me,” I said. “I, ah, don't really know her well yet but I hope I get to be happy for you. I think under the circumstances we could all use all the happiness we could get.”

With that, Jude twisted around where she sat, just enough so that I could get an excellent view of the blade she carried along her back. It wasn't large as swords went, I supposed, though it looked quite substantial in the tooled leather scabbard she wore. The hilt too was leather, and its tight-wrapped black strips bore a faint sheen in the places I figured were most likely to take the grip of her hand. Weapon and scabbard alike also showed countless little scuff marks, overall signs of regular function and use, at least to my eyes. Not that I knew a damned thing about swords.

But I knew about Jude, and I knew the determined look that came into her eyes as she nodded at her accoutrement.

“Damn straight,” she said. “And with this, I'm going to do my part to make sure we get it.”

Last to show up at my place, in response to Millicent's call for a council of war, were Makiko Asakura and her sons.

Which of course should not have surprised me in the slightest, even though it did. Seeing her arrive at my door and receive a sober welcome from the group at large, seeing that she'd established a place as a known personage in Seattle's club of the Magically Aware, was almost as much of a shock as Jude being a year older and a swordswoman to boot. Yet here she was. The
nogitsune
woman, like everyone else had done, had changed—and in her case, this manifested as deeper lines in her face and white streaks in her long dark hair that hadn't been there the first two times I'd seen her. She entered my house with as proud a stance as I'd seen her show in Kobe Terrace Park, yet there was a weariness in her dark eyes, something far more profound than the simpler physical exhaustion Christopher had brought upon himself.

I didn't have to ask how she'd spent the surprise intervening month of my absence. Not if the bone walker still had control of the dragon, her own child.

Was there anything left of Saeko Asakura at all?

This question turned out to be the whole theme of our war council.

We gathered in my living room, sitting or standing as suited each person best, with the skull of the Unseelie Melorite in plain view before us all. It rested, gleaming, on the cushion of Elessir's folded jacket on my coffee table, where Elessir had placed it. I hadn't wanted to go near enough to the thing to move it onto anything else, or even to touch it. Nor had anyone else. Only Fortissimo paid it regular attention and then only from several feet away, his ears back and his tail lashing, a faint growl rumbling beneath the louder sounds of our conversation.

Millicent was the first of the bipeds in the house to finally acknowledge the thing's presence. “I don't need to tell any of you what we've got before us,” she said. “You all know what we're facing, since most of us have been facing it for weeks now. But what you may not know is what we can do about it, or what Kendis and Elessir have brought us now.” Her attention turned to me. “Girlie, would you please do us the honors?”

“It's hers,” I said. I'd taken a spot on my couch, with Christopher beside me, and one of his hands lay in my lap. As I spoke, I clasped those fingers tightly. “Elessir says it's the
alokhiu's
skull.”

Those words made a stir through the room, particularly with Makiko, who gave a violent start. “Then why is the thing still intact?” she demanded.

An excellent question, one for which I had no answer, but Elessir took care of that problem. “Firstly, because we didn't have time to destroy it before we arrived. Secondly, because it's an artifact of Luciriel's power, so sorry, y'all, it ain't comin' down without magic. A
nogitsune
of your power, Ms. Asakura, just might have a shot at damaging it.” His mouth curled, but his gaze was entirely serious as it swung to me. “But honestly? It's all about you, Miss Thompson.”

“You might have mentioned that,” I chided, trying not to look as blindsided as I suddenly felt.
Wait, what, me? No pressure or anything!

“Another thing we didn't exactly have time for.”

“What about Christopher and Millicent?”

Scowling at the skull, Millie said, “I can sense the magic on it, and it even feels like the bone walker, but by itself it ain't an active threat to the city.”

“It's just a thing,” Christopher agreed. “Warder magic can't do anything to it just for being here.”

The two Warders were the ones I trusted most to have the clues about all things magical. To hear them admitting that this was outside their scope didn't exactly fill me with confidence even if it made a frustrating kind of sense. “I'm the only one here with active Sidhe magic, and the Queen did let us walk off with the skull…”

“Therefore it's reasonable to assume that Luciriel reset the spells on it to allow you a chance to destroy it,” Elessir said, finishing my thought. “It talked to you. You already have a link to it.”

So he'd figured out I'd gotten a vision off the thing. I didn't ask how he might have read that in my expression or whether he got similar flashbacks handling it—or for that matter, whether he was getting them just from the general suck of the situation at large. If I were force-fed the vengeful soul of somebody I'd been married to, I was pretty sure I'd be a gibbering mess.

And man oh man, did that thought take me places I absolutely did not want to go.

“Okay,” I said. My voice came out a little thin, but on the whole I thought I did okay avoiding sounding like the aforementioned gibbering mess. “I'm Thor and get to throw Mjölnir at it, got it. Why am I not making with the lightning yet?”

Elessir swept a measuring look around the room, and lingered longest on Millicent and Makiko. “There is the question of the child.”

His voice was the very model of diplomatic understatement, and even given that, Aggie and Millicent, the other two humans in the room old enough to have had children, both drew in ragged breaths. Those of us in the younger generations glanced uneasily at one another. What Elessir and Melisanda thought was impossible to tell; I had no idea whether either of them had ever had offspring. Neither of them gave anything away in their faces, though.

“We haven't been able to get close enough to it to see if Saeko herself survives,” Jake said quietly, speaking up for the first time.

“Several of us have taken turns scouting, kiddo,” Carson told me. “Jake and me, Hiroshi and Ryuji.” The two
nogitsune
boys bobbed their heads at this. “And Melisanda and Jude, and what reinforcements we could recruit between Portland and Vancouver. But it's a bitch trying to track a creature that can fly.”

Millicent nodded to this, sourly. “Which means we've had to recruit our own airborne spies. And good luck getting fairies to go anywhere near a dragon.”

“Yo,” Jude said, and then nudged Melisanda—the first sign I'd seen her show so far of increased comfort with the Seelie warrior. “We've got something to toss in for this.”

Did Melisanda's expression ease just a bit? I couldn't tell from where I was sitting, whether I was imagining things just because of what Jude had told me in my bedroom. She did however promptly offer to the room, “Queen Amelialoren charges me to report that Court mages have succeeded in one scrying of the dragon. It was not a clear sighting, but enough was seen to suggest that at least in that moment, our quarry was writhing in pain. Or possibly in conflict with itself.”

Despite being less than definitive, the effect of the Seelie's news was electric. We all straightened, and most of our expressions brightened. Only Makiko remained stone-faced, though she among us all had the strongest need for whatever crumbs of hope she could get. “If we do not know for certain,” she said, her voice taut, “then we must assume unless we discover otherwise that my daughter is lost.”

So much for brightened expressions, but Millicent was undaunted and only slightly gruffer than usual. “We'll plan for both options,” she said, her finger jabbing decisively first at Elessir and then at the skull on the table. “Sonny, you got any recommendations on method and timing of destruction for this thing, now's the time.”

“Pulling Melorite back into her skull would be the best method,” the Unseelie said. “This will require line of sight and as much proximity as possible.” Then he smiled, a feral glint of anticipation sparking in his eyes. “After that, I'd suggest fire.”

“This means we have to get Kenna to the damned thing, though. Or get it to come to her.” Christopher glowered at Elessir, and slid his arm around me. There was no tremor in either his tone or his arm, but I needed no intuition to tell me he was less than amused by either concept.

Which of course made two of us. “Bait! Fantastic, the career to which I've always aspired,” I drawled. “And I'm assuming you're meaning definitions of ‘fire' involving magic, not charcoal briquettes and lighter fluid.”

“We can bring those too,” Jude suggested blithely.

“Nuke the skull from orbit,” Carson agreed. “Only way to be sure.”

Millicent waggled a hand at them to shut them up, though without much force to it—she was too canny not to let us blow off steam if we needed to, though she also had a knowing eye on Makiko, who was stoically ignoring the younger people in the room for the most part. But I didn't pay much attention to the others. My focus was entirely on Elessir.

“Actually, Miss Thompson,” he said, “I had myself in mind as the bait.”

That, more completely than Millicent's most schoolmarm-y glare, shocked us all into silence. Even Christopher blinked, first at the bard and then at me. Grateful and comforted as I was by his presence at my side, I couldn't help but lean forward where I sat, and damn well almost leapt to my feet. “Excuse me? This is a good idea
how
?”

“I may be without my magic—”

“Because your darling ghost succubus wife ate it out of you!”

“—But I might remind you that I am also a perfectly competent swordsman, and if I am armed, I am capable of defending myself?”

Melisanda put in grudgingly, “That is true; we've dueled more than once.” She eyed the other Sidhe sidelong. “If you'd be willing to carry a Seelie blade, I'll loan you one of mine.”

The bard showed only the slightest of hesitations before he inclined his head to her. “If you're willing to let an Unseelie hand touch its hilt, my lady, I'll take it.”

Frustration still swamped me, more strongly than I wanted to admit, but I choked back the urge to argue—at least with Elessir's deciding he was combat-ready. “So you can use a sword,” I groused. “How's this going to help against a creature who can fly and throw hurricanes around,
and
who has it in for you? And did I mention, what the hell kind of marriage did you have with her anyway?”