Brothers: Legacy of the Twice-Dead God (96 page)

“So you’re going to build an army and point
it at what, Gordon?” I said, equally condescendingly.

A gong sounded somewhere in the background
and the pressure in the room changed. Someone shifted the wards
around and closed them around the house severely, locking down the
house tightly. It was an oppressive feeling that I didn’t like but
it was easily ignored. The room also began to clear of extraneous
people, the servers and aides. Mercer started for the door, but
Ferrin grabbed his arm before he got more than two steps away,
forcing him to stay. The ballroom wasn’t very empty once the exodus
finished. There were still over a hundred people in the room.

Finally sated, I set my plate down on the
edge of the buffet table and looked over the crowd more closely,
searching for Kieran and Ethan. Gordon had forgotten us for a
moment and gone to his father, who was angling his way toward us
with a small group of people in tow. I recognized a few of the
people in the group from MacNamara’s. I finally glimpsed Kieran
behind Florian trailing behind the Cahills’ group.

We started slowly through the crowd toward
them with Ferrin keeping track of Mercer. We made it around
Cahill’s group and the crowd opened up. I got a full view of Kieran
and Ethan.

I stopped dead in the room, Peter right
beside me, stopping just as abruptly. We both just looked at
them.

“Peter, are you not seeing what I’m not
seeing?” I asked quietly.

“Yes, Seth, I believe I am not,” he
answered.

“I’m not sure I’m ready for this, Peter.”

“Doesn’t look like we’ve got much choice,
does it?” he said.

“No, it doesn’t.”

“What seems to be the problem here,” Ferrin
asked softly, slipping in easily between us from behind.

I really didn’t want to say the words. They
were dangerous. Powerful. They would begin violence. Here. Now.
They would start a war.

“That’s not Ethan and Kieran.”

“How can you tell?” Ferrin asked.

“By looking at them,” Peter said, mildly.

I pushed on the anchor in my head, searching
for Ethan. I could still feel his presence on the other side, but
not his consciousness. The anchor was rolling through his “body” on
the other side, still a part of him but not fixed in place like it
should be. Something was definitely wrong.

“Ethan is unanchored,” I said. “Whoever this
is has got to realize you and I will know instantly, right?”

“Will they?” Peter asked. “Or will they
assume that since they can’t see us that we can’t see each other
either?”

“We haven’t made it a secret that we can see
each other,” I said, sighing. I tickled the weapons, bringing them
on alert. The Night sword hummed loudly and I felt a crack against
my skin. I instantly felt more cognizant of myself; we’d been under
a spell. I grabbed Peter’s forearm so the Night could break the
spell on Peter, then did the same for Ferrin and Mercer. The Quiver
shook and my awareness formed completely to every person in the
room. My consciousness shot out of my head and through the room,
searching for the spell of complacency that had so effectively
lulled us. I found it hidden under several layers of the wards of
the room. Removing it without crashing the system wasn’t going to
be possible.

“Gavin,” I turned to the Inspector. “This is
about to get very ugly. I’m sorry you had to get involved in this.
If I can send you back to London, I will, otherwise, keep your head
down and stay clear of me. I’ll be ground zero, most likely.”

“What are you doing?” he asked. He was
nearing another panic attack.

I leaned in close and whispered, “Those men
over there are pretending to be my brothers. I’m about to call them
out in front of all these people.”

He nodded, “Okay.” Then he walked back to the
buffet table and started munching very casually. I had to grin at
his sudden calmness as I watched him find a chair. Poor guy, he had
no idea what was about to happen, but he faked it well.

I drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly,
and turned to watch the not-Kieran, wondering what he was up
to.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” called Bishop from
the side of the room. He stood on a raised dais. “If we could have
the McClures, Mr. Cahill, Señor Florian, Monsieur Duvies, and Tsu
Tsu come to the front, please?”

I wrapped portals around Ferrin, Peter and me
and jumped us to the dais ahead of the rest of them. Bishop seemed
startled that I could do that. Why, I didn’t know as he’d been
aware of me doing it in the past. The Kieran and Ethan look-a-likes
were the first up to the dais with Mr. Cahill close behind him. I
placed a shield around the dais as soon as Felix cleared the top
step, closing it off from the others.

Speaking loudly and clearly, I said to the
room, “Pardon me for just a moment, ladies and gentlemen, but there
is something we need to clear up before we proceed any further
tonight.”

Protests rumbled through the room but
apparently no one wanted to be singled out by the boy who threw the
Fae Princesses around in public. Bishop grimaced at me.

“What seems to be the problem, Seth?” he
asked.

“I have two questions that should be answered
before we begin talking about the security of our world, Mr.
Bishop,” I said. “I think my companions would agree that they’re
very important questions.” Both Ferrin and Peter were nodding in
agreement with me.

Bishop sighed and waved to the audience,
granting me permission to ask. Like I was asking.

Pointing the masqueraders, I asked, “Who are
you?”

Bishop was startled by that question. The
entire room tensed. I had their attention, but not in a good way.
Whoever this was had more time here than I had to wheedle his way
into their confidence and the complacency spell had worked its
magic well.

“Seth, what are you doing,” the fake-Kieran
asked calmly. He had the voice down, but Kieran wasn’t quite that
condescending to me.

“Oh, you’ve done a good job, I admit,” I said
to them. “The look, the mannerisms, the voices. The façade is very
good, but you’ve missed a few points that I would recognize. All
his brothers would recognize. So, who are you?”

He sighed heavily, just like he was dealing
with a petulant teenager. I really hated this guy now. “Seth, just
because we had an argument is no reason to act up in public. Let’s
talk about this in private.” He moved in at us with not-Ethan as if
their presence was enough to move the three of us, and if it had
actually been them, we probably would have moved. I ignored
them.

“My second question, Mr. Bishop, is why are
there fourteen elves in this room?” I asked. That most definitely
got his attention. He touched the wards, firing the room’s search
spells. He didn’t find anything.

“I don’t see any,” he said, shaking his head,
his eyes vacant.

“Well, then,” I said, staring at the fake
Kieran. “Let me prove both of my points.”

I called the weapons forward and the armor
sprang into being around me. Ferrin and Peter moved out beside me.
Instead of waving a sword or shooting elves, I started shouting
words I didn’t know I knew, just a few. Roughly translated, the
words meant, “You are not who you claim to be. Rip away what lies
on top and show what lies beneath.” Not the most poetic words in
the world but swells of power came from me and hit them, ripping at
the shell of reality that wrapped around them. This wasn’t a normal
veil employed. It couldn’t be. That would have been instantly seen
by any number of people. And their auras had to be subsumed
somehow.

The pair were slammed back against the
shields I held on the dais—the second sure sign to me that they
weren’t my brothers. The spell ate their façade quickly and showed
the outer appearance of two elves underneath. Then it continued to
eat at them as it searched deeper to find their hidden auras in
their bodies, looking for their master, but I already knew the
answer to that. I released the dais and they slumped to the floor,
turning black and crispy as the spell continued to work on the tall
forms.

The room was suddenly a madhouse.

The other fourteen elves in the room were a
different matter. The overlap from my spell hit them and their
veils fell in an instant. The elves were shown in living color, a
full head taller than everyone else. Peter and Ferrin attacked in
concert with each other. While my brothers’ look-a-likes were
melting and Bishop was freaking out, I rose up into the wards and
seized control. It was, unfortunately, incredibly easy to do. Not
that Bishop’s security wasn’t good enough. Someone’s attack plans
were better. It had already started. It looked like we were the
final eggs in their Easter hunt. Once I’d been placed in the grass,
they’d started. We just hadn’t known.

We were already under attack. Slowly but
surely the wards were being either bypassed or they had failed
already. I killed off the spells that would interfere with defense,
like the complacency spell. There were about a hundred of them,
mostly cosmetic. I started to fortify the house’s sensing ward when
I felt an elf sneaking his way into the wards through a crack in
one of the maintenance systems. I sent a rising spike of energy
back along that connection. It probably didn’t kill him, but he or
she would have a nasty headache for a while.

“Bishop!” I yelled. “Take the wards! I need
to be down here!” I let go, calling for the Day and swinging it
down and left, cutting the elf writhing in pain in front of me in
two. Swinging it backhanded again, I hit the fake Ethan across the
middle, eviscerating him. I jumped over the dying elves to the edge
of the dais and pulled the Crossbow, firing twice at two elves
trying to exit the room. They both crashed to the ground with
emerald green Bolts through the backs of their heads.

“We’re under attack!” I heard Bishop
yell.

“No shit!” answered Ferrin from the crowd.
He’d managed to kill two on his own and two with Peter’s help but
they were too far away from each other now. “Everybody down!” he
yelled, gathering a huge yellowing sphere of power in his hands.
People everywhere around him were dropping to the floor in panic.
Unfortunately so were the elves. They were still tossing veils
around and making it hard for the humans to tell the difference
between them. Causing hesitations. I helped Ferrin out by slipping
the Stone’s power underneath the elves in his vicinity and tossing
them up in the air a few feet. Ferrin loosed his spell with a
savage snarl, then dove to the right, narrowly missing a dagger
thrown from several yards away.

The man who threw it suddenly found himself
traveling a similar path when Cahill picked him up and threw him
overhead and into the far wall, snapping his back in several places
when he hit. Ferrin’s spell hit three targets, lighting the room
vividly. Another man flew into the air. Gordon, this time,
protecting his father’s back. Damn, the Cahills were strong
men.

I pulled Harris’ trick. Three elves left in
the room, three bolts fired. That gave me a few minutes to isolate
the human traitors, five in all. That’s really all we had, a few
moments. We were still under attack, elves on the outside. This
battle had taken less than five minutes and we had sixteen dead
elves—I hadn’t counted the fake Kieran and Ethan among my previous
count—five traitorous humans, four dead mages, and twenty or so
wounded. No one I knew was on any of those lists, but this room was
reasonably safe now.

“Peter, Ferrin, we have to go outside now,” I
yelled, heading for the doors. I glanced back at Bishop before I
left the dais. He was on his hands and knees, fighting for control
of the wards. It looked like he was losing.

I pushed up into the wards again and found
the battle of wills going full force. Bishop was good, but so was
the elf he was fighting. I finally understood why the elves were
afraid of taking on human mages. We could push back when we had to,
Bishop was showing that. If I tried to take the fight away from
him, though, I’d crash the whole system of wards and we’d be
relatively defenseless.

Tracing the paths the elf traveled might lead
me to him, though. Damn, this was getting harder and I was getting
tired.

“Felix, Gordon!” I yelled, locating them in
the crowd. I wrapped portals around the five traitors and tossed
them roughly into a corner of the room far from an exit. “Take care
of them! Help us outside if you can!” I pointed at the corner then
turned to the exit again. I’d done everything here I could do. Time
to take the battle outside.

Ferrin and Peter met me at the door to the
gardens, opposite to the doors we came in. Peter was holding
Ferrin’s right shoulder, concentrating. When he pulled away, he
wiped Ferrin’s blood on his shirt. The rip showed the eight-inch
cut beginning to scab over and the blood congealing quickly. I
grimaced. Thankfully, neither of them could see that through the
armor.

“You sure know how to crash a party,” Ferrin
said, nearly giggling. He was translating the adrenaline surge and
fear into humor.

“Glad you’re having a good time ‘cuz we’re
not done yet,” I said, patting his good shoulder. “You ready for
round two?”

“With the rock you gave me? Definitely,” he
giggled this time. I had a feeling that there was a drug reference
in there somewhere.

“We have to find the elf that’s attacking the
wards,” I said, looking out over the balcony railing. “Bishop’s
fighting him for them now, but if I interfere, they’ll crash and
we’re all toast. Near as I can tell, he’s down there somewhere.” I
point out into the darkness. Much of the grounds was lit, but there
were several areas that either weren’t lit at all or the lights had
been taken out.

I tapped into the wards again to see the
battle still waging. The power flow through the ley lines indicated
the elf was southeast of us somewhere. I jumped off the balcony
with Peter and Ferrin close behind me. We were at a definite
disadvantage here. Unknown to both sides of the battle, we’d be
seen as enemies by both and would have to defend ourselves, but we
could only attack the most obvious enemies, the elves. At least
until Bishop got control of the wards again. Then he’d have more
control of his side, though not perfect control. Of course, the
elves knew this, too, so they wore camouflaged forms and auras.
Avoidance was my goal as we ran down a path through the garden.