Fire Kin (5 page)

Liam tilted his head. “Not wrong exactly.”

He looked tired too. He didn't patrol anymore. Even though he was still a fierce swordsman—I had seen him in training—and a sunmage of no little power, his missing arm was a liability when facing opponents as fast as Blood and Beast Kind. But when his brother knights were out patrolling I knew that he busied himself making sure they had everything they needed. And then I recalled that Guy had set him the potentially frustrating task of trying to wrangle Asharic's forces into some semblance of order.

“What is it?” Were Ash's soldiers causing trouble already? I had no doubt he was a skilled commander and that his men were formidable fighters—the Templars would never have sent for them were that not true—but I couldn't imagine that he ran his little army with the sort of fierce discipline the Templars instilled in their knights.

“It's the Fae, my lady. There's a group of them at the Brother House. They say that Captain Pellar has to come with them to Summerdale. He sent me to fetch you.”

I stared at him for a moment.
Shal e'tan mei and double that
. I hadn't seen that one coming. Where was Fen when I needed him? But obviously our resident seer hadn't seen it either or he would have warned me. What did the Fae want with Ash so urgently? And who had sent word so swiftly to Summerdale to let them know that he had returned?

I could think of a number of possibilities. He'd been exiled—unable to set foot over the borders of the lands the queen had claimed—but the queen had died and it was tradition that exiles could return when the ruler who'd sentenced them was no longer ruler. In practical terms that meant that most exiles lasted the equivalent of several human lifetimes at least. Usually more. The Fae did not change rulers very often.

And then there was the simple fact that Ash was Ash. Drawing trouble. He'd certainly not been popular with certain Families and factions at court. Unpopular enough, in fact, that I was certain his enemies had engineered the duel that had led to his banishment. Even though those who I suspected were behind it had been related to Stellan sa'Oriel, whom Ash had killed during the fight.

Ash had only been gone thirty years. A long time for a human to be banished, but for one of us, barely time for tempers to cool, let alone for sentiments to change.

Were there those in the court who still wished him ill? Undoubtedly. There was hardly a Fae amongst the High Families who didn't have enemies. I had a few myself, though I didn't think any of them wanted me dead. They were satisfied with—and probably considerably cheered by—the fact that I spent almost all my time far away from court in this crazy iron-bound city. Ash, on the other hand, had been good at making enemies of the serious kind. He'd been too strong, too brash, and too full of his own sense of how he was going to live his life not to.

Not to mention that his Family was related to the queen herself. But now the queen was dead and that connection wouldn't protect him when he did return to the court. Damn. Why had he come back? Couldn't he have seen that this was going to happen?

Or, even worse, was he looking for trouble?

“My lady? Will you come?” Liam's words interrupted my reverie.

I straightened my shoulders. I couldn't stay out of it, as much as my instincts warned me that that was the smart thing to do. The Templars needed Asharic's army, which meant they needed Asharic. So I couldn't let him be dragged off to Summerdale and become the subject of some obscure Fae machinations. We didn't have time for that right now. Time enough to settle old scores once the city was safe again.

“Of course,” I said.

ASH

I
spent the night on a flat piece of roof atop one of the square towers of the Brother House. I'd been tired before the Templars' meeting, but seeing Bryony had taken care of that. Nothing like a good adrenaline surge of nerves, nostalgia, and regret to burn away fatigue.

So instead of resting, I alternatively tried to clear my mind with the disciplines I'd been taught as a youngster and stared out over the darkened City, trying to convince myself that I was actually home again.

Or close enough to home. As close as I was going to get for now. The lights of the City seemed subdued; not as many lanterns and gas lamps breaking the night into the pools of light and darkness as I remembered. Except, that is, for the long clear line of sunlamps and guard fires that edged the winding borders between the human world and the Night World.

Those were not as I remembered them either. They had shifted with the ending of the treaty. There was no longer the no-man's-land of the border boroughs standing between the humans and the Night World. No. From what I'd been told, all the border boroughs had chosen their allegiance now. Some had joined the humans—Gillygate, Brighttown, Westerbray, and Oldberry—while Seven Harbors, Mickleskin, and Larks Fall were now under the sway of the Night World. Which meant the line of guardian lights swooped and curved and made strange detours along its path.

I wondered how the new borders had affected the railway. The main rail line of the City bisected it neatly along its north and south accesses, a path that used to take it mainly through human and border boroughs with only a few of the offshoot branch lines heading into Night World territory and then, mostly, into the Beast Kind boroughs rather than the Bloods' domain. Now the Great Northern Line would cut through at least three Night World boroughs.

Had the railway come to a halt? That would be a strain on the City. The railway, which had just been nearing completion when I left, was one of the City's main supply lines to the markets and farms and smaller towns that provided the bulk of the raw materials for the food its inhabitants ate and the clothes they wore.

Guy hadn't mentioned the trains to me, so I was assuming they were still running. The Templars had stockpiles of food and ammunition and weapons, but he would surely have told me about something as vital as the City's supplies being cut off. If that had happened, restoring them would need to be a priority.

I was still on the roof when Rhian came to find me an hour or so past dawn to discuss the arrangements she'd made with Liam. She brought Charles Simpson, the most senior of my lieutenants, with her.

Both of them looked more rested than the previous day. From my vantage point, the night had been relatively quiet. There'd been a fire in one of the former border boroughs that had caused a flurry of activity and I'd sent a thread of power to help the fire die as fast as possible. From such distance, with all the iron in the City affecting my powers, it was as much as I could do. I watched the distant movement of men and horses and carriages ferrying the injured back to the hospital. I'd been tempted to go and offer my assistance, but Bryony would be there and I doubted she'd welcome my help.

Apparently the Templars hadn't sought assistance from any of my soldiers and Rhian and Charles had both slept through the commotion. Charles was his usual quiet, solid self, his reddish hair cropped close to his head, clothes neat, face clean shaven. Rhian, in contrast, still looked rumpled, but her braids were tamed against her head, the blue and red strands bright in the early light.

They'd earned their sleep. They'd spent the rest of the previous day and evening working hard to get our men bedded down and liaising with the Templars on the mundane but vital details of housing, food, supplies, and command structures here in the City. They filled me in as we breakfasted with the Templars and then, after I dismissed them both to get on with settling the men in, Guy came to brief me on the night's activities before he went to bed.

After Guy left, I got Liam to take me back to the map of the City in the Templar's vast conference room and made him drill me on the streets and lanes that had grown less clear in my memory than they had been before I went away.

And it was there that Father Cho came to find me to tell me that there was a delegation of Fae at the Brother House gates, requesting that I accompany them to Summerdale.

Fuck. “Get Bryony,” I hissed at Liam, and he wheeled and set off with speed.

Father Cho tapped his chin as he watched him go. “Problem?”

“I don't know,” I admitted. “Do you have to let them in?”

He shook his head. “No. The Brother House is a Haven, so if they request sanctuary I would have to grant it, but otherwise they don't have a right to enter. Do you have reason to believe they mean you ill?”

I shrugged. “That largely depends on who they are. Did they give any names?”

“The man who made the request said he was Tomar sa'Uriel. Does that mean anything to you?”

Tomar? “He's one of my cousins,” I said. More like a brother than a cousin. My parents hadn't been blessed with any children other than me. Though after having me, they might have thought it a blessing that there were no others to trouble them as I did. Tomar and I had grown up together, along with his sisters, Roslyn and Rowan. Our Families had shared a territory, and the houses were close together by Fae standards.

But Tomar had not sided with me in the trouble that had led to my exile, and I had no idea where I might stand with him now. “Was there anyone else with him?”

“Four other men. No women. Three of the men have Family rings that are red and orange and yellow. The other's is black and dark blue. He's older than the rest of them.”

Older? Bearing black and blue Family colors. That sounded disturbingly like someone from Bryony's Family. They definitely hadn't been on my side. Lord sa'Eleniel had not approved of Bryony associating with a troublemaker like me. And I doubted I'd done anything to improve his opinion of me when I'd been exiled and broken his daughter's heart.

But it seemed unlikely that Lord sa'Eleniel himself would come for me. The other three, red and orange and yellow, were sa'Peniel'istar, a minor Family related to the sa'Uriels. My own Family ring was ruby and topaz and diamond. Theirs would be ruby, topaz, and citrine.

But whether or not they would support me would depend largely on the current state of affairs between the various branches of the Family, and that was something I knew nothing about.

Regardless of whether they were friends or foe, I had no desire to return to Summerdale now. I had a job to do here in the City and was more than willing to put off facing my past.

“I'd better go down and talk to them,” I said finally. “If Liam gets back with Bryony, send her to me.”

“Do you want me to ask the gate guards to let them in?”

“No.” I would feel safer with iron between me and them. For a start, it would put a crimp in their style if they tried to use any form of magical compulsion on me. As would a couple of Templar knights at my back.

I walked out of the Brother House with nerves prickling my skin and twisting my guts. I was used to fear. It's a given in battle, no matter how many times you experience fighting. I knew how to master it in the moment. But to tell the truth, it was a long time since I'd felt a weight of dread like the one I did now. There were Fae amongst my men. Exiles like me or a few who chose to leave the Veiled World of their own accord. But while they were friends in some cases, none of them were High Family. Not from the world I had grown up in or from any of the clans that made up the Veiled Court.

Not my blood and my memories. Not like what Tomar was. Or had been.

Bryony hadn't exactly welcomed me home with open arms, and I was beginning to wonder if anyone would.

Hadn't anyone missed me in the time that I was gone? I had been young and foolish, yes, and caused my share of trouble, but I had thought I had true friends.

None of them followed me into exile, nor had I expected them to. But I didn't like to think that they had forgotten me. Or worse, that they felt ill will toward me for what had happened. I knew that there would be those of Stellan's Family who did, of course. Though he was the one who'd challenged me to the duel, I had been the victor and he had paid the ultimate price.

Amongst a race so long-lived as ours, it is rare to lose one so young other than in battle, and killing him had been nothing I relished doing. But I had not been willing to sacrifice my own life to appease those who had plotted against me.

I stepped out into the early-morning sunshine and squinted toward the gate. Just as Father Cho had said, five Fae men were arrayed outside the iron barrier. Four of them sat on horses, while Tomar had dismounted from his—a massive bay of the kind he always favored—and stood by its side a few feet from the gate itself. Distancing himself from the iron, I presumed. He would not be used to it, unless he had changed his ways and started to venture farther from Summerdale than he used to.

Even I, who was used to weapons and armor, could feel the pull of those solid bars, like a silent pulse, that made the connection to the earth and all that surrounded me feel discordant and faded.

Tomar stood quietly in the sunlight, not talking to the Templars who faced him or the Fae behind him. The light bounced off his dark brown hair and threw a shadow on his face so that I couldn't see his eyes or read their expression.

I could see his mouth, though, and it wasn't smiling.

I slowed my walk, hoping Liam would return soon with Bryony. Her Family was nearly as high in the court as you could get without being of the queen's line. Equal to mine. Besides which, she, from what I could gather, was well loved in the City and respected for her skill at healing and the way she managed St. Giles. Which meant the Templars wouldn't let anything happen to her. And no sensible Fae would cross Lord sa'Eleniel by offering offense to his daughter. Or so I hoped.

I studied the men behind Tomar as I walked the last few paces. The one with darker hair than Tomar's—near black like Bryony's—would be the one wearing sa'Eleniel colors. I didn't recognize him. Definitely not Bryony's father, which was a relief. Perhaps one of her myriad uncles, whom I had never been able to keep straight. Her father's father had had several wives so far and had sired nothing but dark-haired, blue-eyed men who tended toward severity and politics.

Bryony was a rare female in that line. Which made them overly protective of her. A fact that she didn't like but that she had lived with until she had escaped their oversight and become a healer in the City. Which wouldn't have improved their disposition toward me any.

Bryony was supposed to be making astute liaisons and swelling the Family ranks and influence. As far as I knew, based on the fact that she still only wore one Family ring, she hadn't yet made any sort of partnership and her ring lacked the deep blue topaz that the sa'Eleniels gave to the mothers of their line, so I had to assume she hadn't borne any children while I was away.

The other three, who had darker skins and bronzy hair, would be the Istars. They looked young to me, but then, I was somewhat out of the habit of judging the ages of Fae, which was an art of reading the experience in the small signs of the body and the eyes, not just the ageless faces.

I knew that I looked older than when I had left. Injury and strife had taken a toll, as had the things that I had seen. The Fae in my company likewise looked older than their years, which ranged from younger than me to several hundred years older.

So the five men before me now, including Tomar, looked strange to my eyes. Too perfect. Inhumanly so.

But I couldn't put it off any longer. I had to deal with them.

“Cousin,” I said as I came to a stop at a distance from the gate that matched his. Possibly I could have offered him a more formal greeting, but that would be setting a tone for the encounter that I was trying to avoid.

“Asharic,” Tomar said.

We stared at each other for a few seconds. Then Tomar took a deep breath. “I have been sent to bring you home.”

I nodded. “Then I will have to ask you to send my regrets. I have an engagement here in the City that will be occupying me for some time.”

He looked surprised. “The court requests you to attend.”

“That's flattering, but my understanding is that the Veil currently stands empty. Which means that the court can request all it wishes but I don't have to answer. The court has survived without me for many years now. I'm sure it will continue to do so.”

That made one edge of his mouth flicker upward. Nearly a smile. The tension in my stomach eased a little. Perhaps the cousin I remembered wasn't quite so far away after all.

“As you are aware, the court is currently disrupted.”

“Well, they can't blame me for that, at least. I was nowhere near the City when the Veil fell.
Shai'el el'aria demain
.” The last meant something close to “blessed be her memory.” The queen might have exiled me, but I had always liked her, as much as you could like someone who was closer to a force of nature than a person. And she was of my blood, and Tomar's. My Family would be feeling a double loss.