Mortal Ties (46 page)

“The…oh.” Amusement flashed in her eyes. “This is how you refer to the one we do not
name? How charmingly irreverent. Also clever. Even a casual use-name may acquire resonance
with sufficient repetition, but I think
she
will not recognize any resonance with that appellation. It
was a shock, yes, but it did allow me to make sense of some things that have been
bothering me. I have reworked my plans considerably while we talked. And so I have
given you the knowledge to destroy me utterly, should you disregard your word. Just
as I could destroy you, did I choose to dishonor mine. I have made us equal in power,
Lily Yu. Do you see why?”

“You needed me to believe you,” she started. Stopped, and went in a slightly different
direction. “And this is a negotiation. You can’t truly negotiate with someone who
lacks power, can you?”

“Precisely! I like you, Lily. You are so grave, but quick and flexible. Those qualities
do not often march together. I cannot violate my agreement with Robert Friar.”

“Even if he violates it first? Robert Friar places no value on his word. The Binai
who killed Rethna was freed from her contract with him because he’d already broken
it.”

“With all respect to the Binai, a vow is far more binding than a contract. If Robert
Friar proves dishonorable, I have erred by entering into an agreement with him. My
error does not affect what I have bound myself to do. And yet I must find a way to
keep such a one from succeeding, for reasons both moral and personal. You were correct
that I have been uneasy. I had…suspicions about Benessarai’s goals, but he and I are,
to use your word, rivals. I thought he meant simply to damage my standing. I thought
he did not understand why it would be disastrous to bring the masking device back
to our realm.”

“The masking device? Is that what you call—wait. You mean you don’t want to take it
back to your realm. You want to destroy it.”

She nodded. “Such a device would destabilize our realm. Hostages are fundamental to
both our economic and our civic life, and the masking device would drastically alter
the way power is balanced between hostage-holder and those with whom they would negotiate.
Centuries-old agreements would turn unsteady. Imagine what would happen in your world
if only one side in a contract had the
means to enforce it. I took pains to explain this to Benessarai. He understood only
that making such a device available would weaken my position, for my Gift is, indeed,
both rare and valuable. He does not see the repercussions…or so I thought. Hoped.
This is why I took the risk of making my own deal with Robert Friar. It took some
time to learn what he wanted enough to…I believe your word is
double-cross
? An interesting word. I wanted him to double-cross Benessarai. You were the price
he asked. As part of our agreement,” she added, “he is bound to observe the code.”

Lily snorted. “And you believed him?”

“If he does not, I must in all honor kill him. He knows this.”

“He may not be as afraid of you as he ought to be.”

She shrugged. “I arose from the warrior caste. If he did not know what that means,
he should have asked.”

“That won’t be much consolation to me if he’s already fed me to his goddess.”

Alycithin’s lip curled in distaste. “Death magic?”

“That’s what I think he’s got in mind, yeah. He may want to do some really unpleasant
things to me first, but apparently I’d make a tasty snack for
her.
Death magic violates one of those Queens’ Laws, doesn’t it?”

“This is not one of the Queens’ realms, however.”

“Bummer.” Lily decided she’d gone as far as she could without having a clue what they
were negotiating. “Alycithin, I am puzzled. You want something from me, and you are
unwilling or unable to say what. Nor have you offered me anything or hinted at what
you might offer. Negotiations among your people may be conducted this way, but it’s
not what I understand.”

“That is plain speaking.” The halfling woman spread her hands. “I cannot tell you.
To do so would violate my word.”

Even bigger bummer. Lily drummed her fingers on the table. Alycithin hadn’t told her
all this without a reason. There was a hint, a clue, hidden in what she’d been told,
but damned if she could spot it. Maybe she hadn’t asked the
right question yet. “Can you tell me what you promised Friar?”

This smile spread slowly. “That I can do. I agreed to take you hostage, if possible,
and then hold you until Robert Friar notifies me that he is ready to exchange you
for the masking device. While I hold you, I must make sure you have no weapons and
no means of contacting your people. I am to let you know that you are going to pass
into his hands.”

“Wanted me to worry about that, did he?”

“I believe so. Lily, Robert Friar is your
dielgraf
. Your soul-enemy.”

“That sounds about right. Is that all of the agreement?”

“Oh, no. Robert Friar was meticulous in his terms. Neither I nor my people can in
any way reveal your situation, either while you are my hostage or after you become
his, to anyone who is not sidhe. When Robert Friar tells me he is ready to take possession
of you, I must make the exchange promptly and without attempting to alter or add to
the terms of our agreement. At that point, if we have both honored the terms of our
agreement, we are mutually bound not to act against each other, or allow our agents
to so act, for twenty-four hours.”

“Is that the exact wording? You can’t reveal my situation to anyone who is not sidhe?”

“That is the wording. However—” She held up a hand, stopping Lily before she spoke.
“You have hinted that someone in your realm is sidhe. While speaking to such a one
would be allowed under one of the terms, it violates another. I vowed to hold you.
Were I to reveal your presence while you are in my custody, I would be acting against
that vow.”

“After I’m not in your custody anymore…?”

Alycithin smiled. She all but purred. “I did not agree to see that you remained in
Robert Friar’s custody. Only that neither I nor my agents would act against him for
twenty-four hours.”

Lily wasn’t purring. This, she wanted to say, is your solution? Your deal?

From the halfling’s perspective, maybe it looked like a good deal. Maybe Alycithin
would have gone happily to torture and death if she knew she would be avenged. Maybe
Lily would think so, too, if killing Robert Friar were her only goal.

Problem was, she really wanted to be alive and at least mostly intact when Rule came
racing to her…which he would do long before the twenty-four hours were up. Once Lily
was away from Alycithin’s Gift, the mate bond should work fine.

Alycithin didn’t know about the mate bond. That was the important takeaway from her
offer. She didn’t know about the bond, so she wasn’t honor-bound to keep Lily from
using it. Lily spoke slowly, as if reluctant. “You have my phone.”

“Yes.”

“You know how to use it?”

“Of course. I do not understand how the device works, but from what I have seen, most
people in your realm do not understand it, either, yet they operate phones without
this understanding.”

“One of the contacts on my phone is for a sidhe who passes as human. Will you take
my word for this?”

“Do you give me your word?”

“I do.”

“Then yes, I accept that this is true.”

“Will you call this person and reveal what you can, in honor, speak of concerning
my situation?”

“Twenty-four hours after the exchange, yes, I will. But you have not yet told me this
person’s name.”

Lily looked up at the ceiling. Drummond was still all misty. She looked down at her
hands. “I have a question about your code. Does it allow you to give me aid in pursuing
my spiritual needs?”

It was Alycithin’s turn to be puzzled. “It would depend on the type of aid, but if
it does not violate the terms of my agreement, then yes.”

“I am facing either death or torture or both. I need to
meditate to strengthen myself for the coming ordeal. It would be a great aid to my
meditation if I had my ring.”

She shook her head. Her sadness seemed genuine. “I am sorry, Lily. The charm on your
ring holds
arguai
—which, by definition, means I cannot measure or judge the nature of the power it
holds. I cannot be certain you will not somehow use it to escape.”

“If by
arguai
you mean that something’s there, but it isn’t exactly magic, then that’s what I’ve
sensed about the charm. I don’t know how to use the whatever-it-is, or even if I could.
I’m a sensitive. I can’t use magic. I simply want the ring as a focus for my meditation.”
If she’d broken through briefly to Rule using a crude drawing of the
toltoi
…and she had. She was sure of that, even if she didn’t know if he’d “heard” a single
word. If a crude drawing helped enough for that, having the real thing on her hand
ought to let her do a lot more.

Alycithin’s eyebrows lifted in polite skepticism. “Most objects containing
arguai
are used as foci, and usually in spiritual practices. You…oh. You truly do not know
what you were entrusted with, do you?” She sighed. “I am sorry. I still cannot allow
you to have it.
Arguai
acts unpredictably. It might choose to reveal its nature to you, or act through you
even if you do not consciously will such action.”

Strike three and you’re out. Good thing she wasn’t playing baseball. “In that case,
may I have privacy and a candle?”

“Of course.” Alycithin seemed glad Lily had asked for something she could agree to.
“My people, too, sometimes use a candle as a focus. This is specifically allowed in
the code. I will have to enspell the flame, of course. It will burn long if you do
not move the candle or attempt to use it to burn anything else.”

That sounded like tricky spellwork. Cullen could do it, Lily felt sure, but not casually.
Alycithin seemed to consider it a minor task. “Thank you.”

“And if I may know the name of the person you wish me to call when it is time?”

“Arjenie. Arjenie Fox.”

Several minutes later, Sean had been invited to join Alycithin in the main room. Lily
sat on a pillow on the floor of the bedroom where she’d awoken. The walls were playing
chamber music, a piece Lily didn’t recognize. Alycithin brought the candle in herself
while the armed elf—Dinalaran—kept his SIG trained on Lily. She chanted softly with
her hand hovering over the candle’s wick. A flame popped into being there.

The elf and the halfling left, closing and no doubt locking the door behind them.
Lily tried to settle. Her heart was racing. She felt halfway nauseous.
Drummond,
she said.

Nothing happened. No white mist. No annoying yet reassuring ghostly shape.

She swallowed. If she couldn’t even reach Drummond, how was she going to…
Try again
, she told herself. This time she spoke his name. “Drummond.”

And this time it worked. He shaped up pretty quickly. And he was grinning. Actually
grinning. “We’re at 1132 North Bretton. The neighbors ordered pizza and gave the address.
1132 North Bretton.”

Hot damn.
She sent him that along with a quick, fierce grin.
Now I have to make use of what you learned. You need to go in the other room or something
so I can concentrate.

He seemed to notice the candle for the first time. “What the hell are you doing?”

Trying to mindspeak someone else. Someone who can send help to 1132 North Bretton.

He hesitated, then jerked a quick nod and went misty. He didn’t go in the other room,
though, but drifted up to the ceiling.

She’d just have to pretend he wasn’t there, watching. Or whatever he did when he was
misty.

Look into the flame,
Sam always said.
Find me there.

One more thing Alycithin didn’t know about Lily. Her teacher, her grandfather-in-magic,
was the black dragon…who was currently about five hundred miles away. Who approached
teaching in a toss-the-kid-in-the-water-and-
see-if-she-drowns sort of way. And Lily was really bad at mindspeech and had little
to no chance of reaching that far…

Don’t think about that.

She might suck at mindspeech, but Sam was very, very good at it. He mindspoke across
the entire damn continent—five hundred miles was no problem for him. But it might
not be five hundred miles. He overflew San Francisco regularly; it was part of his
territory, one of the cities he’d agreed to patrol to sop up excess magic. He didn’t
keep to a strict schedule, but this was the right part of the week for his overflight.
He might be at Laban Clanhome right now, chowing down on a couple cows.

If not, well, she’d had a breakthrough, hadn’t she? She was a little better than totally
sucky now.

She might be able to reach Rule again. Without the
toltoi
she wasn’t confident she could, but she might. But she couldn’t hold the connection
long enough to be sure he “heard” the address, much less who held her, what their
capabilities were, what part Robert Friar played, or why the elves wanted the prototype.
With Sam, all she had to do was get the merest whisper of a message to him and he’d
do the heavy lifting. At minimum, he could pass what she told him to Rule. At maximum…she
didn’t know what Sam’s maximum was, and she wouldn’t find out today. He wouldn’t exert
himself that much. But all he really had to do was tell Rule where she was. And Rule
would take it from there.

Lily looked into the candle flame.