The Shattered Sylph (7 page)

“What’s wrong?” Leon asked in an undertone once they were alone. Solie just shook her head and closed the door. The room they were in had a narrow bed and a chair, as well as a bucket and a mop. Leon stepped away from her and spun, his arms crossed. “Okay, tell me.”

Solie took a deep breath. Heyou moved close, his hand caressing her shoulder, and she forced herself to remain calm. This was, of all men, the one for whom she had the most respect. The Community wouldn’t have survived its retreat to the cliff hive six years ago without him.

“Leon, I’m so sorry, but I have bad news. It’s Lizzy.” She was forced to swallow and took a deep breath. “She’s gone. She went to Para Dubh and was kidnapped. I sent sixteen battlers to try and get her back, but they couldn’t find her. We…we don’t know where she is.”

Leon froze, his face draining of all color. So close to him, Solie couldn’t help but share his emotions through Heyou. She felt his pain like a knife. “Wh-what?” he managed.

“Leon, I’m so sorry,” she begged. “I sent them there but
I never thought anything like this would happen. Please forgive me.”

She had no idea if he did. Leon turned, fumbling for the doorknob, and was out in the hallway a moment later, rushing toward his home and family. Solie hung her head, and Heyou put his arms around her.

Leon hardly felt his boots touch the ground as he ran, or heard his own panicked gasps. Someone had his baby, and he couldn’t think beyond that. Someone had his Lizzy.

He ran up the same stairs he’d brought Ril down, stumbling and falling to one knee. He didn’t acknowledge the pain, instead leaping up again, crashing through the door at the top and off down the street, his sheathed sword slapping against his leg and his arms pumping at his sides. He might have passed people who stopped and stared, but he wasn’t sure. Someone might have called out to him, but he didn’t hear.

His house lay a few streets over from the main thoroughfare, close enough to the main market to make Betha happy but far enough that they didn’t feel as though the entire town was on their doorstep. Their dwelling wasn’t as large as their old manor in Eferem, but they didn’t have any servants, either. They maintained everything themselves, the girls keeping the interior clean and the clothes and linens washed, and he and Ril seeing to the repairs and upkeep. Everyone took care of the garden in the back and the chicken coop, along with the small barn for their few horses and single cow. Lizzy’s wardrobe door had been squeaking, he remembered. He’d intended to fix it when he got back. She’d told him it drove her crazy, but he’d never got around to it. He should have fixed it!

The top floor of the house was dark, only a single light shining in the sitting room below. Leon clattered up the
porch steps and through the front door they never bothered to lock. The hall inside was dark, the light he’d seen from outside shining off to his right.

“Betha!”
he screamed.

There was a startled exclamation from the sitting room, and his wife of twenty-five years appeared, clad in a rumpled dress with her hair half-fallen out of its bun, eyes red-rimmed and glassy. They saw each other and crashed together, both of them crying and hugging each other until it was painful. Footsteps sounded from the second floor, and the other girls came racing downstairs in their nightgowns, calling for their father.

Cara was twelve, her curly hair down from its usual pigtails. Behind her scrambled nine-year-old Nali, with dark hair like her mother’s, her eyes filled with tears. Behind her and leading the three-year-old Mia came seven-year-old Ralad, already weeping but determined to be responsible. Hanging on to her hand, Mia babbled questions Leon didn’t know how to answer.

Still holding his wife, Leon sank to his knees, pulling her down with him and reaching out an arm for his girls. They crowded against him, bawling, and Leon wept, too, wishing he’d never been so foolish as to leave home.

Underneath the town, wrapped by the energy of another battler and floating within him like some sort of unborn child, Ril maintained his natural shape and slept.

And sleeping, he dreamed.

Feeling both rested and hungry, Ril came awake as Luck shifted him back into his human form. He sat on the floor while she scanned him intently and then, satisfied with what she saw, patted him on the head and left. Glancing up at the battler who’d held him all night, Ril nodded his thanks. Dillon’s reply came back, a wordless welcome.

His hunger not unlike a man’s for food, Ril stood and walked out of the room, yawning. Nearby, battlers wandered in and out of the queen’s audience hall, all of them dressed in blue and gold, and Ril looked down at his travel-stained clothing before ducking into the next chamber, one layered with dozens of cubbies. His own space was near the door, specifically chosen at a level easy for him to reach.

He retrieved and put on his blue and gold pants and white shirt, the blue and gold coat over top. This uniform had been Solie’s idea, so that anyone who didn’t know their faces would be aware whenever they were dealing with a battler—there had been a few accidents early on. The clothes felt stiff and formal, but he’d never intentionally have been seen in town without them. He was a battler, no matter what anyone might think or whisper.

Ril straightened proudly as he did up the buttons on the coat, and then he made his way to the surface, his thoughts not much farther-reaching than finding breakfast—or perhaps lunch, he realized as he saw the sun already high in the sky. Some people found it odd that sylphs used such
terms for feeding from their masters, but what other words were they supposed to use for it?

Walking down the sidewalk, humans parting to let him pass, he headed to Leon’s house. He could tell where his master was at all times, though he didn’t always bother to focus on what the man was feeling. But right now—Ril frowned—Leon felt upset.
Very
upset. Almost hysterical.

Ril sped up, and before he even realized it, he was running, nervous humans ducking frantically out of the way. Above, other battlers roared, picking up on the distress that was being fed to him via his master, and every sylph outside vanished, many of them taking their masters with them. Not that Ril noticed. He soon took Leon’s porch stairs with a single bound and crashed through the house’s front door. It flew off its hinges, slamming into the wall as Leon appeared in the doorway at the end of the hall, a knife in hand. He was bare chested and unshaven, his eyes wild and bloodshot. Ril hadn’t seen him look so bad since the day he was nearly hanged, and he skidded to a halt before his master, staring. Behind Leon, Betha and the youngest girls sat around the kitchen table, all of them still in their nightclothes.

Ril stared. “What’s wrong?”

Leon swallowed heavily, choked, and let the knife fall to his side. “We lost Lizzy.”

That didn’t make any sense. Ril tilted his head to one side. “What?”

“She’s gone,” Leon said miserably. “She was kidnapped. No one can find her. We don’t even know if she’s alive.” At the table, Lizzy’s sisters started weeping.

That
really
didn’t make any sense. His head still tilted, Ril kept staring at Leon, though he didn’t really see him. He was hungry for the man’s energy, but he didn’t think to take it. Lizzy? His Lizzy? He’d seen her birth, guarded her
childhood, even promised her she would be his queen, until Solie got to him first and subsumed him into her hive. He’d promised Lizzy everything—until Yanda the battler tore him in two and left him broken and unworthy.

“Ril?” Leon said.

Ril turned, moved unsteadily down the hall and back out onto the porch. The neighbors, who hadn’t known Leon was home but had seen Ril go inside, were gathering to give their condolences. Ril ignored them and closed his eyes. His Lizzy, his beautiful Lizzy! He’d loved her, wanted her to be his queen, had even begged for her love, and in her innocent granting of it, he’d taken her pattern into him, beneath Leon’s and Solie’s. He’d ignored it for years now, knowing that he wasn’t good enough for her anymore and that she lived in a town surrounded by
whole
battlers. They would protect her, he’d told himself. They’d kill for her, and she could find a life for herself. Marry, have children. Forget him.

Ril focused on that years-old pattern, let it fill him. Then, while the humans all watched, he lifted his arm, pointing, reaching and slowly turning, angling more and more to the south, pointing off toward the edge of the valley.

“There,” he said at last. “She’s there.”

Behind him, Leon’s shock nearly broke his trance. “What are you saying?”

“She’s there,” Ril breathed. “I can track her.”

Leon shoved clothes furiously into a travel pack, not caring that they got rumpled or perhaps even torn. Clothes, money…He’d need money to hire a ship and to buy horses on the other side. An ablution kit. Would he need that? Of course he would, what was he thinking? Something of Lizzy’s? Some clothes for her? He had to stop for a
minute and put a shaking hand over his watering eyes. He’d thought she was lost to him, only Ril could track her. How the hell could he track her? Leon didn’t care. They’d hunt her abductors down and kill them and get his baby back. Just him, forty-seven years old and starting to feel it on cold nights, and a crippled battler. None of the other battlers would come along and risk their precious masters.

He sobbed hard but swallowed it, shoving more gear he couldn’t focus on into his bag. Ril was changing in the next room. Mace had said he’d take them to Para Dubh, and Solie had given them as much money as she could, including several gems now hidden in the fake heel of his boot. Lizzy was probably going to be sold. Maybe they could buy her back.

They were going to sell his little girl? Leon had to put both hands over his face.

He heard his name and looked up to see his wife standing in the doorway. She’d never yelled at him for all the times he’d deserted the family to go on one of his damn missions, or for how he spent more time with Ril than with her. She had to be aching to get him going this time, but she walked forward instead and put her arms around him.

“Make sure you come home,” she whispered. “All of you. You got it? Don’t you come back without her!”

“I won’t,” Leon promised, hugging her tight. “I’ll bring her back.”

“Then we’ll never let her out of our sight again,” Betha added viciously.

Leon started to weep. He couldn’t help it, and his wife wept, too, her fingernails digging into his back as she held him.

“Papa!” Cara shouted. “Papa, come down here!”

Leon separated from Betha, wiping his eyes. “I better
get down there,” he said, managing a smile. His wife matched it, her eyes shining with tears.

“You do that. I’ll finish packing for you, silly man.” She turned him to the door and patted his bottom to send him on his way.

Leon went out into the hall and down the stairs to the front porch. Outside, Mace was sitting on the swing beside the Widow Blackwell, his master. Leon didn’t have the faintest idea what the woman’s first name was, but she looked at him sympathetically. Of all the others, he knew she was the most likely to go with them, but she was the dorm mother of every urchin and orphan in town. She was the last one who could leave—which meant Mace couldn’t go, either. Not farther than Para Dubh.

He considered her for only a moment before turning to the front yard. Most of the neighbors were still there, standing in groups and conversing, all of them shooting looks at the young man waiting nervously at the foot of the stairs, a heavy travel pack by his feet. Justin Porter. He looked up at Leon, twisting his hat nervously between his hands.

“Um,” he stammered. “I’m coming with you.”

Leon blinked. “What?”

The boy took a deep breath, and Leon wondered distantly where his father was. Cal Porter would have a heart attack if he knew what his son was suggesting. Either that, or he’d talk them all to death.

“I was with Lizzy when she was kidnapped. I should have protected her, and I let her down. I need to make up for that.”

“We’re not going out there to salvage your pride, boy,” Leon responded coldly.

“That’s not it!”

“I don’t have time to care,” Leon replied, turning to go back into the house.

“I love her!” Justin shouted. Leon stopped, every muscle tense. “I love her,” the boy repeated. “I want to marry her.” Leon turned and saw how miserable Justin looked as he added, “I
have
to go. If you don’t take me, I’ll just follow you anyway. I don’t care what it costs, I’m going to get her back.”

Leon studied the youth, really studied him, wishing for once he had Ril’s talent for empathy. Not that Ril cared what others thought. Right now, Leon envied the battler that as well.

“Fine,” he said, vaguely aware that he would never agree if he weren’t already emotionally drained. “But you have to keep up.” When Justin beamed, grin huge and innocent, Leon sighed and said, “Get inside.” The boy ran past, carrying his pack, and Leon rubbed his forehead and looked at Mace. The big battler stared quietly forward, one of the widow’s hands held in his own. She was smiling.

Leon headed back inside, stepping over Mia and around Ralad. He could hear Cara and Nali in the kitchen yelling at each other. As he walked down the hall, both girls turned from Justin to him.

“I wanna come, too!” Cara demanded.

“Don’t you start with me,” he told her, and looked at Justin. “Show me what you brought.” The boy nodded frantically and started to dump the contents of his pack onto the table.

Ril entered the kitchen. Mia hung on his leg while he tried to fasten his cloak. Seeing Justin, he stopped, one eyebrow raised. Justin saw him, too and froze, swallowing repeatedly. Ril eyed Leon.

“He’s coming,” Leon declared. Stomping out of the room, he went to see what his wife had collected. Behind
him, Ril looked at the frightened boy and growled. Justin flinched.

For the second time in the same number of weeks, Mace flew over the mountains toward Para Dubh. This time the only battler to accompany him rode within his mantle, along with two men.

They were awkward to carry, as he needed to remain incorporeal enough to fly quickly but solid enough to keep them aloft. He was careful not to jostle the trio, but he was also glad when he finally dropped down yet again at the docks and let them loose. Ril shook himself, staring out at the water while Justin pulled his pack onto his back and waited nervously.

Leon turned toward Mace, nodding. “Thank you.”

Mace shifted his energy in a nod of his own. He’d have to project his thoughts to speak in this form, and he couldn’t do that to a human other than Solie or Lily. He certainly didn’t want to do it with any
man
, though Leon was different. He had to be, for Ril to have forgiven him. Mace never would have stayed with his original master, even if Jasar hadn’t been a sadistic, back-stabbing woman killer.

Good luck,
he sent to Ril instead. The younger battler turned and raised his hand in a wave.

Mace couldn’t imagine living as damaged as Ril was. Back in the home hive, Ril wouldn’t have been allowed to survive his wounds, since they made him next to useless in a fight. Still, Solie’s word on that was law, and Ril was a brother.
Come back to us,
he added, and he lifted off the ground again, rising up into the air to return to the Valley. His tarrying would only make it harder for them to hire a ship.

Don’t I always?
Ril sent faintly.
Guard the queen.

That was something else Mace couldn’t understand.
To actually leave the queen…? Ril was a very strange battler indeed. Mace flickered and soared high, eager to get back to Lily and Solie, where life wasn’t so complex.

Below, Ril watched the battler who had been his first real friend in this world head for home. He knew Mace’s thoughts and his opinions. Battlers didn’t have secrets from each other, which was something that the humans didn’t really understand.
They
lied to each other all the time without even meaning to. Battlers didn’t.

He acknowledged what Mace felt and turned again to look at the sea, the dark blue expanse across which Lizzy had been taken. It felt as deep as the world and wider than the universe.

He didn’t look back.