Blood of Half Gods (22 page)

The hypocrite!  I put my hands on my hips and I’m about to ream her out, when Kallen puts a hand on my shoulder.  I look up at him and he shakes his head.  Turning to Breena, he says, “Why did you use the past tense?”

It takes her a moment to answer.  “He has changed,” she says, lifting her head to look at us.  “His behavior is erratic, and his judgment poor, as of late.  It has been difficult to be around him.”

She’s holding something back.  “How long has it been since you were with him?”

If there was light in here, other than the little candle she lit, I bet we would see her blush.  “We have not seen each other for two moons.”

Moons?  Giants tell the passage of time by the lunar cycle?  How old fashioned is that.  “Why?”

She looks me straight in the eye, now.  “That is not your business.”  There’s a finality in her voice that says she’s not going to say anything more about it.  “You only need to know that I still care about him enough to try to prevent this war.”

Okay, then.  She drags us out to the middle of nowhere, leads us through a trap door, expects us to walk through a passage underground that leads to who knows where, and it’s none of my business why she and Ellu broke up?  No, it probably isn’t.  She kept her end of the bargain.  She showed me a way in.  That’s all she promised.  She never said she’d dish on her relationship with the opposing tribe’s Chief.

“Where does this lead, exactly,” Kallen asks.  I don’t think he cares why they broke up.

I bet she says cellar.  “To the cellar of Ellu’s home.”  I knew it.  It’s not like underground passages dump out on second floors very often.

“What are we expected to do when we get there?”  I’m not sure if he’s asking Breena or me that question.

“That will be up to you.  I must get back before my absence is noticed.”  Yeah, like people aren’t going to notice mine and Kallen’s absence.  She hands the candle to me and I take it.  Without another word, she turns and leaves.  To make things even better, we hear her close the trap door.  That makes our only option the tunnel.

Chapter 19

It’s a really long tunnel.  It takes a good ten minutes before we reach the door on the other side.  To my great surprise, the door isn’t locked.  It pushes open easily.  Kallen goes ahead of me, peering around the door to see if the coast is clear.  It must be, because he opens the it farther and gestures for me to follow him.

The cellar is a typical cellar.  A bunch of old junk lying around.  There’s a wine rack that lines one wall.  Nothing interesting.  I’m much more interested in the stairs that will lead us up to the rest of the house.  The Giant stairs that I’m going to have to scale.  By the time we get to the top of them, I’ll admit it, I’m a little winded.  Should have teleported.

Kallen goes first again, pushing the door open a crack to see where we are.  I expected to find the kitchen, but instead, we’re in a short hallway.  Looking to right, I see the kitchen and there are definitely Giants in there.  To the left, another hallway, perpendicular to this one.  I don’t hear anything from that direction.  The choice is obvious, then.  We go left until it dead ends into the other hallway.

One end of the new hallway looks like it leads out to a foyer, the other way is long and lined with doors.   The second door down on the left, loud voices are carrying out into the hallway.  We move a little closer to hear what’s being said.

“Ellu, we are on the brink of war.  Do you not care?” a frustrated and strained male voice says.

“What are you talking about, what war?” a man replies.  I’m assuming this is Ellu.

“The war that the Devas are about to wage because they think you are responsible for the kidnapping of the Princess.  We discussed this just an hour ago.”

“What is all this foolishness about a Princess?  You know as well as I do that the Queen is barren.”  I look up at Kallen with raised brows.  He nods to let me know it’s true.  Huh.  Guess that’s why I’m Dagda’s only kid.

“Ellu, snap out of it!  You have been walking this house as if in a cloud of dreams.  I have already explained to you that the King does indeed have a daughter.  She is the bastard child of a Witch.”

Hey!  That’s not true.  I put my hand out towards the doorknob as I pull magic.  I’ll show him who’s a bastard.  Unfortunately, Kallen grabs my shoulders and pulls me back to him.  “Stop,” he whispers in my ear.  If I didn’t love him so much, I’d punch him in the nose.  Instead, I let him draw me into a dark room across from the one we’re eavesdropping on.  He must have heard the Giants coming from the foyer while I was too focused on being insulted by strangers.  You know, I’m finding it really hard to warm up to the Giants. 

After the Giants in the hall disappear around a corner, we hear the door across the hall slam.  Peeking through the keyhole, which is conveniently at eyelevel for me, I watch the thighs of a Giant walk out of the room and stomp down the hall.  He seems really pissed.

Well, I guess this is my chance to talk to Ellu.  Opening the door, we walk quietly across the hall and I open the door to room he’s in.  I get my first look at him from the back as he’s staring out the window.  Wow, he’s tall.  He has to stand at least thirteen feet high.  So much for Quinn’s theory that the Cowan blood has made these guys shorter. 

He has on what looks like a dressing gown from old movies I’ve seen back home.  Under that, he has on blue and green striped silk pajamas.  He’s not as muscular as Quinn, but he’s close.  There are strands of gray in his hair, but not too many, making him seem distinguished, not old.  He’s probably only a decade or so older than Quinn.  The room we’re in looks like an office; it has a desk and some chairs, but there’s about half an inch of dust on all of them.  If it is an office, it certainly hasn’t been used in a while.

“I told you to leave,” Ellu says, turning around.  His eyes open wide when he sees us instead of the Giant he expected.  “Who are you and how did you get in here?”

Kallen starts to say something but I know it’s going to sound all formal about me being Princess, so I cut him off.  “I’m Xandra and this is Kallen.”

He slams the glass he has in his hand on the small end table next to him.  The glass shatters, but he doesn’t seem to notice.  He’s across the room in a couple of strides and he looms over us.  “Again, who are you and how did you get in here?” he growls. 

Yup, really having a hard time warming up to these guys.  “I’m the person all the Devas Giants and the King think you kidnapped and tried to kill.”

To say he’s shocked is putting it mildly.  He’s getting awfully pale.  I’m about to search the room for an emergency defibrillator.  “Then it is true, the King does have a daughter.”

“Well, yeah.  I’m pretty sure people have been telling you that for a few days now.”

Ellu puts a hand to his head and stumbles a bit.  Kallen and I back up quickly.  We do not want to be Giant made pancakes.  “Are you okay?” I ask.

He waves his hand that isn’t holding his head in our general direction.  “I am fine.”

“You don’t look fine.  You look like you’re going to fall down.”

“Perhaps I should sit down,” he says.  He walks to one of the dusty chairs and sits on it.  A little dust storm is created when his body hits the seat.  It’s no wonder he sneezes.  Twice.  Finally looking at us again, he asks, “Have you come to declare war as my advisors have warned?”

I can see that Kallen is itching to say yes.  He has a ton of magic inside of him right now.  I guess I didn’t think about the whole ‘it’s not a good idea to bring my boyfriend around the guy he’s convinced tried to kill me’ thing through.  Before he can answer, I say, “Actually, I’m here to try to prevent it.”

He raises one brow in disbelief.  “Why would you do that?”

I shrug.  “I’m a pacifist, I guess.”  I give Kallen a dirty look when he snorts.

Ellu rises unsteadily to his feet.  “Ah, the delusions of youth.  Peace and pacifism do not go hand in hand.  It is the threat of war that brings peace, just as war brings sorrow and pain.”

That’s deep.  I roll my eyes.  “Can we skip the philosophy lesson?  I came to ask why you’re sending your Giants out to attack the Devas.”

He looks puzzled.  “You are not the first to claim I have done such things.  Yet, I do not remember doing so.”  He puts his hand to his head again.  “In fact, I do not remember much that has happened these past months.  Your father came yesterday, and it was as if he woke me from a year’s slumber.  It has been a full day, and I have still not been able to shed the exhaustion that overcame me so long ago.”  He puts his hand on the back of the chair he was sitting on to steady himself as he almost stumbles again.

There’s a thought trying to creep into my head about what he just said.  It’s there, waiting for me to get that aha moment and figure out what all this means.  “Why aren’t you mad that we’re here?” I ask.  A brief look at Kallen tells me
he’s
mad we’re here.

Ellu does a half chuckle thing, and says, “I have no doubt that you expect a sinister response, but all I can say to you is, I am pleased to be in the presence of the King’s daughter.  I have no ill feelings towards you, and like the King, you are welcome in my home whenever you please.” 

My brows scrunch together.  Yeah, he sounds like a vicious kidnapper who wants me dead.  Then again, my own brother was turned into a vicious murderer and I didn’t know it.  I’m probably not the best person to make the call on his sanity or his sincerity.

“You say those words, yet you send your Giants to kill those of the Devas, picking them off one by one in ambushes, instead of facing them in a fair fight.  How do you reconcile that with the image you are trying to set forth at this moment?” Kallen asks him.

Instead of answering, Ellu falls to the floor.  I hope he’s not dead.  I walk towards him tentatively, waiting for his hand to reach out and grab my ankle or something.  It doesn’t.  He just lays there drooling.  Eew. 

Using my magic, I reach out to him.  I can feel his heart pumping, so he’s not dead.  I’m kind of up in the air about how relieved I am about that.  As I magically examine him, I am able to taste someone else’s magic.  A powerful magic that has a tight grip on him.  Pulling my magic back, I turn to Kallen.  “He’s under someone’s spell.  He’s full of magic, and I think it’s black.”  Sure wish Alita was here so we could know for sure.

Kallen doesn’t look like he wants to believe it.  “It could be a spell he requested from an errant Fairy that has gone awry.”

He’s going to be stubborn about this.  “And what would the point be.  So he can pass out during important conversations?”

He sighs.  “Xandra, I understand that you don’t agree with this war.  That does not mean that it should not happen.”

I put my hands on my hips.  “I thought Sheehogue Fairies were supposed to be anti-war.”

That makes him uncomfortable.  “I may be Sheehogue, but that does not mean that I will stand idly by when threats are made on your life.”

And neither would I if I was him.  “I know, but Kallen, look at him.”  I gesture towards the passed out Ellu.  “Does he look like he’s in any condition to mastermind a plot to kill me?  The man can hardly stand up straight when he’s conscious.  And I tasted that spell.  I don’t think it’s one that anyone would ask to have put on them.”

At least Kallen looks thoughtful now instead of obstinate.  “Unless he did not know what it would really do.”

Oh, I see where he’s going with this.  “You think someone tricked him into agreeing to a spell that would hurt him?” 

Kallen runs his fingers through his hair.  Reluctantly, he says, “History is filled with such situations.”

“But who, do you think.  And why?”

He tries to smile.  “I am only now conceding to the possibility.  You cannot expect me to have the answers.”

Ellu twitches a little, bringing my attention back to him.  I look up at Kallen again.  “Should we do something with him?”

He shrugs.  “He seems fine where he is.  Having him remain unconscious may help us determine who would want him to act so erratically, to the point of inciting war.”

A female voice in the hallway make us forget about Ellu.  “She is here.  She is with Ellu.”

Gee, I wonder who she means.  “Excellent,” a male voice says as the doorknob turns.

Do we stay to find out what’s going on, or do we teleport out of here?  Decisions, decisions.  Kallen moves to my side in a defensive position, magic at the ready.  Mine is, too.  Though, when another Ellu walks through the door, I have to admit, I’m shocked enough to let some of it slip back to the earth.

“Ah, you have joined the party, finally,” the new Ellu says.  He’s wearing black dress pants and a gray sweater.  He’s a lot less casual than the other Ellu.  Glancing at the other one on the floor, he purses his lips.  “Nasty business that you had to find out about this.”

“Who are you?” Kallen demands.

New Ellu’s lips turn up into a pleasant smile as he looks down and gestures from his chest to his feet.  “It seems obvious who I am.”

“Okay, then who is he?” I ask.  I’m pretty sure I know who the imposter is.  Generally, the imposters don’t end up unconscious on the floor. At least, not until the end of the movie, and this one isn’t over yet.