Chaos Tryst (5 page)

“Or,” she said, inclining her head, “you could save your backsides and take us to your leader.”

If it weren’t for his snout a laugh definitely would have escaped him. Maks couldn’t tell why Ari wanted an audience with the Lady Goblin-kin but he was annoyed enough with both of Fanaweigh’s factions to play along. He also needed to stick by her for the sake of his parents’ statue. She had him locked into her roller coaster and headed straight for the loop-the-loop. Interesting how he didn’t mind, was beginning to enjoy her. The goblins didn’t find Ariana Golde as amusing as Maks did. Who could blame them? He’d seen her eat cookies off the floor. He knew she’d devour goblins.

The border patrol drove Maks and Ari past Crimini Road, the goblins’ flea market. Heralded as the finest in North Carolina and eight surrounding states, the marketplace hummed with life louder than the patrol’s jeep. This took some doing. The jeep sounded like a woolly mammoth having its way with a saber tooth. Maks wasn’t sure who came out on top. Much the same as when common folks traded with storied ones. Often both sides benefited from the deals. Though sometimes not.

Goblin territory had a magpie for an architect. The buildings and homes were hodgepodge, combining eras and styles in interesting compositions. Maks would not have chosen to live there. He much preferred the suburb he and his brothers resided in, even with the rambunctious Shue children living next door. Though on the verge, The Old Woman had not succumbed to a nervous breakdown—yet. Neither had the Medveds, and the Shue children were given to pranks. Despite lacking Shues, goblin territory sheltered many species of Faeble.

Maks and Ari’s surprisingly smooth ride came to an end double-parked at the doors of a department store. He’d lost twenty percent of his hearing but at least his body hadn’t sustained any damage.

“Come away then,” the patrol leader shouted as all three goblins jumped from the jeep and hustled through the glass doors.

Maks held out a hand to help the wide-eyed Ari down. She blinked repeatedly; sticking a finger in her ear, she wriggled it. “Cripes, so loud.”

He blinked this time. She may as well have blown a foghorn in his face. “You do not have to yell. I have already become deaf,” he said.

“Oh,” she replied in slightly diminished decibels.

The name Lucida’s was etched onto the glass doors, along with office hours where store hours should have been. Clever goblins. They’d appropriated well. Maks looked to Ari and realized he still held her hand in his. He let go and received a smile. “I was preoccupied,” he said, holding a door open for her. She didn’t reply.

Lucida’s clearly didn’t function as a store anymore, but with the many goblins bustling around it had to be their base of operations. Maks and Ari followed the patrol down a hallway, past customer service and through a door marked BREAK ROOM. A lounge lavish enough to do a nightclub proud met them on the inside.

The patrol leader ran over to a figure in a circular booth at the far wall. After a short exchange they were invited back to meet the lady. Halfway there, Maks got a full look at her. “Damn,” he murmured in appreciation.

Ari nodded beside him. “Even better,” she said.

No jealousy or pique at his response, and why was this “even better”? The returner continued to surprise him. In truth, the Lady Goblin-kin did not surpass Ari’s loveliness. She did, however, possess a bodacious figure a man could not help but appreciate. Her hair spiraled around her shoulders in long ringlets so dark a shade of garnet they appeared black unless light caught and illuminated the red. The ringlets led the eye to an ample expanse of bottle-green cleavage. Maks cleared his throat. He had not meant to ogle the lady, but one could not help it any more than one could ignore a four-tier birthday cake in the middle of the room. Her décolleté begged for attention.

Glancing to the side he noticed Ari laughing at him. He allowed the faintest hint of humor to touch the corner of his mouth.

“I know,” she said, “you were preoccupied.”

The Lady Goblin-kin gestured for them to join her at the table. Ari slid into the blue velvet booth and Maks followed. The lady was quite good looking, with a full mouth and well put-together features. He glanced at Ari. The returner remained the victor.

“You are Ariana Golde, the returner?” The lady’s voice wrapped them in fur.

“I am. My companion is Maksim Medved.”

“Oh yes, Maksim Medved. The surly one.”

Ari choked on laughter.

“I am not surly,” Maks said.

“I wouldn’t know. I have only heard.” The queen of the goblins remained perfectly composed, as one would expect of a sovereign. “I am Lucida, the lady of the Goblin-kin. Ariana Golde, you have something I want.”

“I do.” Ari reached into her shoulder pack, pulled out the necklace and laid it on the table—two rows of rubies varying in size set into platinum, encrusted with diamonds and emerald dust.

Maks made a warning sound in his throat. He did not like where this was going. Ari laid a hand on his leg and glanced at him. Her look begged him to trust her. How could he? She was a
vorovka
and a treacherous one. Only the thought of the statue stilled his tongue. His opinion of the returner teetered to and fro in a kind of Arian-o-meter. He liked her, and then he didn’t. He’d been right from the beginning. She was not for trusting.

Lucida ran her fingers over the necklace, raising an eyebrow. “I suppose you would like a reward.”

This made more sense. Ariana Golde hoped for a better price than she had already received.

The returner shook her head. “I can’t accept more money for completing the job the Grand High Oni hired me to do.”

Maks and Lucida gave her twin looks. Both their expressions cried mischief. Ari either didn’t notice their disbelief or ignored it.

“Lady Lucida, haven’t you wondered why the Grand High Oni goes out of his way to ruin every marriage contract you’ve ever made?”

The lady inclined her head. She must have been searching for the trick in Ari’s question. “I know why. The red bastard hates me with all the fire in his bloated ogre belly. That’s why.”

Shaking her head with a knowing expression, Ari answered. “My father often sings a song: ‘Thin Line Between Love & Hate’ by The Pretenders. Have you heard it?”

Lucida nodded.

“I believe the lyrics apply here,” Ari said. “When your feud started, wasn’t it because your father tossed the High Oni out on his impressive backside during a poker game?”

Leaning forward the lady replied. “Yes, but rumor had it The Ogre said something unseemly about me. Something my
dah
refused to repeat.
Dah
even threatened the grapevines with a flamethrower to keep them quiet.”

A fiendish light flickered to life around Ari, sending off rose-colored flares. The power blazed across her skin. Maks studied the lady’s lack of reaction then scanned the room. No one perceived the chaos lighting the returner’s aura but him.

“Well, as my mother tells it, your father was…” Ari paused. “Shall we say old school? He wouldn’t have taken too kindly to a proposed match between the ogres and the goblin-kin.” Ari shook her head. Lucida’s eyes grew round. Maks cultured impassivity.

Incredible.

Rosy light flickered at the periphery of Maks’s vision and he swore beneath his breath. An outline of fox ears formed on either side of Ari’s head and matching whiskers adorned her face.
Vorovka
and vixen, each of his names for her proved true as the evening marched on. She lied with the skill of a sea serpent. Nothing she said could be countenanced. Yet what did she have to gain from the ruse?

Lucida sat back in the booth in shock. “Why didn’t he come to me after my
dah
was eaten by the rabid unicorn?”

Good for you, lady. You must challenge the lies.
Maks knew Lucida had longed for a marriage contract for many years, but a match between her and The Ogre took massive balls or outright idiocy to envision. He’d like to see the returner talk her way out of that one.

Ari took a beat. “I’d imagine at first he stayed away because you were in mourning and everyone thought it was his fault. Later you became so powerful his pride was at stake. What if you thought yourself above him or blamed him?”

“Ahh,” Lucida said slowly, as if the truth of it had struck her. “Goblins tend to die badly. We don’t deal in blame. The Ogre’s ego coming into play is more reasonable.”

“Yep, he is a male, my Lady Goblin-kin, and we both know how easily they can be ruled by ego.” Ari patted Maks’s arm in a gesture of commiseration. Against all common sense he wanted to hold on to her rather than pull away. Therefore, he removed her thieving appendage from his arm and dropped it into her lap.

Silence followed as Lucida weighed Ari’s claims. Tapping the necklace with glossy black fingernails, she sighed. “I know who your sire is, Ariana Golde. Your tongue is gilded by very old magicks. But to my benefit there is one lie you can’t tell. Pick up the necklace and give it to me.”

The lady was not stupid. She ran a multi-million dollar business and a larger clan. Ari gulped audibly; at least he’d heard the sound. Maks began to assess the best exit and how many goblins he’d have to kill to get them out of there.

“Of course,” Ari said, but did nothing.

Smug triumph curved Lucida’s mouth into a grin.

Twenty-five. If he knocked Lucida unconscious and killed twenty-five goblins, allowing Ari to take care of five more, the rest of the kin would become cautious enough to facilitate their escape. From there he’d put the returner on his back and run like all hell for the goblin gate.

Ari picked the necklace up from the table and held it out to the lady. She appeared calm but Maks could taste her trepidation, see the barest tremble along her left arm. As soon as her brand illuminated he would transform and—

Lucida grasped the jewels and nothing happened.
What?
Ari relinquished the necklace and no returner magicks flared to prevent the exchange.

Gobsmacked again.

Dammit she’d accomplished her ploy deftly. Chaos brewed strong within her, strong enough to allow her to overcome the Returner’s Creed. The predicament called for greater caution than he had exerted thus far. Further, he could not allow the returner to get to him. He held no immunity to her pull. Yet pull or no, like her or not, she would now give him his parents’ statue.

“I guarantee you,” Ari said, “if you accept this gift the Grand High Oni will tear down Fanaweigh’s Scar to come to you tonight.

More like come to her to start a war. Surely the returner had taken the lie too far.

Lucida clutched the necklace to her bare cleavage.

Perhaps not.

“Will you take the chance?” Ari asked. Her eyes shone, possessed by her delight in chaos. He needed to be away from her. Quickly.

The lady arched a brow. “I will,” she said. “If only to watch that oaf play the fool.”

The two women laughed and Maks rubbed at his eyes. Incredible. If it were not for Frannie’s state Maks would have pitied the ogre king. When he looked over at Ari, the chaos-magick ears and whiskers dissipated.

She poked him in the ribs and gestured for him to get going. As they rose she bid the Lady Goblin-kin a respectful farewell then stopped in the middle of it.

“Oh, before I forget, I have two of your henchmen.” Ari let the shoulder bag slide onto the table, unzipped it and pulled the snoring Corbel out. She laid him down before his mistress—the scars across his face had healed into pink lines. The lady grew still. Her darting tongue tasted the air and she shook her head.

“He’s no longer mine. He belongs to you,” Lucida said. She regarded Ari more closely, leaning forward. “How did it happen?”

“He bit me and got my blood in his mouth.”

Lucida chuckled, furs sliding over skin. “Little buffoon. He should not have tried to capture a bloodline so strong. He couldn’t win. Now he is yours.”

Flustered, Ari glanced at Maks. She’d been taken by surprise for the first time.
Ha
.

“If you don’t take him he will be a liability. I don’t suffer liabilities,” Lucida said without malice.

Of course. With Corbel subject to the returner’s will, his lady could no longer trust him. Maks touched Ari’s shoulder. She looked back up at him. “I warned you to leave him behind. Now you are responsible for his life.” Her lips parted to protest but Maks shook his head. “You are obligated to take him.”

Lucida appraised Maks on an up-down glance. When she’d finished she smiled in a comely manner.
Oh no.

Ari frowned. “All right then. What about Trajan?” She put the first minion back into her pack and pulled out the second. Trajan’s head flopped in a disconcerting manner. Ari’s head followed the flounce and roll of the goblin’s. “His neck’s a bit broken.”

“It’ll heal,” Lucida said.

Unable to lift his head, Trajan’s muffled voice came from an angle. “Cheers to hoping.”

“Take him as well. He’s useless without the other.” The lady flicked a dismissive hand in Trajan’s direction.

“Oh,” Ari sighed. “All right.” Going back into her bag she retrieved a striped scarf. Once she’d wrapped it around Trajan’s neck several times over it became a brace, one end left hanging for style.

“Now, now, I like this.” Trajan peered down at himself over thick layers of scarf. “Give us a mirror, returner.” Ari handed him a compact from within the wonder she called a shoulder pack.

Maks stared, amazed by the never-ending contents. “I’d like a peanut butter sandwich,” he said dryly. Ari handed him one, wrapped neatly in wax paper, and went back to helping Trajan with his new look.

At least the returner came prepared, Maks mused. He sniffed and handed the unappetizing sandwich off to a passing goblin. No honey. No good.

Trajan preened into the compact. “I’m a dapper one. Ain’t I, Corbel?” Silence. “Corbel?”

Ari’s eyes widened. “Um, yeah. Dapper.” She snatched the goblin up by the scruff of his scarf. To Maks she said, “Let’s get outta here.”

“A moment.” Lucida gestured to delay their exit. To Ari she said, “Don’t think me disrespectful, Ariana Golde.”

The lady seduced Maks with her eyes. “The returner clearly plans to claim you for her own, but have you made up your mind, Maksim Medved?”

Chaos. “One match at a time, my Lady Goblin-kin.”

Maks allowed a quick-fire gaze to roam the lady’s body. Goblin etiquette was complicated and he wanted her to feel her attentions were honored if not welcomed. He bowed, Ari nodded, and Lucida dipped her head in return.

Sauntering out behind Ari, Maks did not feel the confidence his stride suggested. He’d followed her lead the entire night. Maksim Medved, sidekick to a returner. His lip curled yet he was forced to tag along. Mitya and Kostya owed him. Dearly.