Demon Demon Burning Bright, Whisperings book four (8 page)

I didn’t see the High House and it is hard
to miss. The demons already moved along a wide lane walled by low,
unruly hedges. Trees drooped over with branches like reaching
hands. The path was sunken hard-packed dirt, as if thousands of
feet had worn it down to below the level of the bank. I started
along, enveloped by a musky smell I associate with fungus and damp
forest mulch, yet the ground was bone-dry and foliage wilted. Dust
powdered my boots and the hem of my jeans.

The pink-haired punk demon fell in beside
me. We walked in our own space, the other demons no closer than ten
feet ahead and ten feet behind.

“Why do they keep their distance?”

He smiled. “They are well-mannered.”

“And you’re not?”

His smile widened into a grin. “I am
curious, and I can tell my friends I walked at your side.”

A dozen questions milled in my head, but I
didn’t ask them. I dare not say anything to make the demons wonder
why I was here.

The temperature climbed. My feet felt hot
and sweaty in my heavy winter boots. I wanted to take my coat off,
but doing so would reveal my gun. The Gelpha would not take kindly
to an armed human approaching their High Lord.

Tiny, pleasurable gasps came from the demons
ahead. I stopped walking, but saw nothing alarming. The punk boy
and the demons behind us also stopped moving.

I started off again, and the boy made a
pleased sound which was echoed seconds later by the demons behind
me.

“What’s happening? Are you in pain, are
they?”

His head snapped up. “Pain? The opposite,
Lady. This close, we feel the High Lord’s aura, his power. This is
why we came. And perhaps Lord Lawrence will make an
appearance.”

Royal said the Gelpha would feel Lawrence’s
presence when he came to full power.

“I see.” I asked my companion, “How do you
feel his . . . power?”

His brows came together quizzically. “You
don’t know?”

Oops.
“I mean, how does it feel to
you
. It’s different for me.” He knew nothing about humans if
he thought we could sense the High Lord.

“Ah.” He faced ahead and drew in a deep
breath of air, held his arms out expansively. “Here, so close . . .
it is as if his presence clings to me.” He dropped his arms and
smiled shyly. “Really, I cannot describe it except to say it is the
most delightful of sensations. It tells me that at this moment, the
High Lord welcomes me.”

“At this moment,” I mused. “What if he
didn’t welcome you?”

His tone went flat. “I hope never to
experience that.”

The path curved to the right. I saw white
through the trees. “Is that the High House?”

He nodded. “But it is still some
distance.”

I groaned. “I don’t know whether I’ll make
it.” I felt as if I baked inside my coat. I turned my face up to
the washed-out, sunless blue sky seen between the tree branches.
Where did the dratted heat come from? “I bet a cab service would
make a fortune out here.”

“All men approach the High House on foot. No
exceptions.”

“Boy, thanks for that. You made my day.”

Two memories came to me. The first time
Royal brought me to the High House, when I asked why we couldn’t
beam in there - I meant flash in using demon speed - Royal told me
nobody
beamed
into the High House. Then, when we came here
to warn Lawrence and the Council about Dagka Shan, Royal said - and
I will never forget this - “
You remember when you asked why we
can’t beam into the High House? Somebody just did
.”

Shan ignored the prohibition against Cousins
in Bel-Athaer. He was in the High House. After arguing with the
councilors, Royal, I, and several demon teams went after the
Cousin. We found him. He killed some and critically wounded others
in our team, including Royal. I got off lightly with a few cracked
ribs.

The young demon’s chuckle brought me back to
the present.

So damn hot! My thick sweater clung to my
back. Could I remove my coat and shoulder holster at the same time
without anyone seeing my Ruger?

Then I recognized the scenery. Over on my
right - surely Royal and I raced over that grass and past that
copse when we came to the High House with Gia and Daven, again when
we came to warn the Council of Dagka Shan?

“I’m taking a shortcut. Nice meeting
you.”

He frowned as he followed my gaze, then
shrugged. “It is your prerogative, Lady. Well-wishes to you.”

He looked like a punk but sure sounded
formal.

I twitched my lips and put on speed to reach
a break in the hedge before him. I had to turn sideways to squeeze
through and spiky twigs caught at my coat, but I made it without
snagging the fabric.

I congratulated myself on getting this far
despite feeling as if someone slapped me on a hibachi. I didn’t
have to explain my presence. People here treated me as a novelty,
but were gracious. I hoped leaving would be as uncomplicated.

I increased my pace across an expanse of
wild grass to a low mound which stretched from the hedge to the
beginning of a forest. More mounds ran in waves nearly up to the
High House. I saw the portico through which Royal and I entered the
House, but the rest of the building showed as white patches through
the trees which fronted the length.

I climbed the mound feeling unlike myself.
I’m a mountain girl, I hike twice a week in warm weather, I’m
familiar with rough, steep terrain and high altitude. Now my face
burned and I breathed heavily. I felt like a wimp.

So I held my head high, strode down the
mound, over the grass, up the next mound and over the top. See,
Tiff Banks is no wuss, a little heat doesn’t bother her.

And fell over a body.

I landed on hands and knees, but shock made
me tumble on my butt. Bodies around me, lying singly, in pairs, in
groups of three to six. They lay on their backs or stomachs, or
curled on their sides. Except for small spaces between them, a
blanket of people obscured the grass, they were that close to one
another.

Just as I decided there had been a massacre
outside the High House, the body I tripped over growled at me.

Other bodies lifted their definitely living
heads. I had not barged into a crime scene; they relaxed as they
waited for Lawrence to make an appearance.

I rose on my knees, sure my face was bright
red from more than the heat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you
there.”

As I scrambled upright, the demon tossed
long, brilliant red hair from his eyes and snarled, “What have you
got on your feet, rocks?”

But his anger vanished as he looked up at
me. In fact, he seemed appalled. “I
do
beg your pardon,
Lady. I’m sure you trampled me accidentally.”

I exaggerated a wince. “So sorry.”

There didn’t seem to be anything else to
say, so I continued to the High House, carefully avoiding people.
None moved, but they watched me with their glittering eyes.

I stepped from the grass to the dirt path.
Phew
.

Now what?
Guess I should boldly go where
no idiot has been before.
Except I had been here before, and I
was
an idiot. How stupid can you be, marching into a foreign
dimension inhabited by men and women who are faster, stronger and
more conniving than you. I bet a Gelpha child could take me down
with no problem.

I went up the two shallow steps, gratified
to see the door hung open so I didn’t have to knock and wait as a
petitioner.

Inside, demons packed the great hall wall to
wall, all eyeing me. From their dress, these were the nobles of
Lawrence’s court. The gems on their clothing, their wrists, ankles,
fingers and adorning their hair added glitter to match their eyes
and metallic hair.

I shrank inside. All those eyes on me. They
didn’t blink. Faces expressionless, the demons didn’t move a
muscle; so still, they could be images painted on the air.

An arched opening directly across from the
entrance led to hallways and small vestibules and eventually to the
outside. I didn’t know where the other archway at the bottom of the
staircase went. The pale, gleaming walls stretched to the next
floor. No couches or chairs for visitors to rest their weary bones
on, no elegant tables or accent pieces. The hall was a formal
waiting room bathed in light from tall windows along the left
wall.

A woman peeled from the others and glided
over the polished floor. She stopped in front of me and did a
little dip, a kind of curtsy. With her arms held out from her
sides, her sleeves hung from wrists to floor, the ends pooling with
her bright-yellow gown where it bunched on the pale tile. Her
straight black hair swung over her cheek as she lowered her head.
Black eyes glinted below sable lashes.

“How may I help you, Lady?” she asked in
low, musical tones.

I spoke through the lump lodged in my
throat. “I’m here to see the High Lord.”

She smoothly rose, head still down. “He is
engaged with his Council. If you would care to - ”

“Great. I know the way.” I started toward
the throng. O
h shit please let me pass
! I couldn’t barrel
through a horde of demons who refused to move.

They moved aside, opening a jagged path
which meandered across the hall to one of the staircases which wind
up the walls to the next floor.

I went up the stairs. I’d never liked these
stairs. Imagine what looks like an inch-thick coat of perfectly
lucent wax over marble; they look as if arcane magic holds water in
place over them. I put my palm flat to the wall, but didn’t feel
secure. At the top, in the gallery, I leaned over the carved wood
railing to see demon faces staring up at me. I turned my back on
them and strode down the long hall to the Council Chamber. The bulk
of my Ruger clung to my ribs, making me feel I wasn’t completely
helpless.

I stopped at the closed double doors to draw
a breath deep through my nose into my lungs before I slapped my
hands on the wood panels and pushed.

CHAPTER FIVE

I stood in the Council Chamber with its
silken chocolate walls which seemed to ripple if I moved my head.
The dripping chandelier cast a mellow golden swath over the demon
councilors who regarded me with hooded eyes. Lawrence sat in a
throne-like chair on the dais at the back of the circular room. He
was taller than I remembered and his glossy chestnut hair now bore
a metallic sheen. His eyes were dark, gleaming bronze. His features
were sharper, too, with a high, proud nose and swooping brows. How
old was he now? Eight? He looked all of twelve.

I didn’t recognize all the councilors. The
guy with black hair whose gently mounding stomach fascinated me
last time was absent; also Darja, she of the aging face, young
woman’s body and fading salmon hair. I didn’t remember the others
well, but enough to know they were not here. Only two of the
original councilors remained: Gareth, and the white-gray haired
woman. Six male Gelpha were new to me.

The half-circular table was gone. The
councilors no longer faced Lawrence, they sat in two straight lines
running diagonally from the dais, their high-backed wingchairs
positioned so they could see most the room by turning their heads.
Each chair had a small table beside it, on which I saw long-stemmed
glasses and small dishes. The Council had gone casual.

The arrangement bothered me. They should be
facing Lawrence, not sitting with their shoulders to him.

“Miss Banks,” Lawrence said, voice deeper
than last time we spoke, “how nice to see you.”

The expression in his eyes did not match the
rising lilt of his words, but I couldn’t read the steady gaze he
laid on me.

“To what do we owe this pleasure,” Gareth
asked.

“I’m looking for Royal.”

Gareth lifted his glass from the table and
regarded the lilac liquid as his brows met in a perplexed frown.
“Ryel is not here. Did he say he would be?”

Clenching my hands to fists, I shifted
uncomfortably on my feet. “I haven’t seen him nor spoken to him in
days. He up and . . . disappeared.”

A demon with glinting gold eyes and helmet
of burnished pewter hair lopped off at his ears shifted in his
chair. “He could be anywhere. Why come to us?”

Tension made my stomach ball up. “You can
sense him, can’t you? You can find him if he’s in Bel-Athaer. If
he’s
not
here, I’ll know to narrow my search to my world.”
Yeah, as if finding Royal when he could be anywhere on Earth would
be a breeze, but easier than searching two worlds,
if
I
could take Bel-Athaer out of the equation.

His lips ticked as if he found me
entertaining. “We can detect individuals among the comparatively
few in
your
world, but here, among millions of our people?”
He casually rubbed one finger back and forth over the chair arm’s
brocade upholstery. “I believe you have an idiom . . . a needle in
a haystack?”

“But you’d know whether he were in the High
House, right?” I said, hearing the desperate note in my voice.

“He’s not here,” Lawrence said, watching me
with a guarded expression.

I breathed in deeply through my nose,
willing my heart to stop thudding erratically.
Don’t panic,
Tiff, you know more than you did five minutes ago.
And,
you’re fine, they won’t hurt you.

Time had passed since I pitted my wits
against demons. Now, in their stronghold without Royal’s
protection, I knew how deeply I feared them. They could do anything
to me, and nobody back home would know. I could disappear without a
trace; my Xterra, parked on the street in Clarion a clue which
would lead the police nowhere.

Sweat dampened my scalp and drizzled down my
spine.

“You were brave to venture here,” the woman
said.

I lifted my chin, summoned bravado. “You
think so?”