Imp Forsaken (Imp Book 5) (26 page)

“I think….” She tapped the poker again on her lip before reversing it to smack the floor. “There. Taullian should take Cyelle and Tonlielle. They have the most similar government structure, and they’ve been very intimate with each other during the last two hundred years.”

I pursed my lips in thought. I remember I’d had no problem passing through Tonlielle when I was working for Taullian this past winter. I’d got the feeling they were allies.

“Lady Moria was having a clandestine affair with Taullian. They tried to keep it quiet, but the gossip was on the streets. Neither kingdom seemed to be displeased by the rumors, either. I think she was paving the way towards a more permanent joining, of both their kingdoms and their personal futures. He can frame this as revenge for his lover’s death and the elves will eat it up.”

It was true. For all their stuffiness, elves loved a good romance—especially one that ended in poignant tragedy. Tonlielle would welcome him with open arms for avenging their beloved Moria’s murder.

“Wythyn is the obvious problem,” she continued, smacking the poker over the appropriate squiggle. “They will chafe under another kingdom’s rule, even those who despise Feille. Taullian will not be able to initially have a self-governance model with them. It will be too dangerous. He’ll need his strongest people in that kingdom for a few centuries before he can ever trust them.”

I snorted. “Taullian may be a good bureaucrat, but he’s weak. They’ll eat him alive in Wythyn. He should get the heck out of Dodge after he wins the battle and leave the bloody work to someone who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty.”

“That would be me.” Dar raised his hand like an eager schoolboy. “I’ll whip those fuckers into shape. They’ll be begging for Taullian to waltz in with his festivals and forest preservations after a month, guaranteed.”

Leethu shot him an admiring glance. “I think I need to take Kllee,” she said with another whack of the poker. I feared for the condition of my floor—not that it didn’t have plenty of dents and gouges in it already.

“Kllee?” Dar leaned over the map as if it would miraculously reveal information. “I don’t know anything about that kingdom. Aren’t they reclusive?”

“Which is why I need to be there. I’ve visited them a few times, so they know and trust me more than they would elves from other kingdoms. They’re the most likely to give Taullian the finger and go off on their own. They’re isolationists. Feille claims he’s conquered them, but they’re a very painful thorn in his side. They’ll never submit.”

Leethu had a look on her face I could only describe as rapture. She clearly knew something about the Kllee elves that no one else did.

“Okay, slutty-girl, spill it,” I encouraged.

“Have you noticed they appear rather… diverse for elves who avoid associating with other kingdoms?”

I hated it when Leethu teased. Well, I loved it, but not this kind of teasing. I’d never seen an elf from Kllee. I’d never been within a mile of their border. Their lands were not the easiest to navigate, and they trapped all mountain passes with an intense paranoia.

Dar waved a sharp-clawed digit at the succubus. “I’ve only met two, but they had smaller ears and were shorter with a more muscular build then other elves. They also appeared rather dark for southern elves. Are they breeding with their northern cousins?”

Northern elves were more commonly called the 'dark elves', which mean their skin tone ranged from latte to the deepest midnight. Their hair tended toward black and mahogany, although some kingdoms had a genetic streak that delivered an odd, colorless, white hair. It was shockingly attractive, especially combined with a dusky skin-tone.

I gasped, more for effect than because I was truly shocked. After all, I was a demon and very little actually shocked us. “But Eresh separates them from the closest northern kingdom. That’s pretty far to go for a quickie.”

Leethu shook her head, practically exploding with her secret. “Noooo. Guess again!”

Arrrgh! “Leethu, I’m going to make the next hour very unpleasant for you if you don’t spill it!” She grinned, knowing it was an empty threat.

“Where is their gate? The elven trap?” she prompted.

Dar and I looked at each other, both lost. Where the fuck was she going with this?

“Uh, about fifty years ago it was Cairo, but they usually move them every decade or so and I haven’t kept up. It’s not like I’d ever be seven-thousand feet up on a mountain in the middle of a remote elven kingdom to use the fucking thing anyway.”

Leethu waved her hand at Dar. “Winner, winner, chicken dinner,” she shouted. She’d stayed at my house far too long this winter and had picked up some unfortunate human colloquialisms. “Cairo, then Dar es Salaam, then Harare, and now it’s Lagos. It’s been there for the last two decades. They’ve always favored locations on that particular human continent.”

Lagos. I wracked my brain with earth geography until I settled on Nigeria. I hadn’t been in that part of the world for at least a century, but had fond memories. Who knew that those fat hippos could tear the shit out of a demon? I’d bet on one of them against an angel any day of the week. Those fuckers could fight.

“They’ve been secretly mating with their humans.” Leethu whispered as she leaned in, only to pull back with a mischievous look on her face.

Dar stared, uncomprehending while I sputtered in outrage. “Leethu, that’s racist. Just because they look different than their neighbors, doesn’t mean they’ve been forcing the humans to have their offspring!”

“Not forcing.” Leethu looked smug. “It’s all very hush-hush, but humans there have
rights
. They hold property. They earn wages. And, most importantly, they are not sterilized. They are allowed to form long-term partnerships with each other and some are in consensual relationships with elves. It’s not common, but they are allowed to intermarry. They no longer do changeling exchanges, and they've even taken to returning humans that fall through their trap and choose not to remain.”

Dar and I could have caught an entire summer’s field full of flies with our mouths. No shit. Was this part of the reason they were so reclusive? No other elven kingdom would remotely approve of that sort of thing.

“This might go easier with them than you think,” I told Leethu. “If Taullian is able to unite the kingdoms, the humans will have the peninsula of Cyelle as their own. It opens the door to the practices in Kllee being acceptable.”

Leethu raised a sexy eyebrow. “Freedom for humans is one thing, Ni-ni, but allowing sexual relationships with them and treating them as the equivalent of consort is another. Plus, Kllee will resist the closing of their gate.”

I sighed. Yet another hurdle to overcome. Why were these elves such pains in my ass? “Okay. You get Klee.”

She rapped the poker back and forth between two squiggles separated by three shapes. “That leaves Li at the west, and Allwin. Which shall you take, Ni-ni?”

An awkward silence fell, and Dar looked at me with sympathy and sorrow.

“I won’t be able to help with this, Leethu. I have another commitment.”

I felt the temperature drop at least twenty degrees. Odd. I hadn’t known Leethu could do that sort of thing. Slowly, her dark eyes rose to meet mine, full of an unfamiliar anger.

“Ahriman.” It felt as if her voice seared through my veins with ice. It made me realize there was far more to Leethu than I ever realized. She raised the poker and smacked it down again near my feet, edging closer to me, one menacing step at a time. It was not an appropriate way to treat the head of her household.

“You’re sending us away. What have you done, Ni-ni? What have you done?”

Dar, that unhelpful bastard, jumped in before I could even open my mouth.

“He’s not even remotely supportive of this project. She used his name and his influence in this whole elven thing. He’s going to be livid when he finds out. She’s sending us away to be safe, so he doesn’t punish her by hurting those she loves.”

Leethu grabbed my face, her eyes meeting mine. Deep in their brown depths, I could see her pride that I cared so much for her and Dar that I could not hide it, and anger that I was choosing to face this alone.

“Ni-ni, he might kill you. What will become of us if you die? You are our anchor.” She placed her forehead against mine, and I closed my eyes, feeling her cool scales against my skin. “I did not frivolously pledge my loyalty and my household to you—and neither did Dar. Let us all face this together, and we will be stronger.”

I shook my head, feeling the prickle of her little gold scales along my forehead. “There are changes in Hel that I need to assist. I feel that I’m a catalyst, a spark to tinder. If I burn, then so be it. That’s my choice. But I will not take you and Dar with me. I’ll survive. I’ll endure, as long as I know you both are safe.”

The succubus released me, blowing an exasperated puff of air into my face. “Can you talk some sense into her, Dar?”

“Nope.” He stroked a whisker, a faint smile hovering around his thin lips. “Can’t talk sense into an imbecile.”

“Good. Glad that’s settled.” I pulled the poker away from Leethu and walked back to my map in the dust, drawing another set of squiggles in the dirty floor. “The relay device that’s keyed to mine is supposed to put me in Feille’s private, royal chambers. Now, I’ve never had the honor of being there, so I don’t have any fucking idea how many rooms there are, or what the layout will be. My strategy right now is to pop into some unknown room, then race around like a total idiot until I can find the fucker. Leethu? Any ideas?”

Leethu growled and snatched the poker out of my hand. I was beginning to think that Amber’s aggressive tendencies came honestly.

“I’ve never been in the royal chambers, but most elven high lords have an entire wing warded for their private use.” She drew more geometry into the floor, and I saw a faint curl of smoke rise from the poker. Leethu was pissed. It warmed my heart. “There’s always a bedchamber with a salon for entertainment, a dressing room full of mirrors and various tables and chairs. A wardrobe is usually attached to the bedroom. I’d suspect there’s also a private armory, perhaps a private art collection area, a serenity room for meditation and contemplation. Most high lords have a safe room. He may not be in his private rooms when you arrive, so you’ll need to determine which room he uses the most and hope there’s an adequate hiding place to ambush him. Always know the location of the safe room. If you’re too late, and Taullian attacks, he’ll head there.”

Leethu was right. Feille was too much of a coward to risk himself in battle. He’d be behind eight circles and wards the moment the first arrow let loose.

“Hopefully Taullian’s intelligence will provide his spies with the optimal place to put the relay,” I commented. “Otherwise, it’s going to be a race against time.”

Leethu nodded, putting an arm on my shoulder and sliding her hand down to grip my elbow. “You’re lucky, Ni-ni. Always so lucky. The great creator smiles upon you.”

I jolted in surprise. I’d never heard any demon refer to a higher power. That was an angel thing. We demons tended to throw our lot in with a more fickle fate than any kind of universal creation power.

“Perhaps it is the great destroyer who favors me,” I teased her.

She smiled, a strange knowing smile. “Oh most definitely, but I think the great creator has an affection for you as well.”

Hopefully some higher power would send a bit of divine assistance my way because I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull any of this off.

22

T
his whole situation kept getting worse and worse. He should be up in Aaru, meditating, trying to center himself and increase his vibration level. Instead, he was here in northern Washington State, seagulls diving all around him in search of bits the fishermen had left behind when they cleaned their catch on the pier. The tang of salt and decay filled his nose. The ocean, her power subdued in this calm inlet, still called to him, making him wish they’d chosen a water creature to bestow the gifts of Aaru upon instead of the humans.

Oak Island—gone, allegedly by a meteor strike. Or a nuclear facility destabilized. He wasn’t ruling either one out. It wouldn’t be the first time the humans had covered up an alarming disaster by falsifying records and claiming it was a natural occurrence. It was a clandestine nuclear facility that went up, or a campsite taken down by an astrological event. Either way, several humans with magic had died along with the angel. Why Furlac had been there at all was Gabriel’s primary concern. Hopefully there would be something, some clue toward Furlac’s purpose, his cause of death, and what linked him to Vaol.

Gabriel frowned, squinting up at the heavy clouds. He’d never been quite as good as Uriel in knowing the movements of the universe, but he was fairly certain no meteor, however small, had been on a trajectory with earth during that time period. There were always little bits of things pelting the planet, but nothing large enough to make it through the atmosphere to impact within the last few months, and certainly nothing big enough to destroy an island. Cloaking himself, he unfurled his wings and took to the skies.

The angel left the harbor, heading along the channel and toward the islands ahead, the city of Bellingham at his back. Hugging the edges of the bay, he veered south around the tip of Lumm Island before flying north into the Strait of Georgia. After passing several islands, he dove down, circling where the report had indicated Oak Island had been. It had been a small island, only about half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide by the report. A lighthouse blinked from the nearest island two miles away, in the early evening light.

Now there was nothing except small waves. No debris, no sediment clouded the water. The dark sea should have been greenish brown in the area, but there was nothing to indicate that an island had ever been there. Gabriel circled around, dropping low to land, his feet skimming the water. Slowing, he pulled his wings in tight. A shaft of sunlight pierced the cloud cover and reflected off their pure white with blinding intensity. The angel paced about on the surface of the sea, trying to find any indication of the small half-mile land mass that had once occupied this space.