Mortal Ties (20 page)

Trth charms sampl magic.
“No one knew this?”

He shrugged. “No reason to. They’re designed to work on nulls as well as Gifted, so
why would they sample magic? Plus the amount of power they sample is so tiny…it took
a lot of tinkering with my magnify spell before I could see it, but I did see it.
That was the first time I’d seen any formed magic work at all the way your Gift does—by
sampling a smidge of magic—so I knew I was onto something. After a godawful amount
of trial and error, I made a charm that does more than sample. It acts as a funnel,
sending all the magic it comes in contact with into an array of lemon quartz crystals.”

“Why lemon quartz?”

“Trees are too big and diamonds cost too damn much.”

“Okaaaay.”

“If I explained about trees, you’d yell at me for getting sidetracked. As for diamonds,
they are the best portable way to store raw magic, no question about it. But they
don’t provide a great matrix for elemental magic, and the power the charm funnels
is…you might say it’s predisposed toward becoming mind-magic. It’s not there yet,
but the potentialities have been changed by the charm, giving it an affinity for Air,
which is the element for mind-magic. Mind, all this classifying by element type is
as imprecise as most generalizations. We’re really talking about how the magic gets
shaped by whatever absorbs then releases it, so—”

“Cullen.”

“Too much? Okay. I used lemon quartz because Air magic can’t be stored, but mind-magic
can, and lemon quartz is generally the best matrix for mind-magic. But in this case,
the power settles easily into lemon quartz.” He
stopped. His expression shifted to gloom. “And that’s the problem.”

“I thought the problem was that the device makes the unGifted have false memories.
Memories of weird stuff.”

“It does that when the array discharges suddenly, and it does that because the magic
is unstable when it enters the array. It finishes transforming into mind-magic while
it’s in there, but the initial instability messes up the matrix.” He brooded on that
a moment before adding, “At least I think that’s what’s happening.”

“Why does the discharge only affect nulls?”

He shrugged. “I’ve told you what I know. I need the damn prototype back to run more
tests.”

“You can make another if you have to, right?”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Tell her,” Rule said.

Okay, he had been listening, after all.

“But…” Cullen’s gaze went significantly toward the front seat.

Rule closed the folder. “Oh, very well. Scott, you will not speak of or otherwise
reveal what Cullen says about his prototype to anyone who is not present in this car
now. José, the same instruction for you, with the exception of your Rho. That was
unnecessary,” he added to Cullen, “but I trust you feel better now.”

Cullen scowled and looked at Lily. “No notes. This does not go into your report. It
doesn’t get written down.”

“I’ll agree to keep it off the record for now. I can’t agree it will never go in the
record.”

His scowl didn’t ease. “Rule—”

“You mistake my authority if you think I can tell Lily what to do.”

“I just thought…never mind.” He looked directly at Lily. “No notes.”

She clicked her pen and set it down.

“I made the prototype over five weeks ago. It’s still working.”

“Okay.”

He made an impatient sound. “Five weeks, and I haven’t renewed the charm.”

“But you told me charms couldn’t last beyond one moon cycle without being renewed.
Only artifacts can.…shit. You mean—”

“It’s not an artifact. Not really. It has about as much in common with real artifacts
as Alexander Volta’s ‘voltaic pile’ would with a modern lithium battery. But it is
the first self-renewing charm created in our world since the last adept died, and
it is possibly a first step toward creating a genuine artifact.”

“But that means…” Her fingers twitched. Writing things down helped her think, dammit.
“That means that whoever took it may not be interested in how it protects tech, or
in creating weird fake memories. They may have had it stolen because it’s a…a quasi-artifact.
Who else knows about this?” she demanded.

“Three more people than did a minute ago,” he said dryly. “The only ones I’ve told
until now were Cynna, Rule, and Isen. But it’s possible the wrong person saw the prototype.
I’m no adept. I don’t know how to hide the guts of a spell or charm the way they did.
If a sorcerer saw my prototype, he or she might be able to figure out what it was.
What it could do, if not exactly how it worked.”

“So now we’ve got sorcerers as well as several major corporations for suspects.” Not
that this expanded their pool enormously. Sorcerers were extremely rare. But they
were also extremely secretive, which meant they’d have a helluva time figuring out
who, exactly, went on the suspect list. “And you’re just now mentioning this?”

He sighed. “We probably have to add one more group to your list.”

“Who?’

“You know that trade delegation that arrived in D.C. via the Edge gate about two weeks
ago? First inter-realm trade in hundreds of years.”

“Of course.” The news had been full of it.

“The delegates include three elves, several humans who seem to be servants, and a
halfling of some kind.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen the pictures. She’s kind of…shit. You don’t mean—”

“I’m afraid so. Last week, I heard from some flunky in the State Department. Benessarai
An’Cholai expressed an interest in seeing a demonstration of my prototype. We’re supposed
to meet on January second.”

Shit, shit, shit. “Don’t tell me this Beness-whatever is a sidhe lord.”

“Ben-
ESS
-er-aye. Accent on the second syllable.”

“Benessarai,” she repeated impatiently. “Is he a sidhe lord?”

“He’s certainly sidhe—an elf—but not a lord. Or so the flunky said.”

“Would he be able to see magic the way you do? Some sidhe do, right? And how did he
even hear about your prototype?’

“Excellent questions, and when you find the answers I hope you’ll share them with
me.”

T
HE
addition of the sidhe—any sidhe—to the mix changed things considerably. Lily called
Ruben with the news on the way to the airport. She put her phone on speaker. No point
in pretending it was a private conversation. Not with lupi hearing.

Ruben made an
ah
sound of satisfaction. “There’s a connection,” he said definitely. “I don’t know
what, but one or more of our visiting sidhe are connected to this theft. Your investigation
is suddenly more important, Lily, but also a good deal trickier. There are political
ramifications—you’ll let me worry about those—and the trade delegation has been granted
temporary diplomatic immunity.”

Lily grimaced. “So I can’t arrest them even if they are guilty as hell.”

“The connection might be innocent. I don’t at the moment see how, but that doesn’t
negate the possibility. For now, focus on finding out who’s involved and why they
wanted the prototype and let me worry about how to make an arrest, if one is warranted.
I have a feeling the ‘why’ will prove important. Oh, and ask Mr. Seabourne to please
keep that appointment. I’d very much like to know why
Benessarai is interested enough in the prototype to fly across the country.”

Cullen twisted around in his seat—his was sitting up front—and snorted. “So would
I. The sidhe know how to make
real
artifacts. I’d also like to know how he heard about the prototype in the first place.
Learning anything will be a real trick, of course, given the way the sidhe are about
information. They consider secrecy an art form. Literally.” Cullen sighed. “Of course,
Benessarai may not show up now, especially if he was just wanting a chuckle at the
barbarian’s crude little device.”

Lily asked Ruben if he’d heard all that. Assured that he’d caught most of it, she
said, “I can’t see this elf guy crossing the country just to laugh at your prototype.”

Cullen shook his head. “Elves are not human. They don’t organize life the way we do—and
by ‘we’ I mean lupi as well as humans, because we both sort the world into good and
evil. Elves don’t. On a fundamental level, they just don’t. Their highest value is
dtha
, which roughly translated means knowledge and beauty, which they don’t consider separate
constructs, but more like two shades of the same color, or two lenses in a pair of
glasses. Amusement is part of
dtha.
And no, I don’t understand why, but it is, and it matters to them in ways that seem
frivolous or absurd to us. You know that sidhe lord I met when he came here on walkabout?”

“You’ve told me about him.”

“He violated an important ban to come to our realm. He left his land, his people,
and sundered himself from a vast amount of power—he was a sidhe lord, remember, with
the land-tie and all that implies. And he did all that because he thought it would
be amusing.”

“If elves are so secretive, how did you learn so much from him?”

“We made a deal. I can’t tell you about what. That’s part of the terms of the deal.”

Lily thought about that a moment. “And was he amused by his visit?”

Cullen looked surprised, then grinned. “I asked him that myself. He said he was.”

Lily glanced at Rule, sitting beside her. He hadn’t said one word since she punched
in Ruben’s number. He seemed to be listening, but in an abstracted way. “I need to
know whatever you’ve got about Benessarai and the other delegates,” she told Ruben.

“I’ll have Ida send you the file. It’s quite slim, unfortunately. We do know that
none of them are from Rethna’s realm—at least, the realm they claim to represent isn’t
the one he came from. Arjenie tentatively confirms that, based on conversations with
three of them. I’ll call both her and State and see what they can tell me that isn’t
in the file.”

“Okay.” She hesitated, then, watching Rule, said, “About Jasper Machek…do I have the
authority to make a deal with him if it leads us to whoever hired him to steal the
device?” She’d told Ruben who Jasper Machek was. She’d had to. Rule hadn’t objected.
He hadn’t really reacted at all.

“Are you certain you can separate your connection to him from the needs of the investigation?”

Lily considered several answers. She settled for a simple “no.”

“That’s honest, at any rate. I think you’d best tell him you can offer only a provisional
agreement, which I’ll have to approve.”

That was better than she’d feared. She thanked Ruben and disconnected. “Are you okay
with that?’ she asked Rule.

He smiled. It didn’t touch his eyes. “Fine. I’d rather Machek isn’t arrested. Imprisonment
wouldn’t affect him the way it would one of my people, but I’m unable to see it as
a decent sort of deterrent or punishment.”

But Machek is one of your people
, she wanted to say.
From the human side of your family.
Instead she took his hand and kept silent and wondered if she was being wise or really,
deeply foolish.

* * *

L
ILY
hadn’t visited San Francisco in years. The city hadn’t had any major magic-related
crimes since she switched from local law enforcement to the federal variety, and before
that…well, she and Cody used to come up here when they could both get time off. She
figured it was normal to avoid a place loaded with memories after a bad breakup.

She did wonder, as their plane circled SFO, what kind of memories the city held for
Rule. If she asked, he’d tell her, but then he’d get to ask her the same thing. She
thought about that and decided it was okay. He knew about Cody, after all. But she’d
ask later, when they were alone. Surely they’d be alone again sometime.

They did not leave the airport in Rule’s usual choice of cars. His brother had told
him to stop being so damn predictable, so he’d been tricky instead. He’d reserved
a Mercedes, but changed it to a BMW at the rental desk. Scott drove. Hungry lupi were
not focused lupi, so they picked up hamburgers and ate them as they wound up and down,
through and around.

They were stopped at a light on Market Street when Rule got a call from Mike, who
was holding down the fort at the hotel where they’d stay. “Already? But he hasn’t
had time to go to Clanhome, much less…” A longish pause. “Hmm. Welcome him for me,
then, and feed him. Tell him it will be at least an hour before I can be there to
accept and could be longer, but the delay is one of necessity, not disrespect.” He
disconnected and looked at Lily. “Isen is being unconventional again. The new Laban
Rho just arrived at the hotel looking for us. He brought one of the Laban counselors
to act as witness.”

“Witness for what?”

“Isen told him I would accept his submission on Nokolai’s behalf.”

“Is that kosher?”

“Oh, yes. It’s been done in the past, when circumstances didn’t permit the usual ceremony
and witnesses.” He glanced at the back of Scott’s head.