Pomegranates full and fine (40 page)

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Tango’s smile matched, and maybe even outshone, Miranda’s. “It worked!” She threw her arms around the other woman. “Thank you, Miranda!” She turned to smile at the bemused pooka, sitting up and looking around. “Hello, Riley!”

“Hurray!” Tolly came bounding across the room like a big, friendly dog, and grabbed Riley tightly. “You’re back!”

Riley hugged the mad vampire in return, then looked around the empty court and back to Tango. “What happened?”

“Solomon kidnapped you....”

“I know that.” Riley shuddered. “The last thing I remember was having my mind rooted through like it was a garbage can.”

Miranda raised her eyebrow. “I didn’t know Solomon could do that.”

“Mages are always full of—” Riley really looked at the vampire for the first time. “You!” He scrambled away.

“Riley!” Tango grabbed him. “It’s all right. She’s on our side. She’s left the Bandog.”

The pooka glared at Miranda. “Really?”

Tolly didn’t give her a chance to reply. He twisted Riley around roughly, dragging him away from her. “Take the
geasa
off me, Riley,” he begged. “Please! Take it off before I go nuts!”

“All right, you’re released!” Tolly collapsed across Riley’s lap with a vast sigh. Riley looked around. “What the hell’s been happening?” His eyes went narrow. “What day is it?”

“The night before Highsummer.”

“Shit!” Riley pushed Tolly off him and scrambled down from the table. “Solomon was bragging to me. He’s going to...”    ■

Tango stopped him. “Easy. We know what Solomon is planning.”

“How much?”

“Pretty much everything, we think.” Tango sat him back down again. “Take it slow. You’ve been asleep for five days.”

“Well, then I’m good and rested.” He got to his feet again and caught Tolly’s lolling head. “How much do they know about the other stuff?”

“Nothing. I couldn’t tell them anything, remember?” Red tears started to drip from Tolly’s eyes. “But if you know about the murders, guess who Solomon chose to do his dirty work.”

“No.” Riley glanced at Miranda.

She nodded. “Our pack.” Tango was surprised to hear a faint quaver in her voice. “Solomon came to me, then pretended to hire the pack.”

“No.” Riley stroked Tolly’s blond hair. “I’m sorry, Toll.”

Tolly twisted around to grab at Riley and cry into his chest. “And I couldn’t
tell
anyone!” Riley kept stroking his head comfortingly. He looked at Tango.

“So,” she asked him slowly, “why did Solomon kidnap you?”

“You didn’t get the yellow folder? Everything was in there. I thought they might get me sometime, so I wrote it all down, everything 1 had on Solomon. There was a Bandog bracelet with it, too — one that Tolly took from someone.”

She shook her head. “Jubilee... one of the Bandog searched your apartment while you were in San

Francisco and cleaned it out. I got your message to Epp, but the file was already gone. So was the bracelet.” She didn’t mention that the first Bandog bracelet she’d seen had been his. The one he had been wearing at Pan’s, the one she’d discovered later in his suitcase.

“Damn. How did you find me, then?”

“It’s a long story, and I don’t think we have time for it. The duke is probably on his way here.”

The door to the stairway outside unlocked suddenly. “No,” said Duke Michael as he walked into the court. Dex, Sin and Marshall slipped in around him. All three sidhe held naked swords. The redcap had a club. “He’s already here.” Behind the duke, Slocombe, the troll Tango had seen on her earlier visits to court, squeezed through the doorway.

Tango drew her breath in a hiss. “Your Grace, I’ve claimed sanctuary for myself and my allies under the Right of Safe Haven. Marshall must have told you that.” “He has,” replied the duke. His voice was calm, but there was a dangerous edge to it. “But the Right of Safe Haven applies only to Kithain — not to vampires. And for you and Riley to claim Safe Haven in my own court...” His smile was as sharp as the light that gleamed off the blade of his sword. “A criminal might as well seek sanctuary in a court of law.” With a swift gesture, he sent his knights and the night watchman to surround them.

Miranda stepped forward quickly. “Wait! There’s something you have to...”

Duke Michael cut her off with a flick of his sword through the air. “You have no voice in this court, vampire!” Tango felt a flare of Glamour and, abruptly, Miranda was silent. The other woman looked shocked.

Tango glanced at Riley. The pooka grimaced and pried himself out of Tolly’s grasp.

“Your Grace,” he said humbly. He dropped down on one knee before the duke, playing the role of the penitent courtier with perfect ease. “These vampires have risked their existence for us. We four bring news of a grave peril, a peril that kept me from my duties as your Jester.” He looked up. “Will you at least hear our news before you pass judgment?”

If Tango had been the duke, she would have run Riley through on the spot. Dex was making motions that suggested he would have done likewise, while Sin grimaced broadly. Riley’s act, however, was designed to appeal to Duke Michael and his sense of tradition. And it worked. The duke nodded.

Riley launched into a masterful account of the Bandog and their worship of Shaftiel. His words brought to life the eerie atmosphere of the ritual chamber in Solomon’s house. He described Solomon’s plans to create chaos in Toronto and summon Shaftiel’s voice. He very neatly glossed over the matter of how he and Tolly had come to be involved in the whole matter, instead focusing on his kidnapping and imprisonment, and on his rescue by Tango and Miranda. It was an incredibly good story for someone who had only heard the bare essence of Solomon’s plans — Tango suspected that if Riley had known the full events of the last few days and the facts of the penny murders, his story would have been even better.

When he had finished, she was in awe. Even Dex and Sin seemed spellbound. And the duke was nodding calmly. “So one of the Nephandi intends to speak to his dark master, and his plans menace

Toronto,” he said thoughtfully.

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“And you have been kidnapped by this Nephandus. You and Tango have done battle with him.”

“Not combat, your Grace, no. But we have met him face to face, and we oppose him.” .

Duke Michael’s sword descended ever so slowly to rest on Riley’s shoulder, right beside his neck. “But a Nephandus is a type of mage isn’t it, Riley?” His voice was suddenly cold and lethal. “You have had dealings with a mage?”

Tango blinked in outraged shock. “We didn’t have ‘dealings’ with Solomon! He kidnapped Riley. He’s ordered humans murdered. He wants to create riots and summon a demon!”

The duke glanced at her only briefly, then looked back down at Riley. “You are both bound to the rules of my court by your oaths. Dealings are dealings!” He tapped Riley with his sword. “You still have to answer for your actions in going to mages in San Francisco against my express orders.” He nodded again as Riley blanched. “Yes. I know about that. Tango told me. You forget that things still happen while we sleep.”

“What about the humans?” demanded Tango. “You can’t just...”

The duke turned his one-eyed gaze on her. “I have had enough of your shouting!” he snapped. “You have fought in my court, you have disobeyed me at every turn, you have resisted my judgments.” His sword came up to point at her. “It is not the place of a common nocker to question a sidhe! Humans are not my concern. Maintaining the order of my court and ruling the Kithain of Toronto is.” His sword described an arc

down to the floor. “Kneel and be silent!”

Tango watched the glittering point of the duke’s sword and felt the Glamour around her. All of the Glamour of the court... all those years of denying herself an epiphany. Duke Michael was everything she hated about sidhe. Her fingers itched. Her palms felt tight. A single clench of her hand and her ring would become a knife. Three steps. One to carry her close to the duke, too close for him to use his sword. A second to catch and pin his sword arm in case he tried to anyway. A third to thrust her knife through his heart. She could hear her breathing. She had been so close to losing control of herself in the last week. It would be so easy to slip back into Shiv’s ways, to teach the arrogant sidhe what was really important. So what if the five other Kithain discovered that the infamous assassin of the Accordance War was in their midst? Dex and Sin would have to die, but Riley, Marshall and the troll... they might be allowed to live. She was tired of resisting.

The Glamour poured into her like water through a crumbling dam. She didn’t have to spit to summon her strength this time. Her hand started to clench.

Someone caught it and held it open, forcing her fingers apart, preventing her from making the gesture that would summon her knife. Miranda, vampire strength straining against nocker strength. Tango turned to glare at her. Miranda caught her gaze. Her voice silenced by the duke’s magic, the vamp ire couldn’t command her, but her will could still wash into Tango’s mind. Tango felt numb suddenly. A hazy grayness overwhelmed her. Miranda forced her to her knees, then fell herself. Tolly scrambled down as well, so that they were all kneeling before the duke.

The sidhe lord smiled grimly. “Even the vampires have some manners, then. Tango, do you admit that you had dealings with a mage?”

The numbness of Miranda’s will bolstering her own helped. Tango sucked in a deep lungful of air, then another. The rage that burned in her began to ebb — a bit. “Yes,” she snarled. “I had dealings with a mage. But if your rules prevent a Kithain from trying to stop a Nephandus, then the rules need to be changed.”

“But they are still
my
rules,” Duke Michael reminded her. “And there is nothing you can do to change that.” “No.” Riley looked up suddenly, then stood. “There is. Your Grace, I challenge you to a duel. A fior, trial by combat. If you win, we submit to your justice.” Duke Michael turned to the pooka. Tango caught her breath. Fior was an ancient faerie tradition, the ordeal of truth. Trial by combat was just one form of fior, and one that was seldom invoked. The results of the duel would be binding — she just hoped Riley knew what he was doing. “If you win?” the duke asked him.

“You will do everything in your power to help us stop Solomon. Tango and I go free.” He pointed at Miranda and Tolly. “In addition, sanctuary is to be granted to these vampires until the fior is decided, and after, if I win. And you will give the one back her voice.”

Duke Michael narrowed his eyes. “The vampires are intruders here. I don’t owe them anything.”

Riley returned his gaze. “No, you’re right. You don’t. But it would be pretty damn cheap to deny them.”

The duke was silent for a moment. He glanced at the other sidhe, at the troll, and at Marshall. They all regarded him blankly. It was the lord’s decision to make. Finally, Duke Michael snorted. “Very well. Your demand for fior is accepted. The stakes will be as we have said. The vampires are granted sanctuary, and the female, the return of her voice.”

“The weapons?” asked Riley.

Wordlessly, the duke sheathed his sword and reached for two pool cues hanging on the wall. “Choose,” he said, presenting them to Riley. “Eight-ball. A pure game. No Glamour permitted.” He nodded for the troll to rack up a set of balls on one of the tables. His smile was predatory. Tango’s heart sank. She had seen the duke play.

“Fine.” Riley examined one of the cues, then the other. He chose the first. “Would you like to use the high table?”

The duke’s eyebrows rose. “All right.” The troll moved the pool balls up to the table at the front of the room, the one at which Tango had first seen the duke playing. “How many games do you want to play, Riley? Two of three? Three of five? Five of seven?”

“Seven of twelve.” Riley chalked up the tip of his cue, then blew the excess chalk off in a little puff of blue dust. His lips twitched, then burst into a wide, confident grin. “And you might want to close the court to spectators beyond the ones who are already here. Do you really want everyone to see you lose?”

Duke Michael frowned. Tango bit her tongue, partly to keep herself from laughing. Riley must have known that the duke would chose pool as the fior combat, and that meant he felt he had a good chance at winning. But the other reason she bit her tongue was because she recognized the grin on Riley’s face and his tactic of offering such self-assured advice.

He wasn’t absolutely positive that he could win.

The duke gestured for Marshall to go up to Ruby. “Tell her not to let anyone in.” Then he waved his cue toward the pool table. “Break,” he told Riley.

If Miranda closed her eyes, she could almost imagine that the two changelings were dueling with swords rather than pool cues. The swift clash of ball against ball was the strike of one blade against another. The drawing back and darting forward of the cues made the sound of steel slashing the air. Thrust. Parry. Feint. Lunge. Clash. Ring. Clatter. Then the soft dropping of balls into pockets — or blood to the floor from wounds.

Riley and the changeling duke paced around the table, circling each other. Each chose his shots with care, striking strategically, seldom missing his targets. When one did miss, he hissed in pain. The two men were sweating as if they fought a strenuous duel as well. The duke had stripped off a black silk shirt, and played in a tank top. Tango held Riley’s outer shirt. The pooka wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Clap your hands if you believe in faeries.” Every few shots he would turn his baseball cap around, wearing it forward, then backward, then forward again. He glared at the duke hotly, flashing him that mad, confident smile whenever the duke glared back. For his part, Duke Michael looked as fierce as a howling blizzard. He didn’t smile at all.

At first, both duelists had played with supreme confidence: Riley flamboyantly, Duke Michael with the precision of a surgeon. Riley had won the first game. Duke Michael the next. Riley the next after that, then the duke again. Then Riley had won two in a row. Duke Michael had rallied to win the next two. Riley’s smile had turned tight. Suddenly, all of the showiness was gone and they were playing hard, serious pool, back and forth against the green baize.