Shadowlands (49 page)

“That was you? The Cockatrice?”

He nodded, still grinning from ear to ear. “My Guidebeast. I am Iceriver. My mother is Tree in Leaf.”

Wolf introduced himself and then me, naming me a friend of the High Prince. Apparently, people knew that Cassandra had spent a long time among humans, and it wasn’t too shocking for them to encounter one, so long as they thought I “belonged” to their Prince.

“It is an honor to meet a friend of the High Prince,” the young Rider said. “I would greatly enjoy speaking to you about the Shadowlands, when your tasks permit it.”

“Oh, sure. I mean, it would be an honor to share my knowledge with you.”

“Tell me, Iceriver,” Wolf said. “Do you know of this place,” and he recited “‘Far to the horizon the rocks and grasses, Far to the horizon the ravens fly.’”

“Of course. That’s the Moor of Ravens. I can Move you there, or do you wish to Ride?”

“By all means Move us, if you are not tired from manifesting your Guidebeast.”

Instead of answering, Iceriver stepped between our two Cloud Horses, put one hand on Wolf’s left boot and one hand on my right.

CRACK!

“Behold, the Moor of Ravens.”

N
IK LED MOON AND ALEJANDRO up the stairs to find the outer office empty, and Elaine ensconced behind her desk.

“I sent the ladies home,” she said, without shifting her eyes from the monitor she was watching. Nik looked for any signs of slackness in her face, any shakiness, but his friend seemed fine, her usual poised self. He knew that her last infusion of
dra’aj
should last Elaine a much longer time, now that she was becoming used to carrying it, but he checked her out just the same.
Yeah, and I should be doing the same for myself.

“Do we still have a business?” Nik approached the desk.

“Sure, or we will have on Monday, once I’ve got all this organized to run without us.” She made a final entry and looked up, looking past him to where Alejandro and Moon stood in the doorway.

“This is Walks Under the Moon,” he said. “She’s here to help us.”

The Rider came forward with her hand outstretched. “Moon,” she said.

“Great.” Elaine gestured at the monitors. Two still ran news reports,
Nik saw. “How handy are you with spreadsheets? I could really use one for—what is it?”

Moon was peering with great interest at what she could see on the monitor nearest her. “Are these ‘spreadsheets’?” she said, turning back to Elaine, her gray eyes shining. “We do not read, or at least I do not. The Prince Guardian has been teaching me but,” she waved at the monitor, “evidently not enough.”

Elaine swallowed. “Okay, no problem. Fieldwork, it is.” Her smile faltered. “What’s up with you two? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“We have had a most unexpected encounter,” Alejandro said, tilting his head to look Nik over. “And I have learned that Nik is a brave man.”

“Hey,” he said, lifting his hands when both Elaine and Moon raised their eyebrows at him. “Don’t look at
me
. I was terrified the whole time.”

“But you did not run. You stood your ground, and more, you functioned as mediator.”

“Mediator?” Elaine came out from behind her desk. “With whom? Not one of the Hunt?”

“A Rider. A lieutenant of the Basilisk’s.” Alejandro turned to Moon. “Do you remember him from that time?”

Nik noticed that when Moon frowned, no wrinkles formed on her forehead. “I thought I did. He came to the Basilisk’s guard within the last year or so.”

Alejandro turned back to Elaine. “He found us in the Royal York, and had a proposition for us.”

Elaine made for the door. “Hang on, this sounds like coffee might be needed.” As she left the room, heading for the coffee works in the main office, Moon moved to a seat at one end of Elaine’s small couch, Alejandro took the seat next to her, and Nik dragged over the upholstered client’s chair from in front of the desk. Coffee must have been waiting in the thermal jug, because Elaine returned with jug, mugs, cream, and sugar on a tray before they had even settled in.

By the time they had finished pouring and passing the cream, Alejandro had filled Elaine in on their encounter.

Moon had her lower lip between her teeth. When she finally spoke, her voice was quiet. “I was not there for the beginning of this
meeting. Manticore save me, they gave
dra’aj
oaths? There were rumors that the Basilisk had begun some special ordeal for anyone who was not a Sunward Rider, but no one would have thought of this.”

Nik leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “I didn’t want to ask, but when Sunset mentioned this
dra’aj
oath, and Alejandro didn’t say anything about it…”

“It’s one of the minor Chants,” Moon said. “The Basilisk had a number of People searching out such things.” Moon suddenly bit her lip again, and looked away. “There are a number of these Chants, Minors or Smalls as they’re known, which manipulate
dra’aj
,” she said finally. “Cassandra—my sister—she speculated that the Hunt use a variation of it to take the
dra’aj
of others.”

“Even in my day I had heard of such things, of course,” Alejandro said. “But I had thought them the stuff of Songs.”

“Like so much the Basilisk uncovered.” Moon took a deep breath and straightened. “Your
dra’aj
swears the oath,” she said, looking down at her clasped hands. “Not merely your heart, or your intention. Your very
dra’aj
. You cannot act against the oath, even if you would wish to.”

“Whoa.” Nik leaned back in his chair. He’d known it was serious, from the stricken look on the strange Rider’s face, but there was something faintly sickening in the explanation. “Still, before I feel all sorry for them, I’ve got to keep in mind that they’re asking for this world,
our
world, as their reward for helping us out.”

Elaine set the sugar bowl back on the lacquered tray with a slight click. “When you say they asked for our world, is that such a bad thing? I mean, if these Riders want to live here?
They’re
not going to feed on us.”

“The High Prince might have to close the Portals to contain them.” If Alejandro stirred his coffee any more, Nik thought, he’d wear through the cup. “Their oaths force them to fight against the Prince Guardian, and therefore against the High Prince as well.”

“But if the Portals are closed,” Nik continued, “What controls do
we
have on Riders? What stops them from just taking over?”

“Really? How many of them are there? No offense,” Elaine nodded at the two Riders sitting on the couch. “But how much trouble can you cause against billions of us with your swords?—Oh!”

Nik sat back so abruptly he spilled coffee on his leg. Sitting on the couch, where Alejandro and Moon had been, were perfect replicas of Elaine and himself.

“We wouldn’t be limited to swords,” Moon said in an eerie but perfect facsimile of Elaine’s voice. “We can use any weapons we like.”

“And we have many you have never seen.” As he spoke, Alejandro resumed his own appearance, but now he had an elegant goatee, and his hair was a darker red.

“‘Nuke them from space,’” Elaine said under her breath. But she wasn’t grinning, the way she usually did when she used this quote.

“Sure, if they’re all in the same spot, but if they’re not?” Nik put his mug down on the table and dabbed at his pant leg with a napkin, hoping the others couldn’t see his hands shaking. He’d known they were fast, and of course they could Move, but he hadn’t known they could change their appearance that much. You could be sitting in a room full of Riders and never know.

Except for Valory. She’d know. Who they were and where they’d been, and maybe where they were going to be. If only people would listen. And how safe would that make
her
?

“Let’s not jump into the quicksand before we have to. How likely is any of this to happen?” Trust Elaine to be thinking ahead in an entirely different way. “Is this the kind of bargain that
could
be struck? It feels like the Pope dividing South America between the Spanish and the Portuguese. Don’t humans get any say?”

Alejandro looked at Moon, and waited. That’s right, Nik thought, she’d already said what she thought the High Prince might do.

Still, he wasn’t sure he liked the look on Moon’s face.

“Cassandra would wish to include you,” she said. “But it is more complex than I led Sunset on Water to believe. It would not occur to most of the People that humans be consulted.” She glanced at Alejandro and he nodded at her to continue. “Many regard humans as—well, as mythological creatures—as, I gather, we are regarded by you.”

“Great, just great.” Nik scrubbed his face with his hands.

“Sunset on Water accepted that Nik had the right to speak for humans. That is significant.” Alejandro leaned forward and poured
himself more coffee from the carafe. “I would say a bargain
can
be struck. The High Prince would not simply cede the Shadowlands unless the Hunt is dealt with.”

But Nik was still watching Moon’s face. “You’re not so sure,” he said.

“The Hunt is an old problem, one we have been living with for Cycles,” Moon studied the surface of her coffee. Unlike the rest of them, she was still on her first cup. “As we speak, these forced followers of the Basilisk Prince are being hunted down and killed.” She looked around, outer corners of eyes and lips turned down. “There has been no choice.”

“But there is now.” Elaine was nodding, as though she’d followed a legal argument through to its logical conclusion.

Alejandro was shaking his head. “The whole of the People fights with the High Prince, and eventually the Lands themselves will rise against her enemies.” He looked around. “At least, that is what the Songs tell us.”

“But it is because she is High Prince that my sister might act to spare the lives of Riders who are, after all, still her People.” Moon shrugged. “If they can be forced through the Portals, as Sunset on Water says his squad was, they need not be killed.” She contemplated Alejandro, almost as though she were measuring him. “You forget, while you were here, we have all lived through a civil war, and that is something she will work to avoid.”

“Wait just a second.” Chin in hand, Elaine was tapping her cheek with her index finger. “Right now the High Prince can’t send us any soldiers—not unless we come up with the Horn. But these guys, who are already here, are willing to fight against the Hunt? How is this a bad thing?”

“Sure, but once the Hunt are gone, and the Portals are closed, what keeps these Riders honest? Why should
they
keep their hands off us, Ellie?” Nik had a lot more experience in dealing with nonhumans than Elaine had.

“But couldn’t the High Prince make them swear to keep their side of the bargain?” Elaine looked from Alejandro to Moon and back again. “That’s what they’re doing right now, isn’t it? Keeping their oaths?”

“But that is a
dra’aj
oath,” Moon said. “Even if Cassandra had the
Chant to it, even if she would consider using it, a
dra’aj
oath can only be given once.”

Elaine sat back in her chair, holding her cup in front of her, silently whistling through her teeth. Finally she nodded. “Okay. If the Hunt isn’t stopped, none of this is going to matter to us. So we’ll deal with the Rider problem if it ever comes. We don’t even know that the High Prince will agree to speak with these new guys.” She waited until Alejandro and Moon both nodded before continuing. “Okay. Now, if these Basilisk Warriors are open to negotiation, is there any way for us to negotiate with the Hunt?”

“No.” Both Riders spoke at once.

Nik held up a finger, and Elaine, still blinking from the abruptness of the answer, turned to him. “Valory said they’re addicts, that they’re actually addicted to
dra’aj
.” He glanced at the Riders, and they nodded. “You know what that means, Ellie. They’re junkies. They’ll do anything, say anything, and then won’t feel bound by it. And, in any case, I don’t see what
we
could offer them.”

Moon looked from Nik to Elaine. “How is it that you have such a quick understanding of this curse? The High Prince has it as well, and the Guardian.”

“Addiction is something known and understood in the Shadowlands,” Alejandro pointed out. “Humans have lived with it for all of their history.”

Elaine frowned. “I was hoping we could offer them controlled access to the
dra’aj
we—the Outsiders—use.” She turned to Nik. “People are dying all the time, all over the world, so there must be lots of
dra’aj
we’re not using. Surely we could offer them that? An orderly and organized use of the available resources?”

“You mean like in some countries where you can register and get your heroin or whatever from the government?” Nik said.

“Exactly.”

Moon leaned forward, frowning, searching all their faces. “But why would they agree?” she said. “You speak as if you
could
control this access, as if you could stop them, or as if they needed you to find and provide
dra’aj
for them. Why would they care about controls? They believe the
dra’aj
here is limitless, they will not stop.” Moon held her cup close to her, as if using it like a shield. “They cannot stop.”