Tempest’s Legacy (29 page)

… love you, too, Dad,” I said, before saying good-bye and closing my cell phone. I was in our new suite’s bedroom—since the old one now had a rather expansive hole in the outer wall—taking a moment to make sure everyone was safe back at the homestead.

I lay back on my bed for just a moment, feeling exhausted. We’d been traveling all over, following so many leads, and we’d put together so much information. Yet for all intents and purposes, we had
nothing
. Losing that doctor had put us back at square one.

My mother and Iris were still dead; labs were still operating; and we were no closer to nailing Jarl then we’d been before we’d left Rockabill. Meanwhile, all I wanted, more than anything, was to go
home
.

Instead, I joined the others in the main room of our suite.

“Everyone’s fine,” I reported. “Still crashed out at my place. My dad thinks I’m now touring the Andes.”

I folded myself onto a free, out-of-the-way love seat, as far away from everyone as I could get, and combed through my wet hair. Anyan had taken me swimming, so I could recharge and so he could question me about Blondie. The barghest was freaking out over who she could be. Even now, he was standing at the window, staring out with an expression similar to what I imagined Miss Marple’s would be as she knitted and put together clues.

Then I thought of Anyan’s big, clever hands busy knitting, and wished with all my heart we were in a different time and place.

Ryu, meanwhile, was in his own bedroom, talking to his king and queen. Caleb and Daoud were watching CNN, although Daoud looked so sleepy I was pretty sure he’d be watching the inside of his eyelids in a few minutes. Julian was working on his laptop, ordering some equipment he wanted for the investigation.

All of which left me to brood on my love seat; so brood I did. Until Anyan turned around and walked over to me.

Part of me couldn’t help but enjoy him wedging his big frame beside me into the little two-seater sofa. But the other part of me knew what he wanted.

“Are you sure you couldn’t recognize her power?”

I sighed. Rather unsurprisingly, the barghest was like a dog with a bone about this subject: worrying away at it so that he could get to the marrow.

“Anyan, I told you: no. It sort of felt elemental, but it was just so strong.”

“Hmph,” he said, his long nose twitching furiously as he thought.

“And she wasn’t antagonistic?”

“Nope, she was really friendly. Called me ‘babydoll,’ and healed you. Then saved me from Phaedra. She was just… nice.”

“Nice,” Anyan grunted.

I nodded.
Yes
.

“Hmph. Maybe she’s a renegade Alfar,” he hazarded after a few minutes.

“If I didn’t think they were legend, I’d wonder if she was an Original,” Caleb said from where he sat on the couch. Anyan’s face darkened in thought.

“An Original?” I asked. I’d never heard of the term.

“They’re a myth,” Daoud said groggily, not bothering to open his eyes.

“Well, a myth of what?”

Anyan answered my question finally. “The Originals are like the humans’ missing link. They’re supposed to be the very first generation of Alfar, before they were even really Alfar.”

“Well, how are they different than Alfar?”

“The legend is that they had
all
of our supernatural powers, even that of shape-shifting. So take every single faction, no matter how obscure, and combine them to make the Originals. They could fire up, like ifrits; shift shape, like nahuals; take power from any element, like the Alfar; and even harvest essence, like baobhan sith.”

“Wow,” I said. “That’s a lot of mojo.”

“Yeah, but they’re myths,” Daoud mumbled again. “Fairy tales we use to scare children.”

Thinking about what I’d just been told, I thought hard. “She didn’t do anything that wasn’t… normal. I mean, nothing she did was
normal
, but it wasn’t anything an Alfar with a lot of power couldn’t do.”

“Yes,” said Caleb. “No doubt she’s a renegade Alfar.”

I shrugged my shoulders. I had no idea what she was, but “renegade Alfar” was as good a guess as any.

“Maybe she senses discord in the territory, thinks she can take advantage of it,” the barghest continued, unable to drop that bone.

I just looked at him.

“So you’re
sure
you didn’t recognize her power?”

Groaning, I buried my head in my hands, just as Ryu came back into the room.

“Well, according to Wally, Jarl’s being extra-present around the compound. Showing up for every meal, every event… making sure everyone knows he never leaves.”

“Making sure everyone thinks he can’t be involved,” Daoud muttered, his eyes still at half-mast.

“Yup,” Ryu said, sitting down across from Anyan and me. “Plus, he’s called Phaedra, Graeme, and Fugwat home, announced publicly that they’ve been risking their lives running spying missions into the Borderlands and that they’ve brought him all sorts of important information.”

“And since Jarl is the spymaster, he can make up whatever ‘information’ he likes to support his claim,” Anyan added. “What about the harpies?”

“They’re still unaccounted for. Jane did a real number on Kaya. Or did she hit Kaori? Anyway, whichever one she hurt, they’re probably holed up somewhere, nursing wounds. But I’m sure they’ll be back to spying on us once they’re both at full strength.”

“So what are we going to do?” I asked glumly.

Ryu frowned, but Anyan spoke.

“Wait. Make calls. Contact more people. We’ll get another lead.”

“I’m sick of waiting,” I said, knowing I sounded petulant but not caring anymore.

“I know,” Anyan soothed. “We all are.”

Ryu had been watching our exchange, his frown deepening. He was about to speak, when we felt a familiar tingle in the air: First Magic.

Terk popped in a few seconds later on the carpet in front of Anyan and me. Instead of his usual dramatic entrance, however, this time he stumbled and fell. Partly because he was holding another large envelope, but I also remembered Capitola saying he was worn out from the last raid.

With a worried little cry, I sprang forward to help the brownie to his feet. He grasped my fingers so I could pull him upright, but he looked up at me with such sad sets of eyes that I went ahead and picked him up for a cuddle. He nestled against me, cooing gently, as I walked back to the couch to hand the envelope to Anyan.

As the barghest opened Capitola’s missive, he looked at me skeptically.

“Jane,” he began, “you really might not want to… Shit.”

Whatever he’d been about to say was cut off as he glanced down at the papers in his hands.

He got up and strode out of the room, pulling his cell phone out of his back pocket as he went.

I smiled down at the fuzzy little creature in my arms, and Terk smiled back, blinking all six black eyes at me so that he showed off his long lashes. I laughed, and he chittered something at me in what the supes called “old tongue,” the ancient language spoken by those of the First Magics.

“Can I get you anything?” I asked. “Are you thirsty?”

Terk chittered away, waving one of his little hands in front of my chest and nodding.

“Um, I’ll take that as a yes… Would you like water? Or soda?”

Terk chittered again, still waving his little hand.

“Umm… I’ll bring you some water and I have some Coke… I’ll bring both.”

Gently, I set the little brownie down at my feet then went to fetch him a drink. I could hear Anyan swearing from his bedroom, and I wondered what was going on. Just as I’d walked back to the couch, and knelt down to place the two glasses I’d filled by Terk, the barghest reentered the room, snapping shut his cell phone.

“Shit’s hit the fan in the Borderlands,” he said. “Cap is concerned we have a leak; that’s why she sent Terk. Because something has caused a panic among the enemy. The couple of remaining labs that different groups have been surveilling and preparing to raid went ahead and self-destructed last night. Everyone dead: patients, ‘doctors,’ everybody.”

I flipped through the pages Anyan had handed me: grainy faxed pictures of rooms with bodies strewn about, a map of the Borderlands with a smattering of little red Xs indicating the locations of labs, and a note from Capitola that read, “Someone’s getting paranoid. Have you discovered more? And has someone shared with your suspect? Call me if your line is safe.”

Rage began to burn in me, and I looked up at Anyan.

“He’s getting rid of the evidence. He knows he’s close to getting caught, so he’s getting rid of the evidence. He’ll just burn everything to the ground, kill everyone he
doesn’t trust, and it’ll be like none of this ever happened, for him.”

The room was silent, everyone watching Anyan and me.

“We can’t let him get away with this, Anyan,” I said, my voice deepening with passion. “He needs to pay for what he’s done…”

The barghest’s eyes stared into mine, his glowing with understanding and compassion. Then his eyes dropped to about knee level on me, and I realized everyone else was also staring right behind me.

“What the fuck,” I said irritably as I arched my back to peer over my shoulder behind me.

Nothing there. So I looked down.

To find the “adorable” little brownie thrusting his pelvis at me and making spanking motions, one hand behind his head in maximum porn-star imitation.

“You little
shit
,” I swore, turning around to confront Terk. For his part, he blinked up at me, smiling roguishly. With a wink and a kiss blown from one of his tiny hands, he apparated with a
poof
.

I stood there, staring at where the brownie had just been, so many feelings flooding my system I couldn’t even begin to separate them.

“Oh. My. God,” I said, clenching my fists. “Is there anyone else who wants to take a potshot at Jane? Anybody? Anybody?”

I turned back around to face the room, where the boys were staring at me like I was a live hand grenade. Hell, I
felt
like a live hand grenade.

Because I could
see
it, see it all already. Just like had happened after my first visit to the Compound, Jarl was going to wreak havoc in people’s lives—killing,
kidnapping, maiming—and then he was going to let a bunch of his cronies take the blame, or the bullet, and
nothing would happen to him
. He’d continue in his position of power, in his cushy life at the Compound, with a few people suspecting something but nobody acting.

Meanwhile, my mother was dead, Iris was dead, all those other women were dead. Or sitting in hospital rooms, victims of atrocities, not knowing if they’d ever get their magic back.

And it’s not like this setback was going to stop him. Jarl had lived centuries. He’d just wait for everyone to forget this latest kerfuffle—or die off—and then he’d be back at it once again. Or he’d concoct another half-baked, crazy scheme that involved other people’s pain and suffering.

“We have to do something,” I ground out, surprised at the pain in my own voice. I’d been keeping it together pretty well up until now. Trying to keep my eye on the prize: catching Jarl. Now that I saw that all of this might be in vain, cracks were spidering my veneer. I didn’t know how much longer I could hold.

Both Ryu and Anyan stepped forward, but I was tired of comforting words, placating gestures. So I took a step back from both of them.

“No,” I said, my voice stronger. “We have to
do
something.”

Both men looked at me, then at each other, then back at me.

“Jane,” Ryu said, but I shook my head.

“No, Ryu. No excuses. We have to figure out what we can do.”

“And we will,” Anyan said. “We just need a little more time. We’re all exhausted, especially you…”

That’s when I realized they were never going to do anything. Everyone in that room except for me, even Anyan, was such a part of the power structure that no one here would ever
do
anything. Attacking an Alfar like Jarl was, for them, like attacking the Pentagon, and they couldn’t even see that fact.