Wood Sprites (26 page)

The staff person blinked in surprise. “Um. That’s French. No. I took Mandarin in high school.
Nǐ hǎo
.”

Yves waved the implied offer away. “I doubt very much that the
husepavua
knows Mandarin, and mine is quite rusty.” He turned in question to Sparrow.

“
Oui, je parle Français
.” Sparrow answered that she spoke French and proved it by continuing the conversation in that language. “What is this stupidity? I have guard dogs with me.”

“They are distracted.” Yves waved his hand in a circle to take in the museum. His back was to the camera so that Louise couldn’t see his face. “This is the most inconspicuous place we could meet. If I need, I can have your holy dogs killed off.”

“We should not be meeting at all,” Sparrow stated. “And please don’t kill my dogs. Yes, I loathe them with all my heart, but it would make my position tedious.”

“There has been a change in plans,” Yves said. “You must return to Elfhome as soon as possible. Go back to the border and wait.”

Sparrow hissed out what might have been a curse and flicked a glance toward the museum staff member. “We need more privacy than this.”

Yves turned and addressed the staff member in English. “Do you have the insurance paperwork?”

“No. I thought—do we really need them?”

“Yes. Please, go get them.”

No, no, don’t go!
Louise didn’t want to be alone with these people. She felt like she was in shark-infested waters; if they found her, they’d kill her instantly.

“Oh! Okay. I’ll be right back.” The man hurried away.

Louise shrank back, putting her hand over her mouth.

Sparrow waited until the elevator dinged closed before growling out, “You demanded I come, and I set all my plans in motion and came, and now you’re telling me I must go back? I will not be able to stop what I have started!”

“Shut up and listen,” Ambassador Feng snapped. “We do not have time for this. Your dogs might return at any moment, and I do not want them sniffing at me.”

“They will not recognize you, especially in those ridiculous clothes.”

“At least I’m not in the same rags I was in four hundred years ago.”

Sparrow glared angrily at the male who seemed more and more an elf.

Yves moved between them. “Dufae has an heir!” His voice was full of annoyance at their petty fighting. “A child by the name of Alexander Graham Bell. We need him.”

It was good that Louise had her hand already over her mouth. She muffled the whimper of fear.
Alexander!

Sparrow huffed slightly in exasperation. “What does this have to do with me?”

“He is in Pittsburgh.”

“He is human.” She flipped her hand toward the Chinese ambassador. “He’s the one with the spies within the EIA. I can do nothing with humans without attracting attention.”

“Dufae’s child tested fluent in Elvish, both in oral and written sections of the application, and claimed our gods as his religion. Obviously he’s been raised by an elf. His guardian might turn to the Wind Clan when we take him. We cannot afford to get the
sekasha
or anyone else involved. You need to be there.”

“Are you sure that he will be useful? Neither Dufae’s sister nor his nephew matched his genius. This child could be an idiot.”

Yves still hadn’t turned to face the camera. It almost seemed as if he knew exactly where it was located and how to avoid it. “Someone in the NSA had the brilliant idea of screening college applicants for prodigies. They came up with test questions on building a gate that weren’t meant to be answerable. For almost three decades, no one has been able to. During the last Shutdown, Dufae’s child applied to Carnegie Mellon University and answered all the questions.”

Yves paced in the camera’s blind spot. “The humans have noticed our activities and have decided to put Bell into protective custody. The NSA has borrowed some operatives from another American agency to go to Pittsburgh and fetch Bell. They’ll be heavily armed and difficult to eliminate. It is possible that the Americans can make Bell disappear so not even we can find him. You two need to reach him first.”

Sparrow huffed again. “This would not be an issue if that idiot cat didn’t keep killing everyone who could build us a gate.”

Ambassador Feng reacted as if struck. “The scientists are not cooperating once they understand the situation. They’re smart enough to know that opening a gate between the worlds will result in full-out war.”

Yves waved aside the male’s comment. “She is right. We cannot afford another dismembered genius. Tell that cat of yours that if he harms Dufae’s child, we’ll have him skinned. Alive. Slowly. I’ll make him into a coat for my little sister.”

Ambassador Feng gave a slight bow. “I’ll have it explained so even he understands.”

What did they mean? Surely they didn’t mean an actual cat with fur? And yet that was what the words seemed to suggest. Was she mistranslating the French? And why were they even speaking French? Why weren’t they speaking Elvish?

“Can this not be delayed?” Sparrow seemed determined to not be involved in the plan. “Was that not the point of infiltrating the EIA? So that we controlled what humans came and went from Pittsburgh?”

“We cannot delay the visas for the two agents,” Yves stated. “The United States is expediting the papers using the fact that Dufae’s child claimed joint United States and Elfhome citizenship. The EIA has to give full cooperation to allow the USA the ability to protect its citizens; it’s part of the United Nations agreement. You must return to Pittsburgh immediately.”

“I can’t be there when Wolf Who Rules is killed.” Sparrow took a step backwards. “Your summons was the perfect excuse to be absent when he was attacked. Everything is set. He’s in Pittsburgh. I’ve brought one of his Hands with me to weaken him. A trap has been set that Yutakajodo says will succeed. I cannot compromise my position by returning until the deed is done.”

“My father commands it,” Yves stated coldly. “You must obey. Finish up here and return immediately to Monroeville and wait for Shutdown. Do what you must to make sure that you arrive in Pittsburgh first.”

“But—But—” Sparrow struggled to refuse.

Yves cut off her protest. “By the time you cross the border, the viceroy will be dead. No one will lay the blame on you.”

Louise realized she was crying. Alexander was an idea of a perfect older sister and a handful of photographs. Windwolf was much more a real person to her. Louise had watched hours of video of the viceroy and pored over all the known facts of his life. She knew him better than most of her teachers. How could they talk so casually about killing him?

Yves turned to Ambassador Feng. “We will need Shoji on this. He is the only one we have clever enough to verify that the work we get out of Dufae is correct. You have him on leash now?”

“Firmly. We’ve got the child caged in an obscuring spell at a secret compound. Shoji will not be able to find him.”

“Be sure to keep him well hidden and unharmed. We’ve missed our chance at taking the other children of the Chosen bloodline. Without the others, we’ll lose our hold on the tengu if the child we have is killed or freed.”

“We have Shoji.”

Yves snorted with contempt. “The male would kill himself before being used that way. It’s the dragon influence on the bloodline. If it comes to that, you’ll have to cage him.”

There was the scrape of boots and they all went silent, turning, clearly frightened.

Stormsong stood in the doorway of the Lost Treasures exhibit. She frowned at the three assembled in the hallway. She asked something in High Elvish.

“Good God, tell me that she doesn’t speak French,” the ambassador murmured, although neither his tone nor his face betrayed the fear of his words.

Louise muffled a whimper, remembering how Yves had so casually mentioned killing off the holy warriors if they learned too much.

Sparrow snorted. “Not a word.” She switched to English to address the warrior. “Not all humans speak English. We are speaking French.”

Stormsong studied Ambassador Feng for a minute and then asked in fluent Mandarin, “Why aren’t you using the Chinese official language? Would not that be more polite?”

Ambassador Feng went white and took a step back. He caught himself and bowed, stuttering out, “I’m—I’m amazed. I did not know that you spoke my language.”

“We’re not speaking Mandarin because I don’t know it.” Yves returned the conversation to English. His tone was bold and fearless. “This is a common problem with humans. Earth has nearly seven thousand distinct languages. We have a legend that at one time we tried to reach the heavens and one of our gods cursed us so we would fail. He made it so not one man spoke the same language as his neighbor. And in a babbling of voices, the people abandoned their great work and fled in confusion.”

“The tower of Babel. I know the story. I’ve read your Bible.”

“Singing Storm of Wind has helped the viceroy study human culture since they were doubles. Wolf Who Rules hired tutors to teach them several of Earth’s languages. Together they have read most of the classic works of human literature.”

“But you didn’t teach them French?” Ambassador Feng asked in French but proved that he had been following the English conversation.

Sparrow locked down on a flash of anger, trying to pass it off as thinking carefully before answering the question in French. “I’d been banished to the farthest corner of hell by his father. I did not join Wolf’s household until after the first Startup.”

The elevator dinged and the staff person tumbled out, shuffling through papers. “Yes. Sorry. I should have had these ready.”

They all turned to face him. Yves, however, was the one who addressed him.

“Yes, we’re going to have to prepare claims on three items. You can ship them tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? We were hoping that the elves would allow us to keep the exhibit together until the end of this show.”

“Tomorrow,” Yves said firmly. “Let me point them out.”

Ambassador Feng frowned as Yves swept the staff person back into the exhibit room. “I know your people still see him as our emperor,” he murmured quietly to Sparrow alone. “But much has changed since the pathways between the worlds were closed. Our goals are no longer strictly the same.”

Sparrow sniffed with disdain. “It seems to me that your people are the ones who lost sight of the truth. Playing with your ugly little monsters. We are meant to be gods with angels serving our every whim.”

“We needed an army to take back our world. Monsters were the only way to build one quickly. Once we have what is ours, we’ll go back to making angels.” The ambassador glanced toward Stormsong. “More obedient ones this time.”

Sparrow and Ambassador Feng followed Yves as Zephyr Blade came trotting upstairs. Stormsong nodded to the male warrior in greeting.

“This is the strangest place I have ever seen.” Zephyr Blade eyed the primates in the glass display cases down the hall. “Those are not real humans mounted downstairs?”

“I doubt it,” Stormsong growled. “I believe they’re cleverly made dolls. Like that mechanical dog at the hotel. Humans are very good at deception.”

Louise huddled inside her invisible box. What should she do? Should she reveal herself and explain what she’d overheard? Would they believe her? Would she even have a chance to explain if she suddenly popped up out of nowhere? The warriors sounded somewhat freaked by the museum.

“Is something wrong?” Zephyr Blade asked Stormsong.

“I’m not used to being surprised.” The female started to pace in a wide circle, nearly brushing up against Louise’s box. “I feel half blind and half dead.”

“It’s because this world has no magic. It’s blinding your ability. All of us are feeling it. It’s like we’ve been coated with lead. How long are we staying?”

“Sparrow will not say. I’m not sure that she knows. It will depend on how cooperative the humans are. It could be months. I’m not sure why she felt the need for us to come; almost everything on Earth, we sold to the humans outright.”

“She is right that something important might have been lost when the war broke out and we pulled down the pathways.”

Assuming that Louise didn’t trigger some automatic “hack first, ask questions later” response, what would she actually say? That Sparrow had laid a trap for Windwolf? Louise didn’t know where or when or how. Nothing but honor would stop Sparrow from denying it, and everything Louise had witnessed indicated that Sparrow would do anything and say anything to keep her secret. Obviously she had lied about why she wanted to be on Earth. According to Stormsong, humans like Louise were “good at deception,” and Sparrow was her trusted leader.

And even if the warriors believed Louise over another elf, could they save Windwolf?

By the time you cross the border, he will be dead.

Obviously the assassination attempt was scheduled to happen before Shutdown. No one could communicate with Elfhome until Pittsburgh returned to Earth on Tuesday.

No matter what Louise did, she couldn’t save Windwolf. Yves said that if the
sekasha
proved troublesome, he’d have them all killed. By warning the warriors, Louise would merely make them targets when they were most vulnerable. The three people plotting at the museum represented an unknown number of powerful, hidden people. Their organization had obviously infiltrated both the EIA and the Chinese government. Hundreds, maybe thousands, against five warriors stranded on Earth.

How would the warriors even stop the three here? Kill them? Louise shuddered at the sudden image of blood splattering across glass display cases. What else could the elves do? If they tried to follow human laws, the assassins would be free to contact others to carry out their plans. Their massive organization would kill the five
sekasha
before they could carry the news back to Elfhome.

And every action had a reaction. If Louise acted against Yves, he could act against her. Even if she slipped away without giving her name and address, the security cameras would record her face. A quick check of elementary schools in the area would find her and Jillian. These people that so casually kidnapped and dismembered scientists, murdered elf nobles, and caged children to be used against their family would know where the twins lived.