C.E. Murphy - Truthseeker

Shocked relief shot through Lara. She’d forgotten there had been injuries in the car, that their delay had been due to the paramedics arriving and transferring people to the ambulances, and hadn’t considered that anyone might have been hiding there. “That was the smartest thing you could’ve done. And probably getting back in and waiting for more paramedics is the smartest thing you can do now.”

“Are they gone? Those things? What were they? What was it?”

Lara exchanged a look with Kelly, who said “Bats” without any conviction. It shivered tunelessly down Lara’s spine, neither true nor false; bats were the closest equivalent to the nightwings that she could think of, too.

“Bats,” the woman repeated, almost angry. “Bats don’t do what those things did. That thing. It changed. It—they—turned into a … a …”

“Dragon,” one of the paramedics supplied, then flushed as everyone looked at him. “Looked like a dragon to me.”

“Little-known fact,” Kelly breathed. “Bats and dragons are closely related.”

That did run sour over Lara’s skin, but she laughed anyway, a short sharp sound. “They were called nightwings. They’re not bats and they’re not dragons. They’re more like demons, and they come from fairyland.” She put truth into the words, knowing everyone would hear it. Knowing, too, that they wouldn’t believe it for long, but she couldn’t do anything about that. “The man who rescued us was an elfin prince,” she added. “Thank him in your prayers, if you pray.”

The woman stared at her a long moment. “I think I will tonight.” She climbed back into the ambulance and closed the door with a resounding crash that ended all conversation for a while. Lara trailed back to their car as the trooper called for more help. Kelly joined her, earning an uncomfortable glance from the cop, though he made no effort to stop them.

“So now what?” Kelly asked eventually. “Do we let him arrest us or what?”

“No,” Lara said as she got into the car. “I’m going to do what Ioan suggested. I’m going after whoever did this.”

“I kind of thought so. Okay. How?” Kelly asked as she, too, got into the car.

“I’m not sure, but he’s somewhere nearby. He has to be. Us killing the nightwings hurt him, I saw it. So if he needs the same things Dafydd did, he’ll be in the woods, somewhere quiet and green where he can regain strength. I just need to concentrate and open a true path.” Lara relaxed into the hum of truth in her own words.

Kelly cleared her throat. “Lara?”

“What?”

“I get that this whole truthseeking magic path thing is just how you roll now, and I hate to be all pragmatic …”

Lara frowned. “But?”

Kelly gestured at Lara’s clothes. “But you’re the one who pointed out you weren’t exactly wearing hiking gear. If we’re going chasing through the woods after bad guys, maybe we should do some shopping first.”

Lara glared at her pretty, impractical sandals. “No.”

“Lara, you’re the one who said—”

“That was before. Besides, we’re on the far edge of nowhere. There’s probably not a J. Crew for forty miles.”

“You’ve never worn J. Crew in your life.”

“That’s not the point!” Lara banged her palms against the dashboard. “The point is that before, we were just trying to get Dafydd somewhere quiet and safe so he could recover. Now he’s almost dead and my last chance of getting back to him and making sure he’s all right is out there somewhere. I’m not going to let whoever’s been controlling the nightwings have an extra few hours to rest up while I find sensible shoes!”

A drawn-out silence, long enough to make her feel guilty, met Lara’s tirade. She looked away, trying to summon the energy to mumble an apology, but Kelly said “Okay then” in an unoffended tone. “Let’s pretend I suggested that first so my second idea would seem more palatable.”

“What’s that?”

“Do your truth-path-seeking thing somewhere else.” Kelly pointed toward the trooper. “And right now, let’s bug the hell out of here before he gets up the nerve to arrest us after all.”

They crept by the trooper’s vehicle like fugitives, neither of them bold enough to catch his eye. Lara wasn’t strong enough to avoid it, either, and caught a glimpse of his grim expression as Kelly eased their car past his. She glanced sideways, too, then breathed, “We’re going to have to try explaining this at some point, you know.”

“One mess at a time,” Lara whispered back. “At least half a dozen people saw it this time. Maybe that’ll help with Washington.”

“I hope so. God, I’m glad he’s okay. He’s a really good guy, Lara.”

“I believe you.” A little smile curled Lara’s mouth. “Why are we whispering?”

Kelly gave a quick, startled laugh and an equally quick, guilty look over her shoulder to where the trooper and the battle scene were fading in the distance. “I don’t know. Because the boogeyman back there might get us if he hears us?”

“I think the boogeyman is up there somewhere.” Lara nodded toward the soft-lit mountains, her smile fading. “I’m sorry for getting you into this, Kelly. Maybe I should go on alone.”

“There is no way I’m missing the grand finale after all this shit,” Kelly said firmly. “I think even if it gets us killed I’d rather at least know how it turns out.”

Alarm danced up Lara’s spine to the tune of soprano flutes, pure sweet sounds. “Did you know you actually mean that?”

“I kind of thought I did. I’m pretty good about not stretching the truth around you, Truthseeker.” She chortled. “Wish I’d thought of that. Um, so, hey. That guy was David’s brother? He’s cute. Sturdier than Dafydd.”

Lara arched an eyebrow, both pleased and dismayed to see Kelly’s flirtatious nature resurfacing. It was a way to keep her mind off Dickon, Lara knew; any other time she might have reminded her friend that she was engaged.

Not today, though. Whether Dickon could forgive Kelly remained to be seen, and Lara wouldn’t entirely blame him if he couldn’t. Neither, she suspected, would Kelly, and the game of looking to an elfin prince might take some of the edge away from that hard truth. “I think he chose to become stronger. The Seelie are all tall and slim. The Unseelie seemed broader, and he told me they’d changed to suit their surroundings. Maybe in another million years they’ll be dwarfs,” she said flippantly, and curious tones chimed around the idea, exploring it.

“I think I’ll get my digs in while they’re still tall, dark, and handsome, then. Beards never did much for me. I thought we thought he was the bad guy,” Kelly said more quietly.

Lara dropped her chin to her chest. “We did, but you heard him. He was telling the truth.”

“So basically you have no idea who’s out there waiting for us. Okay,” Kelly said to Lara’s nod. “I’m pulling over when we get to the top of that hill, so we’ll be right in the sunlight. And then you can do that voodoo that you do so well.”

“I can’t believe you just said that.”

Kelly straightened, eyes wide. “I can’t believe you just said that! Wow, you’re like a real girl! Somebody call Geppetto!”

“You are not helping.” Lara harrumphed at Kelly’s smile, then looked ahead to the peak of the hill they climbed. Sunlight blinded her as they crested it, a lash of brilliance that reminded her of the true paths she’d created.

None of them were like the one she needed to build now. Two had simply led her home, figuratively and literally, and the third had been seeking indeed, searching out the staff’s location. She thought the fourth had been something else entirely, less a path than a thread that pulled the world into alignment so it answered her need. That need had, perhaps, helped open a door between worlds, had perhaps helped mark the road Ioan ap Annwn wanted to take, but even that was unlike searching out a single man. An enemy, Lara thought, and made that idea clear in her mind. She was preparing to hunt an enemy, an individual with malicious intent. He’d struck at her and her friends repeatedly, and people had paid for that with their lives.