Eileen Wilks - Mortal Ties

“I am unable to help with that,” Friar said, “so I will await you inside where there is more tidying up to do.”

“Oh, as you will, then.”

“Hugo, bring her along.”

The mass of fat and muscle gripping her arms shoved her—and she let the momentum take her to her knees.

“Really, Lily, you can do better. If you don’t, Hugo will carry you.”

The elves had stopped waving their arms. Two of them bent and tenderly picked up the bodies and started this way. Benessarai spoke to the other two. Lily raised her voice. “Benessarai, he intends to kill your hostage!”

The elf glanced her way. “Hostages are not killed.” He waved at the two remaining elves as the two carrying the bodies passed Lily.

She tried again. “He’s going to kill me, too, and feed me to his goddess.”

“That is true.” Benessarai cocked his head, curiosity brightening his eyes. “It is rather a waste. I have never encountered a sensitive. Bring her to me.”

Friar spoke softly. “She is my prize, not yours.”

“Of course. My apologies, Robert. That was thoughtless of me.” He began to saunter toward them.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lily glimpsed movement. A flash of orange. She ducked her head and shook it as if confused…which let her look that way without Friar noticing.

A tiger peered around the far corner of the warehouse. Just the head showed—that enormous, orange and black head with green eyes slitted against the sunshine. The tiger nodded at her once and pulled back out of sight.

Grandmother? Grandmother was here?

Thank God she’d ducked her head and her hair was hanging down, hiding her face. She had a moment to get her expression smoothed out, a moment to try to figure out what that nod meant. Distract them? Be patient? The latter, maybe, she decided. No one was rushing to the rescue right away, so maybe they had more preparations to finish.

Benessarai stopped in front of her. “With your permission, Robert, I would like to try something before you make your offering. It would be too late afterward.” He chuckled at his own wit. “Your man will need to let go of her and step back, or he will be affected. He wouldn’t like that.”

“Of course not.” Friar didn’t put much effort into the lie. He sounded downright brusque. “If it won’t take long.”

“Not long at all.”

“Hugo, release her but keep her covered.”

The big man grunted and dropped his hold on Lily. The smell of pizza retreated with him. Her shoulders ached.

“Hugo won’t shoot to kill if you try to escape,” Friar told her. “He’ll aim for your stomach. A gut full of buckshot would kill you eventually, but not so quickly I would fail in my duty to the Great One.”

“Do step away just a bit, Robert. There, yes.” Benessarai wiggled the fingers of one hand at Lily.

Magic prickled over her face. It felt like a breeze with feathers in it. “Air magic, only slightly shaped. Mind-magic is connected to Air, isn’t it?”

He frowned slightly and wiggled his fingers again.

The gust of magic was stronger this time, more prickly. “Why is it okay for Friar to kill me? I’m a hostage.”

“No, you aren’t.” Benessarai studied her the way a scientist might study a lab rat that was not reacting in the expected way to a stimulus. He started in with more hand waving, this time accompanied by a short chant.

Friar smiled slowly. “Allow me to explain. An abomination can’t make a true covenant. If Alycithin was unable to make a true covenant, she has no family. If she has no family, she is not party to the code. If she is not party to the code, then alas, you are no hostage. Only a prize.”

“I see. Yet I’m a valuable prize, aren’t I? I’m surprised Benessarai is willing to let you kill me without learning where sensitives come from.”

This time the elf answered. “I am curious. Do you claim to know?”

“Oh, yes, I know. You have humans in your realm, right?”

“Your kind are everywhere.” He said that the way a New York apartment dweller might speak of roaches: try as you may, you can’t get rid of them. “Tell me,” he said.

“Make me your hostage so I don’t get fed to Her Evil Nastiness and—”

Friar slapped her. Hard. Way harder than he should have been able to. She fell to the ground, dazed, with black fluttering at the edges of her vision.

“You do not—”

He kicked her in the ribs. She gasped and curled around the sudden pain.

“Speak of—” His leg drew back for another kick.

A tiger roared.

Hugo screamed.

Five hundred pounds of Siberian tiger raced straight at them.

Friar’s eyes widened. He reached for her. Lily tried to scramble out of the way, but she was dizzy, slowed by the blows. He got hold of her arm and started dragging her, and he should not have been able to do that. Not as fast as he was moving. She caught a glimpse of Benessarai fleeing through the open door of the warehouse, heard the two elves call out something, but she was fighting, kicking, squirming, trying her damnedest to stay out of the warehouse.

She failed.

Friar dragged her across the threshold. Just as her skin tingled from the magic of the wards she heard the raucous boom of a shotgun.

Friar slammed the door shut.

LILY’Sside hurt. Her cheek throbbed. Her hip burned from being dragged across concrete. But Friar had let go for the moment. Cautiously she sat up.

“We need to leave,” Friar said. “Now.”

“But my people—” Benessarai waved at the door. Someone screamed.

“Are you going out there to rescue them? No? Then we must depart.” When Benessarai stood staring at the closed door, Friar snapped, “It saw you. Saw all of us. It looks like a tiger, but I don’t know what it is. It wasn’t fooled by your illusions. How long will your wards keep it out?”

Benessarai drew himself up, offended. “The wards are strong.”

“Good. That means you have time to— No, you don’t.”

Lily had quietly scooted away and started to gather her feet under her. Friar grabbed her arm again and pulled her up. It hurt. He shook her. “What do you know about that tiger?”

“Do you think,” Benessarai said nervously, “that those lupi are behind this?”

There was another scream outside. It ended abruptly.

It was silent inside, too. Lily’s heart was hammering, but she took advantage of the quiet to look around.

From the outside, the warehouse hadn’t looked very large. Inside it seemed oddly bigger, maybe because of the way the lights were hung on the rafters, pointing down. That left the high ceiling in shadows, making it seem even more distant. Lily gave those shadowy heights one quick glance. A misty white cloud hung motionless up there.

She couldn’t see very far into the warehouse because of the way the shipping crates were stacked; the nearest row blocked her view. The immediate area was set up like an office, with short partitions on two sides. There was a counter flanking the door, an ancient vinyl sofa, some filing cabinets, a water cooler, and two desks.

There were also two bodies.

Alycithin and Dinalaran had been laid on the floor in the open space before the rows of crates started. A large, perfect circle glowed around them…glowed from the floor up, as if the cement had decided to luminesce. Their dead hands had been folded around the two knives that rested on their chests. Mage lights hovered at the head and foot of each corpse.

No sign of Adam King. If he was here, he wasn’t making any sound.

Friar broke the silence. “I believe,” he said, “you forgot this.” He held out the bowling-ball bag. Lily had forgotten all about it. Friar had remembered even while being charged by a Siberian tiger. The prototype must be in there.