Eileen Wilks - Night Season

She had that puzzled look again. "The obab… that's the slug-men, right? The ones whose touch was poison?" She looked at them again—right at Cullen, in fact. And her left eyelid dipped in a slow wink.

Fierce and strong, victory shot through him.

"Of course Aduello didn't do that," Cynna continued. "I don't know why he accused you of it, ma'am, because he knows who did it. The humans." She sighed. "There's a cabal of them, humans unhappy with their place here in Edge. They tried to kill me because they hope to lay hands on the medallion themselves, poor fools."

She looped her hand around Aduello's arm and turned a smile on the bastard so saccharine it was all Cullen could do not to laugh out loud. Or warn her not to overplay it. "Aduello would never hurt me."

Aduello didn't see what Cullen saw, perhaps because he wasn't looking. He patted Cynna absently, his attention on those confronting him. "I will allow you to take my other guests away with you, if they wish to go. I will allow you to question Cynna concerning the medallion—that is what you wish, I assume? I will even wish you well in your search. But then I must insist that you leave."

Kai looked at Cynna. "Ms. Weaver, do you know where the medallion is?"

Cynna glanced first at Aduello. He nodded once. She met Kai's eyes then and said quietly, "After the Ahk captured us, I decided I couldn't let them find it. I misled them. We came out of the mountains well away from the medallion's trail."

Kai glanced back at them. "She's speaking the truth."

"But I do know where it is."

Did Cullen imagine it, or had Aduello's hand suddenly tightened on Cynna's arm?

"At least I think I do," she went on. "The trail leads back toward…" Her eyes lifted as Cullen heard movement to his left, near the grand staircase. She glanced that way, where her father, Gan, and Steve were emerging… and smiled. A real smile, a Cynna smile, cocky and reckless. "This rat bastard beside me."

She jerked her arm free, pushed to her feet, and jumped.

"He's calling them!" Kai cried.

The sidhe lining the walls burst into action, swords flashing from their sheaths as they charged.

Cynna landed on the grass at the foot of the dais and rolled. Fire shot out from Aduello's clenched fist, missing her by inches.

And the woman standing silently beside Cullen—the husky woman who hadn't spoken, whom no one had introduced to Aduello—turned into eight feet of pissed-off kitty cat.

The sidhe flowed around Cullen, moving into the defensive circle they'd planned—but Cynna wasn't within that circle.

Neither was Cullen, by then. He walked forward, concentrating on fire. Fire was his , dammit—and so was the woman that rat bastard was trying to burn. He flung out his hand and sent a rope of fire to meet the one menacing Cynna.

The two flames kissed. Clashed. Cullen felt sweat break out on his forehead. Rat bastard was strong. He opened the diamond on his finger. His flame went from orange to blue… and the tips flickered into black. Aduello looked at him, startled and furious. He spoke a word, made a gesture, and his fire vanished—replaced by a wall of water shooting up from beneath the ground.

Mage fire could burn anything. Even water. But mage fire was damned dangerous to play with, and Aduello wasn't his job. Cynna was, and right now she had a problem with a sidhe slicing at her with four feet of steel.

Cullen throttled way back on the power and sent the fire that way. The sidhe screamed and fell back. Cullen raced to Cynna. "You're okay? You're all right?"

"Watch out!" she screamed.

He spun and sent fire at the pair of sidhe advancing on them. Then called it back, fast, as a huge silver-gray cat leaped on the pair.

"My father," Cynna cried. "And Steve and—hey! He's really something!"

As soon as things broke, the hellhound had drawn his sword and raced to where Steve and Daniel stood beneath the overhang of the staircase. A single guard, realizing the value of hostages, held a sword at Daniel's throat… for a moment. Then he was on the grass, watering it with his blood.

Hot damn. Hunter was as fast as he was. And a helluva lot better with a sword.

Another pair of sidhe advanced on Cullen and Cynna. There was no way he and Cynna could get inside the protective circle the Rohen sidhe had formed. Too many pressed them with both blades and magic. Lots of magic. The air was thick with it. Theil, with the power of her land-tie to draw on, was carrying the brunt of that battle from her place beside Kai.

So Cullen circled Cynna with his arm—and circled them both with a ring of fire. It would discourage the ones with blades, and for the moment, no one was pressing them with magic. Probably because they knew where the real threat lay, because their liege knew. With the still, silent woman in the center of Rohen's circle.

Kai Tallman did nothing visibly, not even to Cullen's vision. Her power lay in an area he couldn't see. The power of mind.

Aduello's wall of water vanished, He pulled a chain from beneath the silk of his shirt, closing his fist around the silver medallion that dangled from it. He wore a look of intense concentration.

Nothing happened.

"Nathan!" Kai cried. "I can't hold him!"

"What's she holding?" Cynna gasped.

"His thoughts. She's not letting him tap into the medallion to—oh, good."

The hellhound flew at Leerahan's liege in a leap any lupus would have been proud of, sailing up from the grass and through the air, the arc of his leap carrying him past Aduello—and that shiny black sword of his swung in a quick, clean stroke.

Aduello's head fell to the stony dais a second before Hunter landed. His body toppled second later, a geyser of blood shooting from his neck.

Everything stopped.

Hunter walked to the edge of the dais and spoke loudly. "Leerahan's liege was insane, driven mad by what he tried to hold. My lady tried to control his madness, and could not. I killed him. If any here dispute my judgment, you may make your claim to my queen."

"That," Cullen said very softly, "was part of the deal. Hellhounds are the only ones allowed to go around executing sidhe lords. A land liege isn't precisely a lord, but close enough."

A dark-haired sidhe—the first visibly aged one Cullen had seen—stepped forward. "I am called Raellian. I accept your judgment. My brother tried to master the medallion through his land-tie." The sidhe's face worked briefly. "He changed. He began to believe… to do things which made little sense. I was pledged to him, but I argued… he would not listen. The medallion drove him mad."

A murmur of voices rose. The sound, overall, was accepting.

"Leerahan," Theil called out strongly, "I have no desire to make claim on your land, but your land wants claiming. Your liege is dead. One of you must make the tie. Your three days begin now. Rohen will stay to witness, if you wish."

That steered the murmurs in a whole new direction.

Raellian spoke, his voice firmer now. "What of the medallion? Even I can hear it calling. It's voice will only grow louder as its need grows. Who can take it back to the gnomes safely?"

Cullen sighed. This was the part he didn't like. "I think that would be me."

"What?" Cynna's head spun. She scowled at him. "No way are you touching that thing."

"Shields," he said simply. "No one else has shields like mine. I'm the only one who can—"

"That won't be necessary," Kai said. "Look."

A small orange Buddha sat on the dais, chubby legs dangling over the edge. Smiling. The silver chain around her neck was spattered with blood, as was the heavily inscribed disk hanging from it. "Hey," Gan said, swinging her legs. "This is pretty cool."

"Gan!" Cynna sounded like she was about to cry. "Oh, no, Gan. Oh, no." She walked up to the dais. "What have you done to yourself?" she whispered.