Dark Swan Bundle (41 page)

I looked at Davros. “Can you guys turn this into a well?” I certainly hoped so because I sure as hell had no idea how to do it. I imagined it involved stones and a bucket, but maybe that was just my naïve fairy-tale images.

His head bobbed eagerly. “Yes, yes, your majesty. Thank you, your majesty.”

After that, it was nearly impossible to leave. I was regarded as a miracle worker. I was no longer the tyrant queen. I was their savior, the generous and wonderful monarch who had brought life to their land. I declined their pleas to stay and celebrate but told them I'd be back with other ways to save their town. Admittedly, I had no idea what that would entail, but mentioning such a minor detail would have seriously brought down everyone's mood.

When we were finally mounted up and able to head out, I suddenly felt a tug on my shoe. Surprised, I looked down and saw a middle-aged man gazing up at me. A similarly aged woman stood close beside him.

“How dare you touch the queen!” gasped Davros. From his face, it looked like he was seriously afraid I might level the town.

I waved him off. “It's okay.”

The man who'd pulled my leg regarded me pleadingly. “Please, your majesty. My wife and I have a boon to ask of you!”

“That's a favor or a request,” said Rurik helpfully.

“I know what a boon is,” I snapped. I looked back down at the couple, unwilling to make any promises yet. “What is it?”

The man put his arm around the woman. “We've heard that you're both a great warrior and a great magic user.”

“And clearly kind and compassionate,” added his wife.

“And?” I asked.

“And very beautiful and—”

“No,” I exclaimed. “I mean, what's your boon?”

“Our daughter has been taken,” the woman said, eyes filling with tears. “We beg you to help us get her back.”

“Whoa. That might be a little beyond my reach,” I told them. “When you say taken, do you mean, like, kidnapped?”

They both nodded, and I was swept by a strange sense of déjà vu. I'd first stumbled into this Otherworldly mess when I'd been hired in the human world to also find a missing girl. The girl had turned out to be Jasmine, though I'd had no clue at the time that she was half-gentry, let alone my sister. Was my life destined to be filled with missing girls?

Davros stepped forward, looking upset and embarrassed. “Your majesty, please ignore them for troubling you with something so meaningless. Their daughter was not taken by anyone. She ran off to Highmore with her lover from a neighboring village.”

I glanced at Shaya and Rurik. “What's Highmore?”

“Really?” asked Rurik dryly. “I thought you already knew everything.”

I glared at him.

“It's a city,” said Shaya. “The largest in this kingdom.”

“Wait, what? I have cities?” I asked, feeling my eyes go wide. The distraught couple interrupted my new revelation.

“Davros is wrong,” the woman said. “Our daughter did not run off. She was taken by the bandits who live in the passes.”

“Everyone knows they're there,” added the man. He eyed Davros. “Them and their beasts. Even you won't deny their existence. They've been there for years, and she isn't the first girl to disappear.”

I turned to Davros. “Is that true?”

He shifted uncomfortably under my gaze. “Well, yes, your majesty, but such brigands are nothing you need to concern yourself about, just as King Aeson did not.”

“Wait. Aeson knew there were bandits going after you guys and didn't do anything?”

“Such petty concerns were beneath him,” said Davros. To my astonishment, he seemed to believe that.

“I don't know,” I said slowly. “If a monarch doesn't take care of that kind of thing, I'm not really sure what they're supposed to do.”

Truthfully, I didn't want to deal with this any more than I wanted any other Thorn Land responsibilities. But the mention of Aeson had stirred my blood. Aeson had been a self-serving asshole, and it pissed me off that he would have left these people to fend for themselves. The only thing I wanted less than to be a ruler was to be a ruler like him.

Furthermore, the same fury that Jasmine's abduction had stirred in me flared up. Maybe it was my own experience with always being chased down by aggressive men, but I hated the thought of any girl facing rape or abduction. It didn't matter that these were gentry girls and not humans. The principle was the same. Brigands and thieves taking advantage of young girls, of preying on those weaker, had to be stopped.

“I'll send people to take care of these bandits,” I said finally. Behind me, Rurik made a strange sound. “But I can't make any guarantees about your daughter.”

The couple's faces lit up, and they fell to the ground in gratitude. “Thank you, your majesty!” the woman cried.

Her husband chimed in. “Truly you are generous and magnanimous and—”

“Yeah, okay, there's no need for that,” I said hastily. “Or to kneel. You're going to get all dirty.”

We had just started to ride away when Shaya leaned toward me. “You've made a lot of promises today.”

I thought about it. She was right. I'd promised to help them get food, rebuild their infrastructure, and rid themselves of those who preyed upon them. “Yeah. I guess I did.”

She gave me a bemused look. “And how are you going to accomplish all of this?”

I glanced around us, noting that the faces watching us leave town were no longer blank and afraid. They were grateful and adoring. I sighed.

“That,” I told her, “is an excellent question.”

I fully intended to make good on my promises, and in Tucson the next day, I began acquiring an odd assortment of goods that I hoped might improve the Thorn Land's situation. Admittedly, they were kind of lame, but I figured I had to start somewhere and was rather proud of my attempts when I finished.

I was sitting down in front of the TV with an early dinner that night when Kiyo walked in, clad in his white vet's coat. Naturally, all the animals lifted their heads or actually walked over to him in greeting. If I hadn't been balancing a plate of ravioli on my lap, I would have leapt up and run into his arms. Instead, I gave him a dazzling smile, one that grew larger when I saw he carried a bouquet of flowers.

“I would have been here sooner,” he said, tossing the coat onto a chair. “But I had an afternoon shift.”

“Hey, I'm just happy to see you at all. I figured you'd still be busy with baby stuff.”

“Nope.” He sat down in a chair opposite me and laid the bouquet down on the coffee table. “You were amazing there, you know.”

“If by amazing, you mean shoddily dressed and leading on gentry princes—then, yes. Yes, I was. What are those for?” I gestured with my fork to the flowers—an arrangement of brightly colored gerbera daisies.

“Do I need a reason? Aside from you being awesome?”

I swallowed the piece of ravioli I'd just chewed. “Of course there's a reason. There's always a reason. We've talked about this before.”

He gave me a lazy, dangerous smile, propping his head up on his elbow as his dark eyes assessed me. “Right. Standard practices in courtship and mating. Gifts given as subtle suggestions. ‘Here, take these plant sex organs.' Hint, hint.” It was an old joke between us.

“Fortunately, in your case, you don't need to be that subtle. I already know you want sex.”

“True, but I wanted to clear up any doubts. Besides, you've been so great lately…I don't know. I just wanted to do something nice. Figured we could have a fun night—although, you're dashing my dreams of taking you out to dinner with the way you're inhaling that ravioli.”

“Sorry,” I said through a mouthful of food. “I've got a job tonight, so I had to eat early.”

His eyebrows rose. “What kind of raw deal is this? I get off work so I can take you out on the town, and you've got to go into work now? Why can't you have Lara schedule you day jobs?”

“Because I was busy today with Thorn Land business.”

Kiyo gave me a wary look.

“Hey, don't judge me,” I warned. “I wasn't actually over there. But I kind of found out recently that people are starving and going without water.”

“Yeah. I've heard that.”

Now I was the one with the incredulous look. “You knew and didn't tell me?”

“Don't jump all over me! I figured you had people to deal with it. And probably those people had people.”

“Yeah, well, all of those people are having a little trouble. In fact, I've got to go back tomorrow to help round up some brigands.”

“Did you just say ‘brigands'? That's very…I don't know. Very 1683.”

“Well, whatever they are, they're a pain in the ass and possibly abducting girls.” I gave him a quick recap. “You want to go with me and help?”

He shook his head ruefully. “You know, I came here hoping to spend time with you. Instead, I find out you've got a job tonight and are playing sheriff tomorrow.”

“Would it help if I wore a cowgirl outfit?”

“It might.” He came over to sit beside me and kissed my cheek. “And yes, I'll go tomorrow. I'll even go tonight, if you want the company.”

“You see? We are spending quality time together.”

“I just hope there's some quality time in bed later to help make up for it all.”

“Well,” I said haughtily, setting my plate on the table, “that depends on you, huh? I have no doubts about my quality.”

He put a hand on my thigh and brushed his lips against my neck. “Oh, Eugenie. Don't push your luck here,” he growled, “or you might be late for work.”

I grinned and answered by way of a long, deep kiss that probably would have turned into more if my appointment hadn't been so close. That, and we also heard Tim coming in the back door. He never took it very well when he found Kiyo and me in a compromising position.

The two of us drove over near the university, to a quiet residential neighborhood that was split evenly between single-family residences and crowded houses shared by students. As we pulled up in front of a narrow two-story home in need of a new paint job, Kiyo frowned.

“That microbus looks really familiar,” he said, eyeing the driveway.

“Really?” I asked innocently.

We got out of the car and approached the house. When we'd cleared the microbus, Kiyo paused to look at its slew of bumper stickers.
Question Authority
and
Roswell or Bust!
were only a few. He gave me a sharp, accusing look.

“Eugenie, did Wil Delaney move?”

“Nooo,” I said slowly. “But this is a friend of his.”

Kiyo groaned. “If I'd known this, I would have stayed home. That guy is insane. And wait—did you just say he actually has a friend?”

“A friend with a legitimate problem. And you can always go wait in the car.”

Kiyo said nothing, merely steeling himself as we approached the door. Wil Delaney was a former client of mine. He was a conspiracy theorist who almost never left his home and whose sole income depended on a blog he ran that furthered his ideas on the government, aliens, mind control, genetic manipulation, and a whole host of other wacky premises. He was quite possibly the most paranoid person I'd ever met.

He was also Jasmine's half-brother. It was how we'd met. He'd been the one to hire me to go find her in the Otherworld, long before I'd known anything about Storm King and the prophecy. Apparently, Wil and Jasmine's mother hadn't been so virtuous and had cheated on Mr. Delaney a lot—even with gentry warlords.

About a dozen locks unclicked before we were allowed into the house, which was almost as many as Wil had at his own home. The person who greeted us was a woman, a very young one. She was short with plump cheeks, cropped brown hair, and pink cat-eye glasses. “Is this her?” she asked.

A moment later, Wil's head peered around the doorway's side. He looked the same as last time: pale blond hair in need of cutting, glasses, and skin that never saw the sun. “Yup.”

“Who's the guy?” asked the woman suspiciously.

“Her boyfriend. He's cool. Cairo.”

“Kiyo,” I corrected. I held out my hand to her. “You must be Trisha.”

“I prefer to be called Ladyxmara72,” she said. “Because really, we're all just anonymous faces in this society, as far as the government is concerned. Plus, Ladyxmara72 is one of my World of Warcraft character names. Ironic that a virtual society like that can be more honest and egalitarian than our own. Or maybe…” She paused dramatically. “It's
not
so ironic.”

Wil stared at her adoringly. Beside me, Kiyo made some sort of strangled noise.

They led us inside a home nearly as dark as Wil kept his. I guessed Trisha—I refused to call her Lady-whatever—worried about the same issues with radiation that he did. Her home was neater, however, and bore slightly more feminine touches, like furniture that matched and a few scented candles. The candles appeared to be homemade, undoubtedly so they wouldn't poison the air with artificial scents or be laced with trackers that the government could use to listen in on Trisha's conversation.

“So,” said Trisha as we entered the living room. An episode of
The X-Files
was paused on the TV. “You're here to take care of the alien problem.”

“I'm here to—what did you say?” I looked back and forth between Wil and her.

“Aliens,” she said. “My house is infested with them.”

I peered around, half-expecting to see E.T. hanging out on the loveseat. All was empty and still. “I don't really understand. Didn't Wil tell you what I do?”

“We don't know for sure that they're aliens,” he said hastily. “But there is something here.”

“Of course they are!” she exclaimed. He cowered a little under her glare. “I've seen them looking in the windows—just like on that documentary.”

Immediately, his chagrin turned to outrage. “Oh, come on! You know that's a hoax. The evidence is overwhelming.”

“The hell it is! There's no way anyone could fake that kind of—”

“Um, hey, you guys?” I said. “Can we just get this taken care of? Tell me more about the ali—whatever. Have you both seen them?”

They nodded. “They're short with big eyes,” Trisha said triumphantly.

“But they wear paisley suit coats,” added Wil. “And they do chores at night.”

“Doesn't sound so bad to me,” murmured Kiyo. “Why get rid of them?”

“Kobolds,” I said after a moment's thought. “You've got kobolds.”

“There is no known planet by that name,” argued Trisha.

I sighed. “Just take me to your basement.”

Trisha led us through the house, and Wil drifted over beside me. “Isn't she amazing?” I swear he was on the verge of swooning.

“Your first girlfriend?” I asked.

“How'd you know?”

“Instinct.” Engaging Wil in conversation was always dangerous, but seeing as he never left the house or had much social interaction, I just had to ask the next question. “How'd you guys meet?”

“On a forum. We were both in this thread and kept arguing about whether there was a government connection between the overdoses of Marilyn Monroe and Heath Ledger, and then we—”

“Okay,” I said, grimacing. “That's enough. Really.”

We reached the basement door, and Trisha started to go down. “Don't,” I warned. “You guys need to stay up here.” I gave Wil a stern look. “Don't let her down there until we're done. You of all people know I'm not fucking around.”

Wil blanched further—if that was possible—and gave a hasty nod. Wil had traveled with me to the Otherworld and fully understood the perils of my job. I could hear Trisha arguing with him as Kiyo and I descended the stairs, yet somehow, Wil managed to do his job and keep her away.

“I never thought it was possible,” said Kiyo, once we were out of earshot. “He's found and fallen in love with someone exactly like him. I guess there really is someone for everyone.”

“She's a little more assertive than he is, I think.”

“Good. He needs it.”

“On the bright side, this'll be cake. Kobolds aren't an issue.”

Kiyo nodded his agreement but wrinkled his nose when we reached the bottom of the steps. “They're bad-smelling ones, though.”

The basement wasn't finished and bore the usual clutter one found in such places. Lots of hiding spots for kobolds. I pulled on a hanging chain, and a bare bulb offered meager illumination. Taking out my wand, I extended my arm and swept the whole basement.

“By the earth and fire you serve, I command you to reveal yourselves.”

Shamanic magic tingled from me, through the wand and its gems, and into the room. A moment later, three forms materialized. They were about three-feet high, male, and hardly resembled the big-eyed aliens popular in modern culture. These guys were wizened, with patchy yellow hair. Wil's comment about the paisley coats wasn't entirely accurate either. One wore plaid.

“Why did you call us out?” the one in plaid demanded in a high-pitched voice. “We haven't done anything to you. We haven't done anything to anyone.”

“You guys, you can't stay here,” I said. “Not in this house. It's not yours. This world isn't yours.” I was a stickler for world ownership.

“We're helping,” argued one of the paisley ones. “Do you know how messy these people are? Books and paper everywhere.”

If Trisha's house had resembled Wil's before the kobolds arrived, I could well imagine it. Kobolds were kind of like benign goblins, originating in northern Europe and rarely given to maliciousness unless provoked. My hope was that they could simply be talked into leaving.

“That's really nice and all, but I mean it: you can't stay here. I've got to send you back to the Otherworld. Give me a hard time about it, and I'll make it the Underworld.”

The plaid one scowled. “You're as cruel as they say, Eugenie Thorn Queen. We've done nothing to deserve this.”

I tried not to scowl right back. Before learning about my gentry blood, I'd often conducted shamanic business under the pseudonym Odile Dark Swan. It was what Otherworld denizens had known and feared me as. I wasn't thrilled to know that no part of my identity was a secret anymore.

“You guys, I am
not
screwing around. You know who I am. You know what I can do, so stop wasting time.” Wand still in hand, I began to channel an opening to the Otherworld. “You can't take on both of us, let alone one.”