MORTAL COILS (66 page)

“I
call this session of the League Council to order,” she said. “All come to heed,
petition, and be judged. Narro, audio, perceptum. Let us dispense with the
formalities and proceed directly to Henry’s report.”

There
were too many of them, too close. Henry knew what happened when one tried to
contain so much power and politics in a compressed space.

He
noted that Gilbert sat far away from Lucia, next to Dallas. This was likely a
result of the last Council meeting, when he had voted against Lucia. Had
politics seeped into their bedroom as well? Or had Dallas managed to worm her
way between them?

Henry
stood and bowed. “There are three items of interest with regards to the twins’
second heroic trial.”

He
clicked a remote control and a hidden projector flashed light onto the
mainsail. A photograph of a blackened human skeleton on an autopsy tray
appeared.

“First,”
he said, “we have this gentleman. DNA analysis confirms it is our Mr. Perry
Millhouse. Note the clean, laserlike separation across ribs and spine.”

“So
he is finally dead,” breathed Cornelius. His frail hand covered his mouth in
horror.

Aaron
muttered, “More of our mistakes cleaned up by children.”

Lucia
perked up. “I think we can all agree on the cause of death.”

“Wait
a second,” Dallas said. “If he’s dead, what happened to the little girl?”

“A
happy ending.” Henry flashed a smile. “Reunited with her parents. Traumatized,
but nothing hypnotic suggestion couldn’t set right.”

“Let
us not lose focus.” Kino stood and smoothed a hand over his bald head. He moved
to the picture, drawing a line from shoulder to hip bone. “A single cut.
Absolutely straight. One of the children did this with no training?”

“That
remains an open question.” Lucia looked pointedly at Aaron. “At least the
training.”

Aaron
took another swig of brandy. “The girl was born a warrior. Any fool could see
that.”

Lucia
raised one eyebrow. “So it would seem.” She turned to Henry. “Did Audrey
mention this in her report?”

“She
only gave me barest facts. Laconic, I’m afraid, as usual.”

“Audrey
should be here.” Gilbert tugged at his beard contemplatively. “After all, we’re
talking about her charges.”

“No,
Audrey complicates this entire affair,” Lucia said. “The less she is involved,
the better. Now, about Fiona’s ability to cut—”

“Oh,
who cares where she learned it?” Dallas said. “The point is she can, and that
proves Fiona is one of us.”

Cornelius
poked his tablet computer. “I find myself in agreement. Molecular disjunction
is a genetic trait only found within your family tree.”

Lucia
inhaled and then expelled a sigh. “Very well, we shall concede the point. But
genetics are only a small part of this, and it hardly proves she belongs in the
League.”

All
nodded, except Aaron, who simply drained his bottle and tossed it overboard.

Kino
pursed his lips until they whitened. He had much more to say, Henry could see,
but he held it back, waiting for the right moment.

“The
next item of interest,” Henry said, and advanced the projector.

A
shard of mirror appeared on the sail. The surface was visibly warped, its edges
distorted by heat.

“My
team found this in the remains of a mirror maze,” Henry explained. “It is
remarkable because it fluoresces in the presence of aetheric radiation,
indicating it has been exposed to great power.”49

That
shut them up.

Power
this great was the upper limit of what mortals could manipulate.

49.
Aetheric (also etheric) refers to an elemental life-force. Plato first proposed
such a material, which he called quinta essentia (the fifth element). Aristotle
later introduced aether in his classical system of elements as a substance that
had no material qualities and was incapable of change. Medieval philosophers
believed aether filled the universe above the terrestrial sphere and, as such,
was beyond the reach of mere mortals. Gods of the First and Twenty-first
Century, Volume 3: The Pseudosciences, 8th ed. (Zypheron Press Ltd.).

It
indicated either an extremely skilled practitioner of the arts . . . or an
immortal testing a newfound ability.

“Exposed
to extreme heat,” Henry continued, “this piece was imprinted, much like a piece
of steel in the presence of a strong magnetic field. Scanning with lasers we
translated the following.”

Henry
punched a button on his control and sound came from the cabin speakers.

A
single violin played.

“That’s
not a human song,” Lucia said, sitting upright.

“Oh,
parts of it are,” Henry said. “Parts are something older and foul. Parts are
something entirely new.”

“Played
by whom?” Gilbert asked.

“I
suspect Eliot Post, based on the fragmentary report Audrey gave. Although,
obviously, we will need to follow up on this.”

Cornelius
wordlessly made notes on his computer.

“The
girl has power,” Aaron said. “So does the boy. Let us move on—you said you had
three items to show us.”

Henry
hesitated. He had hoped there would be some way to delay this. He sighed and
flicked the control and a new image appeared: a charred wooden box in the shape
of a heart, and about it what appeared to be congealed tar.

“This
was also found in the mirror maze,” Henry explained. “Fiona’s fingerprints are
all over it.”

“What
we looking at?” Dallas wrinkled her nose. “It’s gross.”

“Chemical
analysis reveals this is mostly high-grade chocolate. However, we have
extracted two interesting trace elements: spirituous alkaloids, and
alkahest.”50,51

50.
Spirituous alkaloids where isolated in 1855 by the renowned alchemist and
medium May Mortimer from a specimen he named the Tortuous Lilly Poppy. On a
visit to the Louisiana bayou, Mortimer met a witch who claimed to have found
the river Lethe. Upon a sandbar on this cursed waterway, the witch maintained a
garden of rare herbs and flowers of “horrific beauty.” Mortimer took several
specimens to London, but set aside his alchemical pursuits when his fame as a
spiritualist climbed to stratospheric heights. He died of opium addictions in
1857. His notes and an illustration of a poppy with extraordinarily convoluted
petals were discovered, but none of the original specimens remained. St.
Hawthorn’s Collected Reference of Horticulture in the New World and Beyond,
1897 (Taylor Institution Library Rare Book Collection, Oxford University).

51.
Alkahest is the mythic universal solvent. Medieval alchemists claimed it would
dissolve any substance on contact. If such a material did exist, paradoxically
no container would be able to hold it. Gods of the First and Twenty-first
Century, Volume 3: The Pseudosciences, 8th ed. (Zypheron Press Ltd.).

Cornelius’s
eyes widened. “Spirituous alkaloids are only used by one entity, the Queen of
Poppies.”

“So
these are an Infernal concoction,” Aaron growled.

“Then
they know of the children.” Lucia stared at some distant point, thinking. “They
are testing them as well.”

Gilbert
got to his feet. “Honestly, Henry, why didn’t you show this to begin with! It
changes everything.”

Henry
shrugged, feigning innocence.

“They
must be protected,” Aaron said. “The other family must not be allowed to get
their hands on them.”

Kino
stood as well, towering over them. His expression was more funereally somber
than usual. “On this I agree with you. The children must not be allowed to be
used by our ancient adversaries. They are precisely the tool they need to break
the neutrality treaty that has protected us for centuries.”

“Then
there is no time to waste.” Aaron fumbled at his cell phone. “We will move them
to a safe—”

“No,”
Kino said. “They will never be safe. Don’t you see? There is but one way to
protect us all.”

The
two men stared at each other. Kino was absolutely still. Aaron remained seated;
his hands flexed.

Cornelius
cleared his throat. “We’ve all known that if, hypothetically speaking, one of
the children has mixed lineage, this would produce a loophole in the treaty.
Conceivably, one of the children backed by the might of the other family could
remove us one at a time.”

“Then
there is no choice,” Kino said. “For the entire League’s safety, they must be
killed.”

“No,”
Dallas whispered.

Gilbert
said nothing but took her hand.

Lucia
sat impassively, waiting.

“The
League’s safety?” Aaron muttered. “Why should I be concerned with protecting a
league of cowards?” He stood and stared up at Kino. Aaron’s bloodshot eyes
narrowed to slits. “If it is killing you want, then this is a good place to
start.”

Although
many would disagree with Henry, he was not entirely a fool: he knew this had to
be stopped.

Aaron
and Kino would kill one another, or worse, they would wound one another and
this would spiral out of control as they gathered supporters and waged a full
vendetta within the League.

And
yet, if Henry stepped between these two predators in an attempt to quell the
violence, he would be cut down.

So
he did not attempt such a heroic maneuver . . . hence the
not-being-an-entire-fool part of his self-assessment. No, there was another,
better-qualified person to handle this situation.

Henry
turned to the lovely Dallas. She sat watching the two warriors, her hands
worrying into knots.

She
noticed Henry.

He
tilted his head at her and his darling cousin understood him completely.

She
stood and interposed her slight figure between the two giants. Dallas smiled at
Kino—dimples and all—and his pantherlike stance eased.

She
then turned to Aaron and held out her hands in a little pleading gesture. Aaron
took a step back and unclenched his fists.

“I’m
starved,” she announced, and looked back at Lucia. “How about a break for
lunch, Sis?”

The
tension in the air abated a notch.

Kino
exhaled. “Yes . . . a break. Perhaps that would be wise.”

Aaron
grumbled something unintelligible, but he let Dallas wind her arm through his.

“Where
can a gal get something to eat on this tub?” she asked.

“I
have a little sideboard set up in my cabin,” Henry replied. “There’s a bottle
of Lemon Hart rum there as well.”

Aaron
paused as Dallas led him past Lucia. “This is not over,” he told her.

“Of
course not,” Lucia replied, unfazed. “We shall pick up the debate in half an
hour, as I said.”

Dallas
then pulled Aaron belowdecks.

Gilbert
pretended to stretch nonchalantly. He was no actor, though, and Henry could see
that the Once King Gilgamesh shook slightly. Had he been prepared to do battle
as well?

“I’ll
have my chef on The Coelacanth whip up something,” Gilbert said. “Please,
everyone is invited aboard for lunch.”