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Foxy snatched the bucket out of the smaller man’s hand and handed me two more buckets from the other end of the bar. “You need to go find others, we’ll head up there.” He turned to Lehua. “I’ll need you to stay here. Amara will be being ready to collapse with fear of the fire, you need to keep her calm and safe.”

That explained why Foxy jumped into action once he decided the guardsman was telling the truth—dryads were even more terrified of fire than I was of water.

By the time we got outside and started heading toward The Hill, a number of people had joined us from other businesses and homes.

I turned to Glorinal but kept my voice low—I didn’t want to be connected in any way to things that were attacking the city’s rich and infamous. Knowing too much about anything usually made the powers-that-be think you were involved with it. “You said the things that attacked us, the chimeras, were constructs? Why would they try to burn things down?” There was no doubt in my mind that it was the chimeras, or at least one of them, which had launched the fire attack on The Hill. The sceanra anam didn’t look a thing like them except for the coloring and the flying.

Glorinal looked around, but no one was paying attention to us. He obviously felt the same unease about having knowledge about the creatures. “Constructs were creatures made by mages. No one that I know of has the ability now. But an elven lord would.” His eyes darkened to almost black, and I knew he was thinking of Alric even if he didn’t know his name.

Granted, Alric had been coming from the general direction of The Hill when Covey turned him around and dragged him home. But I still believed that he had no magic. However, on the other side of it, we never had gotten a decent explanation as to why he’d been snooping around on The Hill. I let the thought of that simmer a bit, then shoved it aside. For now.

Which left the mysterious and homicidal mage who had been at my dig site. The one I couldn’t tell Glorinal about. I gritted my teeth but didn’t say anything. Glorinal had it partially right; it probably was an elven lord, just not the one he thought it was.

The Hill was a madhouse, with private household guards trying to protect their own, and no one even considering working together. Foxy didn’t slow down but barged right through a crowd of private guards arguing about using the water from a series of fountains.

Foxy’s size and general appearance meant that few people argued with him, but the private guards were all too busy holding a pissing match to see what had stormed into their midst. They immediately started trying to protect the water from him as well as each other.

Foxy roared.

I had never heard him do that. Even during the battle of three months ago I didn’t think I’d heard Foxy roar.

The entire city probably heard him and possibly some farmers in the fields outside the city limits. “Out of my way. Ye will stop fighting and get the water up there. Or I’ll be sure to be telling your people how you let the fires take their homes.”

I stopped in place. Foxy never really got involved in anything going on outside his pub. He only stepped in last time because it was a matter of life or death. And even then he never took charge once he rescued the rest of us. This time he was taking charge and running with it. Foxy was changing in leaps and bounds, and it had to be because of Amara. I hoped the change was for the good.

“All of ye listen to me.” Foxy’s yell was a little more modified than his roar, but there was enough growl in the words that people shut up and listened. “We need to find the houses that we can be saving, but also get people out of the ones already being gone.” He drew a line in the air. “Ye on this side, go that ways and douse anything you can. The rest of us need to go save people.”

Every single private guard snapped to attention, grabbed a bucket, and went to go try and help. It was still a disorganized mess, but at least now they were actually doing something constructive. I had just started to fill my buckets, when Glorinal took my hand and pulled me aside.

“I didn’t want to say anything in front of everyone. This may not work, and even if it does I don’t think I want their bosses knowing how powerful I am.” There was a pinched look in his eyes as he gestured around the swarming private guards. “I may be able to douse the flames with magic. Especially if they were started by magic.”

He nodded and briefly met my eyes, but then went back to watching the guards. Now that they had warned who they could, the city guardsmen were coming back to help. It was the most work I’d seen out of any of them during my entire time in Beccia. “But I need to know where the fire started.”

That wasn’t going to be easy.

I looked around and grabbed one already tired-looking private guard who was coming in for some more water. “Do you know where it started?”

He started to shrug me off, then glanced at Foxy still barking orders and flinging buckets behind me. “Aye, some newcomer to The Hill. Don’t know the name and none of their people are out here. But they have the yellow on purple with red chimera livery.”

That was Qianru’s livery. It was so ugly there was no way anyone else could have something like it.

I grabbed Glorinal’s hand and raced up the street. When Qianru had hired me, she’d met me at a small café near the lower end of The Hill. She’d walked there which told me her home was nearby. There were only a few houses that would meet that criteria.

“It’s my patroness. Those are her colors.”

My concern must have been contagious because the color seemed to blanch out of his face, and he quickly was pulling me up the road.

We came around the corner and I knew why none of her people had come down the hill. The huge mansion was obviously the epicenter of the flames, yet only one side, where trash bins would have been, was damaged. The bins were nothing but ash and the wall on that side was scorched. But the house itself was safe. And under a spell bubble.

Chapter Twenty-Two

A spell that strong could only be powered by one of a handful of mages. Alric probably could if he wasn’t magic-dead right now, and I’d bet Glorinal could as well. But both of those people would probably need to be in sight of the place to cast a spell on it. Or so Covey would say. She wasn’t a big magic user herself, but since elves were her obsession, and all of the elves were magic users, she’d made it her hobby to do way more research on magic than any normal person would ever need. And she also felt the need to share it with me whether I wanted her to or not.

I really wished she was here right now.

“How is it holding back the flames?” I turned to Glorinal, but he was now even paler.

“I’m not sure, but I need to stop this. Now.” His hand was shaking as he held it up, and his chanting was so low I couldn’t make out the words. The flames rose for a moment and I was seriously thinking of dragging him back down the hill and letting the guards put it out. But then the flames sputtered and pulled back into themselves. All over The Hill. The final flash was right where the trash bins had been, then it vanished.

Glorinal nodded, then collapsed.

I grabbed for him but he was a good foot taller than me so all I could do was slow him down as he crumpled to the ground.

His eyes had rolled back in his head and his breathing was coming in short fast bursts.

A ruckus from the house reminded me we weren’t alone.

Five houseboys led by Joie, nary a personal guard among them, came running out of Qianru’s house. They stayed in formation as they surveyed the property, then all ran back inside. Moments later a small army of houseboys came out escorting Qianru, who looked like she was trying to give Glorinal a run for the palest person in Beccia.

Even though she looked ready to collapse, those black beady eyes spotted me holding Glorinal’s head off the ground.

“Taryn! You came to save me. How very wonderful of you, child.” She scuttled closer then gave a disapproving frown at Glorinal. “Is this the madman we have to thank for the fire? For the attack on my very life? How brave of you to take him down singlehandedly.”

I shook my head. “This is the man who saved you. He’s an elf.” I pushed back his hair so she could see his tapered ears. “He collapsed putting out the fire and releasing your spell bubble.”

“Thank goodness, the bubble was going to kill us! We were losing air in there.” She peered down into his face then made a few tsking noises. “Well, then he shouldn’t be lying on the ground, then, should he?” She snapped her fingers and was immediately surrounded by the pack of houseboys. “I need this heroic elf brought into the house immediately. Gently now, you hooligans.”

Six houseboys surrounded Glorinal and lifted him as if he were a wine bottle made of the sheerest glass. The remaining dozen or so houseboys immediately began cleaning up where the fire had started.

“You might want to have them wait on that.” I wasn’t sure if anyone would be able to tell anything from the debris, but that was where the attack started and both Covey and Glorinal would probably want to look at it. Not to mention Harlan.

Qianru had been about to follow the houseboys carrying Glorinal into the house but turned with a questioning look.

“Your garbage was where the fire started, and it looks like it was a chimera that started it.” I pointed to Glorinal. “He was attacked by three earlier today.” The fact we hadn’t had people running about the streets screaming about being attacked lately told me these events were isolated, and that the sceanra anam had taken off. Or were full for the moment.

“Here? It started here?” The scowl that crossed her face had probably caused more houseboys to pass out than pure threats ever could. I doubted whoever set the constructs to start the fire would have been impressed though.

“Yes, a guardsman said he noticed the flames started here, and Glorinal confirmed it. He needed the origin of the fire to be able to put it out.”

Qianru walked closer to the side where her trash bins had been, but not all the way up to them. She seemed to be muttering to herself, but I didn’t think it would be a good idea to try and listen to her.

Finally, she turned back to all of us to make her decree. “I need this area secured. I need a list of all recent items that were placed in those trash bins, and I need all the available information on constructs in my library within the hour.” She didn’t wait for a response, just turned, and started toward her house. She paused and glanced back over her shoulder at me. “Aren’t you coming in to see your companion?” Then she continued on without seeing if I was following or not.

I shrugged and followed. There was no way I was going to pass up a chance to see what the inner lair of Qianru was like. Besides, I didn’t doubt the efficiency of her houseboys, but I did want to make sure Glorinal was all right.

Qianru had only been in Beccia for a few months. She got here a month before she hired me, right after the battle. Which, now that I knew her interest in the glass gargoyle, was no coincidence. Whether she had bought this place outright or was renting it, I wasn’t sure, but it was very much all Qianru at this point.

Literally. Three life-sized paintings of Qianru at three stages of her life dominated the rather large foyer. All were her as an adult, but they were clearly done about ten to fifteen years apart. And all a bit creepy.

In truth, the closer you got to them, the scarier they got. The artist had done them so the eyes seemed to follow you as you walked, and they were high enough on the wall that even Foxy would find himself looking up at her. The clothes in each portrait were different but alike enough that it was clear she had come by her eccentric wardrobe lifestyle honestly and at an early age.

The rest of the entry area was shiny white marble with gold veins and quartz vases sitting on golden shelves.

All in all it was like walking into a mausoleum for a very rich, yet tacky, individual. Which pretty much matched what I knew about Qianru. The entrance led to two hallways in opposite directions. Qianru was moving much faster than me, but I still saw her turn to the left. A quick peek to the right before I followed her showed nothing but a long dark hallway.

If I had been disappointed in my brief glance to the right, I wasn’t when I went to the left. A huge cavern of a room, also in white marble, quartz vases, and lots of gold, greeted me. More portraits of Qianru, a bit smaller than ones in the entry, covered most of the walls. But there were also some amazing artifacts. Nothing that appeared to be from the Ancients’ period, but plenty of elven pieces. I was drifting closer to a beautiful silver and copper bowl when Qianru stuck her head back into the room from the far end.

“Oh do hurry, your companion is waking.” Again without waiting to see if I followed, she turned and scurried down the hallway at that end.

The idea of wandering around this room just mentally cataloging all her works was a strong one, but I didn’t know how long the hall was at the other end, and I really needed to stay on her good side.

Fortunately, the hallway wasn’t as dark as the one on the other side. The bright whiteness of the rest of the house seemed to carry through with an arching doorway that led to five closed doors. Well, four closed doors and one open one with a young houseboy standing guard.

The whiteness of the room, combined with the lights she had on in it—at least five that I could count—almost blinded me as I turned into the room. I blocked the worst offender with my hand. “Could you turn some of these glows off?”

A Qianru-shaped blob appeared to my left. “But elves need light to heal.”

I dropped my hand to see if she was kidding or not, then held it back up again. She was very earnest.

“Where did you hear that?” Thanks to Covey, I knew more elven myths and legends than most folks, but that was new to me. “All it’s going to do is give him a headache and possibly blind him.”

Qianru gave one of her soul-cracking laughs, and I’m sure had I been willing to chance blindness I would have seen she was giving me one of her “poor ignorant child” looks. “Oh, I have my ways. Trust me, they need lots of light.”

A cough came from the general direction of the bed, then some very un-elf like swearing. “Actually, charming lady, while we do need light for various things, healing from a magical overdose is not one of them.”

A scurry followed in which houseboys raced around putting out glows. Unfortunately, they were all very thorough and soon the room went completely dark. A few moments later two glows were activated.

Now that I could see without risk to my eyes, I went to Glorinal. He still seemed pale, but it could just be a reflection of all the white. He smiled wanly up at me, took my hand, and kissed it.

I stopped short of passing out, but it was extremely romantic.

Or it was until Qianru came to the bedside cackling like a gnome in heat. “Ah, you two are very good friends, wonderful! I too have an elf friend, not the same as this, but he is very dear and helps me with my work here in town. I was hesitant to tell you since elves are rare in this part of the world and I wasn’t sure of your reaction.”

My mind went a number of directions on her words. One, it very quickly caught the “in this part of the world” comment, which implied her homeland had elves, something she’d not mentioned before. But that brief burst of joy was tempered by the fact she had an elf friend here in town. There were only three elves in town, Glorinal, Alric, and the homicidal mage who almost caught Alric and me at Qianru’s dig site. Which would explain his knowledge of the chimera holes if he was working with her.

“I’d love to meet him someday. Did he come up here with you from your homeland? Is he off with your guardsmen?” Not really subtle, but my mind was doing a bit of runaway screaming. I hadn’t seen any guardsmen here, and the ones with the mage in the ruins hadn’t been wearing Qianru’s livery. But if he was working with her….

“His name is Jovan, and we met on the road to Beccia. A kind, gentle soul. He is an academic wanderer.” That laugh crawled across the room again. “I don’t have guardsmen. We don’t believe in building personal armies in my land.” She gave a sniff of derision, then fluttered her hand toward the houseboy near the door. “I have my houseboys. What else could I need?”

None of this was helpful.

“I have not heard of Jovan, but my people are scattered.” Glorinal struggled to sit up in bed, but managed to do it. “However, he sounds like a lovely fellow. Perhaps someday we shall meet. I enjoy speaking to other elves.”

“Yes, that would be wonderful.” Qianru motioned for one of the houseboys to pull forward a chair for her to sit next to the bed. “I believe your people have been hidden too long. I know Jovan doesn’t like to speak of the before time, but it is the past. Think of the wonders you could bring to this world if you all came forward.”

Glorinal let his head fall back into the pillows and a houseboy silently rushed forward to add more to hold him upright. Glorinal smiled his thanks. “The Breaking was a brutal time, my lady. Much of our culture and our people were lost. Even after a thousand years, I don’t know if the elders think the world is ready for our gifts yet. They are afraid other races will try to use us for their own gain.”

If his elders were like Alric’s that sounded about right. Alric’s group sounded extremely paranoid and xenophobic. I briefly wondered what would happen when the two groups of elves found each other. Would I be the first one to tell them each of the other’s existence? Perhaps as an award I would get to see one of their cities.

I couldn’t tell Glorinal about Alric, not yet anyway, but I could find out more about Glorinal.

“How large is your city? Is it all elves?” I kept my eyes on Glorinal so that I could pretend I didn’t see Qianru shooting me an evil look.

“Child, if he is like Jovan, he has bad memories of his homeland. We shouldn’t pry.”

A houseboy handed Glorinal a jeweled glass of water, and he took a few sips before answering. “I don’t mind answering questions, if I can. Jovan must be from a different group with such heavy tales of woe. Our city is more of a village, and very poor, but we are content. There are no more than a few hundred of us, and we live mostly in isolation. The Breaking left a long scar on the psyche of my people.”

Qianru nodded sagely, then leaned forward to ask questions of her own. A pounding on the door cut her off. “Joie, go see who is being so rude.”

Joie nodded then waved toward a few more houseboys, and they all ran down the hall.

The pounding got louder, and a look of extreme annoyance filled Qianru’s face. “I will not have animals at my doors when I have a guest of such high esteem.” She turned back to Glorinal. “Please excuse me. I have to remove this person.”

With a flick of her hand, the remaining houseboys joined her and they left the room. I was just about to ask Glorinal how much longer before he felt he could leave this place, when an ear-piercing scream filled the air.