Imperative: A Quinn Larson Quest (7 page)

“Stern Greenway, I am prince of the nettles. I have to protect my people. If we don’t breed we will die out. There are precious few of us now. Where will we be in a year?”

“Why did you come to me?” I knew by the way he hopped from foot to foot that he had something else to say. “Why now? I haven’t been able to do anything to stop you.”

“We didn’t take the Sidhe up on the offer right away. We didn’t think it was necessary. We have times when we have few babies and times when we have many.” He took a deep breath and I could see he was making up his mind. “But, we were worried. So, I went to see the old lady.”

The old lady was something of an oracle. No one had actually seen her in centuries. She usually talked through an intermediary. “What did she say?”

“She said that you would stop the Sidhe but the cost would be heavy. She meant the fairies would die out.” Tears started to fall. “If the fairies go, what will happen to the world?”

“It might mean something else.” I didn’t trust anything the old lady said. Like most oracles, she gave such open answers everyone interpreted it their own way. “She could mean the cost would be for me, or for the humans, or for Fionuir.”

“No, it
must
be us, we asked the question. Why would she tell us about the cost if it had nothing to do with us?”

Olan landed in front of Stern. “You stupid fairy.” I heard a power I didn’t know he had roar from his beak. “Killing humans will be your ruin. If they don’t retaliate, I will.” Stern bent backward as though caught in gale.

“But ...” Stern didn’t manage another syllable.

“If you bring the attention of other beings that protect the humans, you will be crushed. Did you not think?”

I didn’t move; getting between Olan and Stern was a bad idea and I have strong survival skills. But, I could talk. “Olan, settle down. They are just trying to survive.”

Stern looked at me then stepped back, trembling. Olan turned to me; I saw thunder and lightning in his eye. As soon as Olan turned, Stern leapt over the railing and disappearing into the dark.

“Damn you wizard,” he spat. “Now he’s gone.”

“Yes, and that’s the best way for this to end. He is just one fairy. We need to stop this at the source.”

Olan flapped back up to the roof. I figured he was going to simmer for a while. If I was right, I would much rather he do it on the roof than in my workshop.

“Well, goodnight.” I pulled my keys out and flicked off the protection spells. As I opened the door, something rushed past me. It wasn’t Olan, too tall, and pink for that.

I stood in the doorway and looked around. “I did not invite you. Step out from where you are and explain yourself.”

Nothing happened. My spells should have stopped anyone entering without permission, failing that it should have compelled the intruder to the center of the room. This was not exactly impossible, but it meant there were only a few Folk it could be. To avoid the spells, my intruder must have been here before. When I invite people, it’s for the one visit unless I expressly state it. Olan was a permanent guest so he could come and go as long as I don’t physically lock the door because he can’t manage to open it.

The other way for someone to be able to enter was if they left enough of their possessions behind them. I was very careful about checking to make sure my few visitors didn’t leave any articles of clothing or belongings. But, it seems I missed one.

“Okay, come out and we can talk.” I saw a blur out of the corner of my eye and spun, casting a protection spell as I did. A rose fairy smashed against the spell and bounced back, dropping a knife in the process.

“Wizard,” she spat, picking up the knife. “Drop the spell and fight me fairly.”

There was no such thing as fair fighting with fairies. When they decided to kill you they didn’t play fair, they played for keeps. I threw a confinement spell around her. Step one was to make sure she couldn’t get back in. “Princess Elizabeth, what did you leave here?” She didn’t speak but I noticed her glance toward a box on my kitchen counter. I tipped the box and found a golden ring in the bottom. “That’s the last time I invite you to my party.” I opened the door and tossed the ring into the yard.

When I turned back she was hissing and spitting while trying to break the confinement spell. The problem was it bound her like a constrictor, more struggling meant tighter binding. “Stop struggling before you hurt yourself.”

Olan waddled into the room. I had left the door open so I could toss her out when I was done with her. “What did you do to piss her off?” He asked.

“As a wild guess I would say it has something to do with the Sidhe.”

Princess Elizabeth was now whimpering because the invisibles bonds of the spell cut into her arms where she’d continued to struggle despite my warning. I flicked my fingers and loosened the bonds a little. “Don’t tighten them again, or I will leave them.”

Olan circled the fairy clucking. “Look at her; she hasn’t eaten for a long stretch. She is all bones and wings.”

He was right. What the hell was going on? I hoped the Sidhe hadn’t upped the ante. So far I hadn’t believed they were trying to kill the Real Folk, but that they just didn’t care about the repercussions. Now, I wondered if maybe they were trying to destroy the entire fairy species. “Why haven’t you eaten?”

Olan shook his feathers and walked over to me. “I didn’t think you be the kind of wizard who would stoop to ‘techniques’ to get information.” His voice was low.

“I’m not. I have a spell that will make her answer our questions and not hurt her. When we get information, I’ll remove the spells and let her go. Or rather, I’ll put her outside and then remove the spells.”

Princess Elizabeth was staring at me and trembling, I felt like an asshole, but her fear will make the spell work better. I reminded myself I really wasn’t going to hurt her. I picked her up, she weighed so little I could hold her in one hand.

“I am off to do some more research.” Olan called as he fluttered outside.

I could have used Olan when I cast the spell, but we did need to split up to get more information, so I nodded and took Princess Elizabeth downstairs.

Ten minutes after I cast the spell, I noticed that she kept nodding off between questions. It wasn’t because of the spell. It was because she didn’t have any reserves of energy. She was only a few steps away from death.

“Princess, why are you so thin?”

“I am being punished. I failed to get the lotion.” Her voice was barely audible. I fetched the bottle of honey from my kitchen. Fairies practically lived on sugar. Releasing the binding, I poured honey onto a plate. “I said I was being punished. I cannot eat that until I am forgiven.”

That got my attention. If Princess Elizabeth had seen something, maybe she held the clue to breaking the spell. “Did you see what happened?”

“No. My lover did. He said she put some brown liquid on the amulet and it glowed.”

I considered asking if she would take me to her lover, then realized she’d probably try to kill me the minute I released her. “Why are you trying to kill me?”

“You are stopping the Sidhe. If I kill you, then we can continue to breed. And, maybe I will be forgiven.”

“Why did you fail?”

She squirmed in the binding. I loosened the spell a little when I saw the raw wounds on her arms. Her gaze never left the honey. But I knew she couldn’t eat it. Fairies are stubborn about their ethics. Rose fairies were the worst. If I forced her to eat, she would be shamed and maybe killed by her clan.

I waited a few minutes. “Do the other fairies know why you failed?” Tears were sliding down her cheeks. “Is that why you are being punished?”

She sobbed in a breath and nodded.

I knew she would tell me now. That’s how the spell worked; if you could get one hard truth out of the subject then the others would follow. “Tell me what happened. Maybe I can help.”

Now it was time for patience while she fought the compulsion to tell me. If I spoke to her before she answered, I would have to start again. I’m not sure she would survive long enough for that. If she spoke, I could cast a spell to preserve her until I could solve this problem.

She turned her head away from the plate of honey, a grimace pulled at her mouth but she tucked her head into her shoulder. If it weren’t for the trembling of her body, I might have thought she was sleeping.

I’d left a small window open upstairs so I wasn’t surprised when Olan swooped into the room while Princess Elizabeth struggled against her compulsion. I motioned with my head for him to land near me. When he was on the ground, he looked at Princess.

“She failed to get the potion. I figure it’s important to find out why. Maybe we can just break the routine enough to make the Sidhe bored. Did you get anything on your travels?”

“Yes. There is a pattern. My source says the Sidhe need a sacrifice every three days at minimum. He didn’t know why but he heard them talking after one of the killings.”

“Who’s your source?’ I watched Princess. She had stopped struggling and was listening to us. Maybe she figured she could find a way to try again. Then her shoulders slumped.

Olan fluttered his wings. “You won’t know my source, but he comes when humans die violently.”

I put my finger to my lips and then pointed at Princess.

Tears dripping from her chin she sobbed again before speaking. “I failed because I couldn’t kill the human they picked for me. It was a child.”

“To keep the spell fresh without using their own energy.” Her eyes closed and I cast my spell. She would stay alive but immobile for at least a month.

“She probably knows more,” Olan said, hopping onto her lap. “You could have asked another question.”

“I didn’t want to kill her. I don’t need a stain like that on my energy.” I wasn’t usually in a position to consider violating the spirit wizard’s oath. I didn’t use sacrifice in spells, and until now, I have never felt the need to end someone’s life. “If I am going to kill, it will be Fionuir, not some poor victim.”

“She would have killed a human to breed.” Olan croaked. “These fairies don’t value humans at all.”

“Olan, that is her problem to deal with not mine. But I will remind you that she didn’t kill the child. Wouldn’t kill the child, and she is suffering for that mercy.”

He hopped back down to the floor. “She would have if it hadn’t been a child. The children are the only ones who still believe in fairies.”

I’d had it with his attitude. “Maybe if your damn humans cared about something other than themselves they wouldn’t get in harm’s way.”

Olan flew at my face. I dodged and only got struck by a feather, but it left a shallow cut on my cheek. “Wizard, do not make this the fault of the humans.”

He was right. It was the Sidhe, not the humans causing problems; this time. “Okay, let’s both agree to stop trying to piss each other off and solve the problem.”

I waited for his response but he said nothing. I looked around for him and saw him strutting along the top of a bookshelf. “Olan?”

“Okay, I can see we are wasting time. A truce until we solve this.”

I wasn’t aware we were at war about anything but decided on discretion rather than trying to figure out what I had done recently that Olan might take affront to, other than the humans dying. “I don’t think Fionuir would go to all this trouble to spend time feeding a spell she cast.”

“No. She’s got to be giving her followers something for their trouble otherwise they wouldn’t keep it up.”

“The only thing Sidhe covet is power. All kinds of power.”

I removed the binding spell from Princess and lifted her onto the sofa. She would be fine there for a while. The sofa was soft enough not to leave pressure bruises.

“I’m hungry, let’s get upstairs.” It felt too odd to be discussing plans with a fairy passed out on my couch. She was like a life-sized doll that had been left behind after a tea party.