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I glanced at the clock. Three-thirty. I'd visit Erin the next night. For now I was so exhausted, I just wanted to hide out in my lair, to shut out the world. But there were things to attend to first. I headed to the living room, where Iris was stitching up the gashes in Camille's calves.
"They'll heal better with a bit of thread," she said.
Chase watched, his face greenish. "Do all you women have a way with needle and thread?" he asked.
"I'm better at it than the girls. Comes from years of attending to the Kuusi family. No doctors near enough to fetch during times of emergency. And I could always heal wounds better than they could anyway." She bit through the thread and tucked the spool away. "Now, ointment, a bandage, and you should be just fine in a week or so. You'll have scars, but they'll be faint."
Camille shook her head, grinning. "They'll match the ones on my arms," she said, glancing up at me. "Irony, huh?"
"Irony like that, we can do without," I said, wondering when to tell her that Trillian was hurt, too. She wouldn't be too happy when she found out I'd kept that news from her, but it no longer mattered. "So, is Roz here?"
"He is now," Roz said from the doorway. He slipped out of his duster and carefully hung it over the back of a chair, then sat down, his pants tight around his legs in all the right places. His T-shirt was nice and form fitting, too, and I found my thoughts wandering in a direction I never thought they'd meander. Perhaps Roz would make a good playmate, at least for someone like me. I dallied with the thought, then pushed it aside. Perhaps… but not anytime soon.
"So what is it that you have to tell us?" I asked.
"I brought someone with me." He motioned to the door. I jumped to attention. Who the hell had he invited over now? But as a cloaked figure stepped through the arch, I recognized the energy. Elfin blood. Heavy, ancient Elfin blood. Not Trenyth this time.
Camille squinted, then gasped. "Your Majesty!" she said, struggling to stand up.
Iris pushed her back on the sofa. "I don't care if it's the Queen of Hearts, you just sit back down and don't move. You don't want to rip those stitches."
The figure pushed her hood back and I jumped, along with Delilah.
"Your Majesty! Great Mother, what are you doing over here?" I almost expected the world to implode. Asteria, the Elfin Queen, had made a trip to our home? What the hell was going on? "Is everything okay?"
"Father—has something happened to Father?" Delilah burst out, managing to drop into a curtsey and break into tears simultaneously. I hastily followed suit, sans tears, motioning for Morio and Chase to bow.
"Enough with the amenities," the ancient queen said, waving off our genuflections. "I don't want to be away from Elqaneve for long. But there are things we must discuss and better I come to you than wait for you to visit my city. Tell me first, though—what of Dredge?"
We filled her in on the fight, and the fact that he'd been aligned with Loki, not Shadow Wing. She took everything in stride, nodding quietly as we unraveled the chaotic mess he'd left in his wake.
"Dredge has always been steeped in mayhem and delighted in causing confusion. I had hoped that Jareth could help him, but no wonder it didn't work. With Loki behind him, it's a wonder Jareth survived the ordeal. None of us knew. He managed to fool us all until the end." She paused, looking over at Camille. "My girl, you've been wounded. Does Trillian know? I was so sorry to see him hurt—"
"What? Trillian's been hurt?" Camille managed to get to her feet. This time I shoved her back on the sofa.
Iris broke in. "He's going to be fine. He just won't be running to OW anytime soon, especially seeing that he's been outted as a spy." She stood, hands on her hips. "He's tucked away in your bedroom. You two can convalesce together, and may the gods take pity on you both. I certainly hope they do on me because I'm going to be the one stuck waiting on you." She rolled her eyes.
"That's why I'm here," the Queen said. "I wanted you to hear what I have to say directly from my own lips." She motioned to Roz and he moved to stand beside her.
"Rozurial is my new message runner. I didn't expect Trillian to be hurt, but since he's injured, Roz will take his place for now. And he will be my go-between for things I choose not to entrust to the Whispering Mirror. It's too dangerous to send Trenyth to you now—my aide is far too important to me to put in jeopardy."
"The war is truly so dangerous?" Delilah asked.
Queen Asteria shook her head. "War is always hazardous, but no… that's not the only reason. I've had my scholars busy studying the ancient texts. And I assigned several seers to the task."
She paused, then let out a long sigh. "Listen to me carefully. It appears most—perhaps all—of the spirit seals somehow found their way into the general area around Seattle and the vicinity. The area you refer to as the Pacific Northwest. But why the convergence? Are there forces here of great power that can amplify the seals' natures? And there are more portals—portals we didn't know existed—that have suddenly been opening up in Otherworld with no one to guard them. Do the demons know about these? Can they find a way to use them to infiltrate Earth and Otherworld? So many new questions, and no answers as of yet."
As I struggled to grasp the implications of what she was saying, Roz broke in. "There's something else. The third spirit seal—the third part of the ancient talisman—is hidden somewhere here in Seattle. Right now. The only thing I could discover is that there's some connection between it and a Raksasa."
Camille let out a low whistle and sat up straight. "They're dangerous."
"What are they?" asked Chase.
"Earthside demons. Persian," Morio said. "Very powerful."
"Is the Raksasa working for Shadow Wing, then?" Iris frowned at Camille, and once again, my sister dropped back on the pillow.
"I don't know." Roz rubbed his nose. "But it's up to you girls to find out and to retrieve the third seal. And there are several other things…"
