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Elves and pixies were often at odds, more so than the Sidhe and pixies. Nobody really knew why, but the schism had been around since before the Great Divide.
I wiped my hands on the grass and stood. "Then I suppose we should get busy. We've got to check out both the pixie sighting and the djinn. Menolly, you won't be able to help us. You should be getting into your lair shortly."
"Not so fast," came a voice from the top of the porch steps. Iris was standing there, holding Maggie, who yawned sleepily. "What are you all doing out here this time of morning?"
As Delilah hurried up the stairs to explain, I took Maggie and carried her down to the ground. The gargoyle would remain in babyhood for a long, long time yet. I set her down, and she teetered around, trying desperately to balance using her tail. She couldn't fly yet—her wings were far too small still and far too weak—but she had managed to get the hang of walking without always falling over on her nose.
Now she toddled to a patch of dirt that we kept especially for her and gave me a look as if to say, "Are you really going to watch?"
I grinned at her. "Sorry, Maggie. I'll turn around."
"Mooph," came the soft reply as she squatted to piddle and poop.
I turned away, giving her privacy. Maggie was an integral part of our family now. We'd saved her from a demon, a harpy to be precise, and Maggie had become both our pet and our littlest sister. Menolly spent a lot of time with her, helping her learn to crawl and walk, showing infinite patience that she never showed with anybody else except, perhaps, Delilah—her Kitten.
Maggie let out another mooph to let me know she was done. I turned back and checked under her tail to make sure nothing untoward had stuck to her wispy, silken fur. She reached up, and I hoisted her back into my arms, bracing her against my hip as she clasped her hands around my arm, resting her head on my shoulder.
As I stroked her downy fur and kissed her gently on the head, Iris clattered down the steps and eyed the weeding we'd done. "Good start. I'll finish it this afternoon. Now come in for breakfast and tell me what's going on."
As we all followed her inside, including Feddrah-Dahns, I took one last look at the boundary lines of our land. The woods beyond led to Grandmother Coyote's forest, where her portal awaited. Thoughts of Trillian raced through my mind. Why had he been called back to OW? Would he be safe? My heart skipped a beat. He'd better be. And speaking of men, where the hell was Morio? He hadn't called yet.
As I turned back to the house, a raven flew overhead, cawing loudly. Startled, I glanced over my shoulder as it landed in the oak. The bird gazed at me, eyes glittering, and I had the distinct feeling it was a message from Morgaine.
Too much, I thought as I turned my back on it and entered the house. It was all too much to deal with. At least until we'd eaten breakfast.
Chapter Nine
While Menolly kept watch on the clock—she still had a good thirty minutes before she had to be in her nest—Iris fixed breakfast.
The phone rang. Thinking it might be Morio, I grabbed the receiver, but it was Chase's voice on the other end.
"Hey, Camille. Listen, can you put me on speaker?"
"Sure," I said, hoping he wasn't in trouble. After the troll debacle, with Devins so much dead meat, who knew what was going to happen?
"It's Chase," I mouthed as I punched the button and motioned for Delilah, Menolly, and Iris to move closer. Feddrah-Dahns was in the living room, drinking fresh spring water and munching on a bundle of sweetgrass that Iris had somehow managed to get hold of.
"I have news for you—it's good, but it also means I'm not going to be of much use for awhile."
"They didn't fire your ass because the trolls killed your boss, did they?" Menolly asked.
Delilah swatted at her, and Menolly waved her away, grinning.
He snorted. "Leave it to you to think of that first. No, I wasn't fired, though I thought I might be. After all, the FH-CSI is my baby, and we're supposed to take care of things like this before somebody gets hurt. But a lot of people around here didn't like Devins, and I don't think anybody cried over the loss. He forged a lot of enemies in his time."
"Sounds like you took care of the problem, all right," Iris muttered, heading back to her skillet and pancake batter.
Delilah sniffed at her. "Oh hush. Tell us what happened, love?"
"Well, the fact is that I've been promoted to Devin's position. And I'm still in charge of the FH-CSI. There's so much to sort out here that I'm going to be swamped for weeks." He let out a long sigh. "Which means I won't be much good to you girls, because I'll be working eighteen-hour days just to make sense of the mess in which Devins left his records."
"Congratulations!" Delilah clapped her hands, then frowned. "That means you won't be able to help us track down the demon—"
"Yeah, I know." Chase cleared his throat. We heard the sound of shuffling papers. "I'll do what I can, but for the most part, I'm only good on the information side of things this go-round. I can't afford to mess this up, or it will hurt all of us. I have to make this promotion work in order to keep the FH-CSI in action, not to mention, keep my career on track. There's the chance that if I do a good enough job, I might be able to wrangle us more funds."
"What are people saying about the trolls? That little incident can't have gone unnoticed." Delilah glanced over at me.
"With our luck, it made headline news," I said. My guess wasn't far off.
