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"Tel him . . . tel the ambassador that I'm sorry he's lost a daughter. Tel him that Camil e D'Artigo said: The cal ing of the Moon Mother is stronger than the power of his approval. And that . . ." her voice broke, but she caught herself. "And that . . . that my duty is to my Goddess, first and foremost. I wish him a long and happy life. Apparently, I shal not be there to share it with him."
And then she turned and walked down the hal toward the bathroom.
Menol y and I looked at each other.
After a pause, I said, "I guess that's it. Tel Father that Menol y and I are pissed as hel and he'd better not contact us in anything but an official capacity for a while. I'd tel him myself through the Whispering Mirror, but I'm too angry and I'd probably shift if I tried to confront him."
"I, myself, have nothing to say to him," Menol y added. "Other than this: I don't need him. I don't want him in my life. But Trenyth, we aren't mad at you. You just got stuck with a crappy job tonight."
He ducked his head, his cheeks burning. "I wish I hadn't been the one assigned. I was dreading this. And yet, better me than some officious ass."
Gathering his robes, he added, "I'd better return now. Please, take care of her. I can't imagine what she must be feeling."
"We wil ." I saw him out the back door and watched as he crossed the yard. Oh yeah, this was shaping up to be a lovely autumn, al right.
As Menol y went to help Camil e, I cal ed everybody back in the kitchen and gestured for them to keep quiet. "I'l tel you about it later, but right now, I think we need to just let sleeping dogs lie." And give my sister a chance to lick her wounds, I thought but didn't say.
Menol y and Camil e returned. It was obvious that Camil e had been crying, but Menol y shot a look around the room that warned, Back off, and nobody took a chance on crossing her. Smoky glowered, Tril ian and Morio looked worried, but she gave them a smal shake of the head, and they kept quiet.
Roz quickly jumped to get everybody's attention off of her. "Yo, Wilbur," he said. "You want anything to eat?"
Wilbur cleared his throat as he plunked down into a chair. "Coffee if you got it, black, strong. And something sweet would not be amiss," he added, staring at Menol y.
She let out an audible hiss. "Hands to yourself, big boy. I told you that on the way here."
"Damn wench smacked me a good one," he said, rubbing his jaw and laughing. "Al right, al right, I'l back off. Looks like you've got cookies there--I wouldn't be averse to a couple of those."
I handed him the plate, thinking that if he had his way, al three of us girls would be his personal cookie jar. But none of us were interested. Wilbur was too coarse for our tastes. He bit into the cookie as Roz poured him a cup of tea.>"No problem--go for it." I waved her up the stairs. Turning back, I looked over at Camil e, who was stil snuggled in the rocking chair. She looked a little better, but damn, the Wolf Briar had real y hit her hard. "You going to be okay?"
"Yeah, but I stil feel like death warmed over." She nodded. "We need to find out who's making it and put a stop to them. It's dangerous to far more than just werewolves. If I'd taken a bigger blast of it, I could stil be paralyzed."
Smoky growled. He was sitting by her side, and now he looked over at me. "You have my help if you want it. There is dark magic, and then there is this.
And if you find out who planted the blast that hit Camil e, I'l remove them from this world."
"I'm sure you wil . Who would know about sorcery shops in town?" I leaned forward, playing with a piece of the cornbread. "Any ideas?"
"Wilbur." Morio slowly raised his head. "Wilbur would know. Somebody care to go escort him up here? And make sure he leaves Martin at home."
I groaned. Wilbur, our neighbor, wasn't my favorite person in the world. A necromancer, he walked on the shady side of gray, but he'd helped us more than once, and we managed to form an uneasy truce with him after Menol y broke Martin's neck and almost pul ed his head off.
Martin was Wilbur's ghoul. Martin was long dead but wel -preserved, and looked like a ghoulish accountant and wore a suit. Wilbur and Martin had a master-servant relationship that I wasn't entirely comfortable contemplating, because at times it seemed a little too chummy, but I wasn't about to ask awkward questions that might tel me more than I wanted to know.
Menol y grumbled. "I suppose I'l go. You guys always send me because you know Wilbur wants to fuck a vampire, and he keeps hoping he'l get lucky."
She stood and stretched. "If he gets grabby, I can backhand him from here to Hel. I'l be back in a few with the cavalry." She excused herself and headed out the back door.
I finished my meal and carried the dishes to the sink. As I rinsed them off, there was a knock on the front door. Morio went to answer it and returned with Trenyth--the elfin assistant to Queen Asteria--in tow. Drenched from the downpour between Grandmother Coyote's portal and our house, Trenyth barely smiled, and I knew something was up.
"Something's wrong. Is Father okay?" I motioned for him to take a seat.
Trenyth glanced around the table. "Everyone's here. Good. Wait--where's your sister? Menol y?"
"She'l be back in a few minutes. Is it Father?" Camil e leaned forward in the chair, her pale face even whiter.
The emissary sighed. "He's not hurt, so calm yourself with regards to that. But yes, the message is . . . from him." He looked sad, and I wondered what the hel was up. Trenyth had been on the periphery of our lives since we first wiped the floor with Bad-Ass Luke and Shadow Wing's first Degath Squad.
We'd developed a friendly though professional rapport with the ancient elf. He was Queen Asteria's right hand, and I had the feeling she'd be lost without him.
