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“What the fuck?” I dashed upstairs, poking my head into Delilah’s room. Nothing. As I slowly descended to the second floor, a sound from Camille’s study caught my attention. I quickly opened the door. No one was around, but the Whispering Mirror was making noises.
I sat down in front of it and spoke the password. The mirror shimmered and—in place of the reflection of the empty room, since I couldn’t see myself in mirrors—Trenyth’s image appeared.
“Who’s there? Menolly, is that you?” He squinted, staring at his mirror.
I nodded. “Yes, it’s me. I’m sorry, the entire house seems to be empty and I have no clue where everybody went. I was just headed downstairs to look for them. What’s up?”
He cleared his throat. “Quall and the others are headed by caravan to Rhellah. They arrived in Ceredream just in time to sign on for a caravan. They should arrive in Rhellah in a few weeks. I thought I’d just update you on matters.”
I studied his expression. Since nobody else was around to shut me up, I decided to ask a few of the more indelicate questions I’d been mulling over. “Tell me the truth. Can we trust Quall? I know what you said in conference, but, seriously, we need to know.”
Trenyth looked over his shoulder, then turned back to the mirror. “Don’t trust him if you’re alone with him. He’s cruel, and he’s vindictive, and he takes delight in the pain of others. But truly, he is on our side. He’s out for his father’s blood, and he’s got the best reason in the world to back up Queen Asteria—he owes her his life and she made sure he knew that from the beginning. That’s all I can say for now.”
I nodded. “We’ve got problems over here. We’re not sure if they’re all tied together or not.” But before I could tell him about what had gone down, he darted another look over his shoulder.
“I’m being summoned. Her Majesty needs me. I’ll talk to you soon, Menolly.” And with that, the Whispering Mirror went dark.
I stared at the mirror, seeing only Camille’s study reflected behind me. Might as well go figure out where everybody was hiding. I dashed downstairs and did another run through of the house, but nobody was there.
Seriously worried, I headed out onto the porch and into the driveway. Most of the cars were there, and I could hear some commotion out back. I raced around the house, readying myself for a fight, but stopped when I saw the trailer parked in the back yard. Iris and Bruce’s temporary home had arrived!
Smoky, Trillian, and Vanzir were hooking up wires and whatnot, and the door was open. I paused next to Vanzir, who squatted beside the trailer, installing what looked like a jury-rigged Internet cable.
“You guys might have left a note for me so I wouldn’t freak out, thinking you’d all been captured or something equally hideous.”
“Eh, we knew you’d figure it out pretty soon.” He set down the wrench he was holding and stood, arching his back. “You get back okay from the Dream-Time?”
“Yeah. I was going to ask…so you were there? And Chase? How is he, and why isn’t anybody there with him? What’s going on? I expected a note, asking me to rush down to the FH-CSI. In fact, when I didn’t find one, I was beginning to think maybe it really was just a dream.”
He shook his head. “No, unfortunately. As for why no note, Camille asked me to send you down to HQ when you woke up. She’s down there right now, with Delilah, Shade, and Morio. The rest of us are helping Iris get her trailer ready.”
“Where’s Maggie?” I looked around. “I can imagine how much help she’s being.”
“Hanna took her for a walk in her stroller. That woman thinks everybody should live on fresh air and exercise.” He grinned, though. Hanna had managed to win over everybody in the house.
“Alone?” I glanced around. “What about—”
“No, don’t worry. Roz is with her, and one of the elfin guards.” He gave me a reassuring nod, which, coming from Vanzir, wasn’t all that reassuring.
“I’ll head out for the station, then.” I turned to go, then, stopping, looked over my shoulder. “Say, are Roz and Hanna…”
“Have they hooked up?” Vanzir snickered. “I’m surprised it took you so long to ask. Let me put it this way, they’ve become friends…with benefits. I doubt if Hanna wants to involve herself emotionally with an incubus, and Rozurial knows better than to break her heart.”
“Thanks. Just curiosity.” As I headed back to the house, I felt unaccountably glad that Roz and Hanna had managed to find some sort of companionship together. Hanna needed someone to remind her she wasn’t just a servant, and Roz…well…Roz just needed women who enjoyed his company, since there was no way he could have the one woman who seemed to have touched his heart since Zeus had turned him.
I reached the FH-CSI in record time, breaking every speed limit in the city. But luckily, no cops were on duty and traffic was light. As soon as I entered the waiting room, I caught sight of Delilah, Shade, Morio, and Camille. Delilah rose, letting out a little cry and reaching for me. I hugged her tight.
“What’s going on? How’s Chase? I got the news from Vanzir. Did he tell you I was there last night?” I took a seat next to Camille and leaned back. We didn’t look to be going anywhere soon.
“Chase is…holding his own but he’s still in a coma.” Delilah pressed her lips together and stared at her feet.
“What happened? The last thing I remember is that Vanzir was feeding off some spirit that was trying to siphon away Chase’s life force.” Hesitating, I glanced over at Morio.
“It’s all right, you can talk about it. I know what the hungry ghosts can do, trust me. You know I understand that. But these aren’t the same thing. They’re…worse, I think.” He sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“They’re definitely nothing to mess with. What I saw on the Dream-Time last night was like a monster in its natural form. If that was its natural form.” I explained to them what had happened. “So what did Sharah say about Chase? Or is she too close to the situation to take care of him?”
Delilah frowned. “Mallen won’t let her tend to him. For one thing, with her pregnancy, she’s far too vulnerable should something go wrong. And if something happens to Chase, she’s too involved and it might hurt the baby. Mallen’s been keeping her busy tending to minor bumps and bruises from some of the Fae coming through here.”
