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We sped up, and by the time we reached the door with the alarm, Smoky and Roz were waiting on the other side.
“We figured that you would be on the move, so we decided to wait here for you rather than try to backtrack and find you. Come on—we’ve accomplished this mission and we better not hang around. Besides…” Smoky paused, then drew a long breath. “Trenyth called on the Whispering Mirror. News from the war front. Not good, he says. But he wouldn’t tell us till you get home and are there to hear.”
Great. Another thing to worry about. But I tried to focus on the positive. We’d rescued five people tonight who would otherwise have been sold into slavery. They couldn’t go back to their daily lives, though—too much chance Lowestar would track them down and wreak revenge, or try to silence them before they could give out any information.
In fact, the thought occurred to me that, once he realized they were gone, he couldn’t just go back to his SOP. We knew too much about his operation, and so he’d either have to hide it beneath something else, or ramp up some other aspect of it. Suddenly unsettled, I realized that our actions tonight would have far-reaching ramifications. And considering we didn’t have a clue as to how powerful he was, or what the extent of his reach was, I wondered just what the fuck can of worms we’d opened up now. But we’d had no choice. We couldn’t leave five prisoners there, set to be sold. We had to rescue them, regardless of the fallout.
We reached the cars and split up, hightailing it out of there as quickly as we could. All the way home, Delilah nervously watched the rearview mirror, making certain that nobody was following us. I called Camille, and Morio answered.
“Put me on speaker. I don’t want to wait till we get home and caught up with whatever Trenyth’s news is to tell you what I’ve been thinking about.”
“One sec… okay, go ahead. You’re on speaker.” Morio’s voice crackled with the static that speaker phones always picked up.
I spilled out what I’d been thinking about. “I think we may have just escalated whatever this thing with Lowestar is. We threw a nasty monkey wrench in the works, and who knows what he’ll do next?”
From Camille’s car, Smoky’s voice sounded. “If he’s truly trying to raise some ancient, crusty demigod, that might become his major focus. If he knows we’re on to his slavery operation, he might decide to bring in the big guns, so to speak.”
I groaned, and so did Delilah and Camille.
Camille’s voice came over the phone. “Just what we need, but I have a nasty feeling you’re right. Okay, good to keep in mind. Don’t want to keep it in mind, but we have to be ready for anything at this point.”
And with that, I hung up and we drove on into the silent night.
When we reached home, we took a few minutes to clean up and the others grabbed snacks. Hanna had left a message for me—Roman needed to see me. I glanced at the clock. It was two in the morning.
Our rescued prisoners had all been cleaned and bathed and were huddled in the parlor under the watchful eyes of Nerissa, Vanzir, and Shade, who had been gathering as much information as they could without traumatizing them. We’d talk to them as soon as we put out whatever fire Trenyth had for us.
Camille slipped into the seat in front of the Whispering Mirror and activated it. A moment later, the mist cleared and a guard faced us.
“Allow me a moment and I’ll fetch Lord Trenyth.” His eyes were sober and clear, but something about his expression told me the elf had been through hell. He stood and disappeared to the right, out of our view. True to his word, a moment later, Trenyth slid into the vacant seat.
“I don’t have time to linger, girls. But I wanted to keep you updated. Trillian, are you there?” It was obvious that Trenyth hadn’t slept in days—deep lines underscored his eyes, and he yawned even as he spoke.
Trillian grunted. “Yes, I’m here.”
“The storm has rained its fury on Svartalfheim, I’m sorry to say. The sorcerers did their best to deflect it, and good thing, or the damage would have been worse. But the city is still a smoldering mess. Luckily, they took less damage than Elqaneve, but it’s still bad. Several thousand dead, we think. King Vodox managed to survive, but there is much damage.”
“And the storm?” I asked. “It is still raging?”
Trenyth let out a long sigh. “What mages survived our onslaught tell me they think it has weakened a bit, but yes, and it marches on toward Gylden, the city of the Goldunsan.”
Crap. Gylden was a relatively peaceful city of Fae who lived in the mountains. Reclusive, the Goldunsan were seldom found in cities other than their own. Golden-skinned, they were beautiful in ways that made most Fae glamour seem like a knockoff. But the fact that they had few dealings with outsiders meant they didn’t often form alliances. The storm could trash their city to the ground.
“We’ve alerted them, of course. But now we have a new worry.”
And it just kept coming.
“We’ve received a message from Ceredream stating that there’s some sort of activity happening on their borders. But they sat on the fence too long. We have no reserves left to send them at this point. King Gwyfn of the Nebulveori Mountains is closer; he is sending scouts to the City of the East to find out what they can.”
“So the dwarves are fully involved.” Delilah frowned. “I almost hate to ask but what’s happening in Y’Elestrial?”
“They are prepared—they have gathered every sorcerer and witch they can. They’re all working on war efforts, both in fortifying the city, and in discovering any weakness they can in Telazhar’s army. If we can discover where Telazhar himself is, we can attempt an assassination coup.” He paused. “Your cousin Shamas showed up. We’ve put him to work here—it’s too dangerous for him to attempt the roads to Svartalfheim right now.”
Camille winced, but said nothing.
“And Elqaneve?” I didn’t want to ask, but we had to know. “How are you doing? You look like crap, Trenyth.”
He smiled then, wearily, but it was a smile. “You think I don’t know that? Of course I do. I haven’t slept in days. I’ve been run ragged. Sharah looks just as tired as I am, but I’m making sure she gets as much rest as she can, given that she just had a baby. Is Chase there?”
