Page 71 of Night and Silence

“October. Do you have the elf-shot cure mixed and ready to go?”

“Um.” He hesitated. “Yes? How much do you need?”

“Two doses. Quentin and May are down.”

He made a noise somewhere between a groan and a grim chuckle. “You know, I don’t know how much of that stuff it’s safe to take. You can’t keep running into arrows and expecting that nothing will go wrong.”

“Believe me, I’m aware. Sadly, they weren’t really consulted.”

“Got it. Where am I delivering the stuff?”

“I’ll send Tybalt to pick it up as soon as he has a free hand.” From the dais, Tybalt gave me a dubious look. I shrugged exaggeratedly. If he didn’t want to play courier service, he could . . . he could nothing. This was what I needed from him right now. “Okay?”

“Okay. Be careful, please. I can’t wake you all up.”

“Hopefully you won’t have to. Open roads.”

“Kind fires.”

I hung up the phone and tucked it back into Quentin’s pocket. When I straightened, Kennis was eyeing me oddly.

“What is that device?” she asked.

I smiled despite myself. “You’re going to really enjoy some of the advances in modern technology,” I said.

In the distance, a door banged open, followed by the sound of running feet. Kennis tensed, while Tybalt relaxed. I glanced back to the Baobhan Sith.

“You might want to hold very, very still, and keep your hands where people can see them,” I said. “The folks who are on their way don’t like it when they run into strangers covered in blood.”

“You’re covered in blood,” she said.

“Yes, but they know me.”

Dianda was the first into the hall, running remarkably well for a woman who only had legs when she really wanted them. She was wearing a thigh-length tunic, belted at the waist, and carrying a trident that looked like it had been designed to disembowel her enemies. Knowing her, it probably had been. Half a dozen Undersea soldiers were behind her, most of them the octopus-legged Cephali, although I spotted a few other Merrow.

Patrick, her Daoine Sidhe husband, brought up the rear, strolling while the rest of them rushed. He wasn’t here for combat. He was here to stop his wife before she killed anyone they were going to need later. It was nice to see someone looking so calm about the situation.

Dianda caught sight of me and pivoted, stalking in my direction. “Where?” she demanded.

“Over there.” I pointed toward the unconscious body of the false Queen. “You can’t keep her. Arden’s going to want to handle sentencing, whatever that’s going to mean. But you can kick her a few times, if it looks like she’s going to wake up.”

Several of the Cephali had surrounded Kennis—people with the lower bodies of octopuses and the eight associated arms could do a remarkable amount of surrounding—and were watching her closely, their spears and short swords trained on her. To her credit, she was holding very still and keeping her hands visible, as I had requested. Spending four decades locked in a burnt-out house seemed to have instilled a strong sense of self-preservation.

“That’s Kennis,” I said, indicating her. “She’s a Baobhan Sith. The false Queen had her locked in a house in Berkeley and used her as a pit trap to try to murder me. She’s bloody because she attacked me, but she was starving at the time, and she and I have worked it out.” That was a bit of an exaggeration. Somehow, I didn’t think Kennis was going to mind.

“I see,” said Dianda. She looked to the dais and frowned. “Who’s the child?”

“Her name is Jocelyn, and she helped the false Queen abduct my daughter.”

Dianda, who had never met Gillian, only heard about her in context of the kidnapping of her own children, stared at me. “Your girl is missing again? October, I’m so sorry. What can I do to help?”

Sometimes it’s nice to know that people have my back. “Nothing,” I said. Before Dianda could object to my refusing her help, I explained, “She’s with the Luidaeg. I’ll know something soon.”

Both statements were technically true, even if I couldn’t bring myself to look at Tybalt as I made them. Gillian was with the Luidaeg. Alive or dead, awake or asleep, I’d know something as soon as I was ready to ask, and I let him answer. For now, I needed to keep moving.

She was in the best hands she could possibly be in. If anyone could save her, it was the sea witch.

Please.