Chapter 6
Rollick
The trail I’d been following petered out along the outskirts of Berlin. The nature preserve I’d ended up in didn’t hold much other than trees, grass, a murky stream, and a few low hills, but I was a lot surer of what I was looking for now and where I’d find it. Under the layer of vegetation and soil covering a slightly odd dip at the far edge of the park, I’d discovered a distinctive gouge in a buried stretch of rock.
I spent at least an hour swerving back and forth over the landscape in shadow form, extending all my senses toward the earth beneath me. There weren’t any other markers of the being that’d spent a fair bit of time in this area decades ago. But it had hung around for at least long enough to dig into the local rocks.
I had to admit I didn’t have any direct experience with the being I believed I was tracking, but from what I understood through hearsay, it either fed off stone or rubbed the stuff into its body to build strength. Not totally unusual among shadowkind—I’d watched Crag munch on chunks of quartz crystals before for similar reasons. But the slabs this thing dug out of the earth were nearly as big as Crag himself.
And somehow I suspected the beast’s temperament wasn’t anywhere near as cooperative as the gargoyle’s.
I left the park behind and wandered through the suburbs that bordered the reserve. In the wilder terrain, I hadn’t encountered any beings likely to be able to report their observations, but higher shadowkind tended to gravitate toward human habitations if they could get away with co-existing there. Out of all mortal beings, humans were the ones who provided by far the greatest variety of entertainment and indulgences, after all.
I’d reached a commercial strip with a few small shops, still far from the bustling core of the city, when I caught a whiff of not-entirely-mortal feline. Ah ha.
It only took a minute to trace the scent to its source. The shifter was curled up in the shadows of a garden shed, lounging there for the day like an actual cat might have.
The being’s presence tensed at my approach. From the intricacies of his scent, I could tell he was decently established—at least a century under his belt. Of course, that didn’t mean he’d spent all that time in this area, but in my vast experience, shifters were a territorial bunch. Once they settled in someplace they liked, they weren’t inclined to leave unless they were forced to.
No doubt he could tell that I wasn’t any kind of being he’d want to mess with just from whatever impressions of me he’d picked up already. I stayed in the shadows, propelling myself close enough that we were essentially face to face. If he’d tried to flee, I’d have pounced on him, but maybe he sensed that much. He stayed where he was, peering back at me, every nerve quivering through the atmosphere around us.
“I’d just like to have a quick chat,” I said, flashing the shadowy equivalent of a smile. “I’ve got no beef with you. I only need information.”
“Information about what?” the cat shifter asked in a voice with a hint of a lisp.
“How long have you been coming to this part of the mortal realm?”
The shifter let out a sound like a humph. “I saw the last king leave. Planes coming in. The big wall going up and down. I don’t bother anyone. This is my little piece.”
I held up my hands. “And I have no interest in taking it from you. I’m only hoping you can indulge my curiosity. There was a powerful being that came through here and maybe mucked around a bit probably toward the earlier parts of your time. Something ancient with ties to the earth. I doubt you’d have seen another one like it since, if you saw that one.”
A shiver ran through the shadows from the cat shifter, and my spirits lifted. He knew what I was talking about.
“You don’t want to mess with that one,” he muttered, and I had the impression of him curling his tail around himself like a shield.
I didn’t think I was going to have much choice, but there was no reason to share that observation with this stranger. I wouldn’t have let him see me at all if my enemies didn’t already know I was working against them. Quinn’s little gambit had forced me into the center of the conflict, which meant there was no more point in trying to hide.
“I’d just like to know what he was doing here,” I said. “Did he clash with any other beings in the area? Did he interact with the mortals at all?”
The shifter snorted. “He wanted to crush the mortals.”
A chill prickled through me. I’d known the duo of ancient shadowkind was out to slaughter sorcerers for their power, but he made it sound like this one had wanted to destroy all humans. “What do you mean?”
“He started making the earth shake and crack. Buildings broke. A little bit here and there and then more. I think he was seeing what he could get away with. I didn’t like it.” The cat’s tail twitched. “But the Highest must have found out he was getting too pushy. They sent some of their warriors, who drove him away. I don’t know what they did with him, but he never came back here that I saw.”
Wonderful. So we were dealing with a super-powerful being who’d added to his powers and also had at least used to be itching to wreak havoc throughout the mortal realm. Not that I’d assumed his other intentions were good, but they could definitely have been better than this.
I dipped my head. “Thank you. That’s all I need to know. You can go back to your cat nap.”
The shifter let out a wordless grumble, but I felt his attention on me as I slipped away. He didn’t trust me to be any kinder than the fiend he’d just told me about.
As I drifted farther into the city, stewing in my thoughts, I let myself emerge into physical form in my human guise, keeping my usual veneers covering the pointed teeth I couldn’t transform. The air had the usual chemical tang of city life, but it tasted fresher when I was breathing it into proper bodily lungs. The rhythm of my striding legs helped center my thoughts.
I’d seen signs of this one ancient shadowkind’s presence in various spots across Europe and eastern Asia. This was the most recent spot, and the only one where I’d found a being who’d witnessed what he’d been up to. The other one, his partner, I hadn’t found traces of in the same places, but then, I suspected theirs was a recent collaboration. The other’s domain would be more difficult for me to explore and unlikely to contain many lingering traces.
A couple of tourists I passed stopped to raise their phones for a photo, and I glanced up to see what they found noteworthy. An immense tower jutted up in the near distance, slim with a spherical bulge partway up before tapering into an even thinner spire.
My sorcerer would have liked to see that, wouldn’t she? It was along similar lines to her fanciful designs that she scrawled in her sketchbook. I found myself raising my own phone to snap a visual record myself.
* * *
I made it back to the little Norwegian village just a few minutes after noon. Quinn was already perched at one of the tables in the bakery, one foot tapping restlessly against a chair leg. Something had her more on edge than during our first rendezvous. Nervous energy radiated off every movement from the swipe of her pale hair back behind her ears to the pursing of her soft lips.
At least, I assumed they were soft from the look of them. She hadn’t yet agreed to give me a chance to experience them for myself. Not for lack of interest, but out of the stubborn sense of loyalty she seemed to possess in spades. I still wasn’t sure whether her defiance was ultimately going to turn out in my favor or against me.
But either way, it was impressive if sometimes irritating to watch.
The moment I stepped into the bakery, Quinn’s spine jerked rigidly straight. Even now that we’d officially been working together for several days, she eyed me like I might pounce on her just as the cat shifter had been worried I would.
To be fair, I had pounced on her at least once in the past. But for good reason. And she’d kind of liked it, even if she didn’t want to admit it.
I dropped into the seat across from her. She might have still been a little afraid of me, but she’d also generously bought me the same kind of pastry I’d picked up last time I was here. It had been pretty tasty. Such a mix of contradictions, this mortal woman.
Which was why I couldn’t help speculating about how delicious she might be too. It really was too bad that we had to be stuck in a conflict that put her life, my livelihood, and who knew how much else on the line. Otherwise I could have focused on more enjoyable pursuits I’d eventually have persuaded her to join me in.
Well, plenty of time for that later.
“You managed to get away again,” I observed. “They trust you that much.”
Quinn shrugged. “I don’t know how much it’s trust. But I might get something really useful tonight.” Her hands twined together on the table. She’d barely touched the slice of pie she’d bought. “One of the trainee sorcerers at the enclave is doing his ‘rites’ tonight. I’m planning on finding a way of watching and seeing what exactly it is they do to spark the magic in him.”
I raised my eyebrows. “That will be a big step forward. Have you uncovered anything else that would bolster your own powers?”
She shook her head, her mouth twisting. “It’s mostly been busy-work so far, making sure I’m dedicated to learning. They’re being very secretive about the rites, so I’m guessing that’s the key.” She sighed and picked up her fork. “Have you gotten anywhere with your investigations yet?”
“I went out to Berlin yesterday,” I said without thinking about it, and somehow both delighted in and regretted the glint of hopeful interest that lit in her eyes.
“It’s one of my top ten cities I’ve wanted to visit,” she said. “I mean, if I manage to fit in that kind of travel with the time I have…” Her hand dipped to the neckline of her shirt. Her sweater covered her entire chest, but I knew she was touching the spot where the top of her surgery scar was marked on the skin over her sternum. “Did you see the Upper West? We talked about it in one of my classes.”
I felt abruptly ashamed that I didn’t even know what she was talking about. “I took a picture of this one,” I said, showing her the photo on my phone.
“Oh, the Television Tower. That’s an amazing one too. Did you know it’s the tallest building in the whole country?”
I hadn’t actually given it that much thought. “And here I thought you’d be one of those women who say size doesn’t matter.”
Quinn wrinkled her nose at me, but the eager flush that’d crossed her face at the overall topic of conversation made up for it. “It’s an impressive feat of engineering. And I bet it’s breathtaking to see up close.”
“So you’re all about looks, then.”
She ignored my teasing tone. “It’s not just looks. It’s…” She paused, her bright blue eyes going momentarily distant as she searched for the right words. “There’s something special about being able to make people feel something, having an impact on them. That’s why so many people make art, right? To do it with a building—something that’s functional but also art in its own way—something that’s entwined in their lives and the city… Maybe it sounds silly, but I think that’s just about the most amazing thing possible.”
I was rarely lost for words, but in the first few moments after she stopped speaking, I had trouble deciding what to say in response. The passion in her words was obvious.
I hadn’t really been fair to her. I had assumed that her interest in architecture was mostly about making pretty structures and achieving acclaim. The way she phrased it… her reasons for her pursuits weren’t that different from my own reasons for setting up the hotels and other social venues I had over the years. Creating something that contributed to the larger community. Offering people something they might not be getting elsewhere.
Although in my case I was mainly concerned with inhuman sorts of “people.”
“I hope I’ll get to see what kind of functional art you offer up to the world someday,” I said, keeping my tone languid but meaning it all the same.
“Yeah, well…” She swiped her hand across her mouth, her expression tightening again. “I’m trying not to think about that right now. Until it’s more possible again.”
The gloom that passed over her face spoke of the other things she was trying to talk about. The beings she’d have preferred were sitting across from her right now. Her fingers curled toward her palm as if she were imagining wrapping them around someone’s hand, and my jaw clenched.
I’d nudged her toward sending those three mutinous lackeys of mine away. She’d cared about them, and I’d used her caring to my advantage. But when I saw the pain from missing them rise up behind her eyes like it had just now, some small part of me wasn’t completely convinced I’d made the right call.
They’d been a distraction to her, and her to them. They’d also brightened her up in a way I hadn’t figured out how to replicate. Was she really better off for anyone’s purposes with that loss weighing on her?
I shoved those doubts away. She was mine, and sooner or later she’d figure out she wasn’t badly off like that. I could be patient. The rest didn’t matter.
Or it shouldn’t anyway.
Quinn seemed to shake herself out of her melancholy. She focused on me again, though the sadness still lingered at the corners of her mouth. “Were you just sightseeing, or did you find out anything useful off in Germany?”
“I determined that one of our sorcerer-killers isn’t a fan of any human, magical or not,” I said. “Which doesn’t bode well for this villainous duo’s ultimate plans. I suspect he ended up going across the ocean because his habits were becoming too well-known over here.”
“And have you figured out what he is?”
I dragged in a breath. Why should I keep avoiding the subject now that I was sure? It wasn’t as if she’d fully understand my trepidation over the fact anyway, from her mortal perspective.
“I’m now completely sure that it’s a behemoth,” I said. “Or rather, the behemoth, because as far as I know, the shadow realm has only ever spit out one of those.”
Quinn studied me. “And that’s bad, I take it.”
I gave her a thin smile. “It’s only one of the most powerful beings ever to exist, outside of the absolute Highest beings that never leave the shadows—and now for some reason it’s got a vendetta that’s put both of us right in its path.”