Chapter 21
After arriving back in Raveras, it took two days to get Belas Veld settled to Tristen’s content, and to convince her that, yes, her son did need to leave again right away, and no, she couldn’t come with him.
She’d only relented when Tristen had promised he would come back within a week.
Even so, they were leaving at an unscheduled time—Tristen had left Amelia with a letter for Belas—and now that the departure was upon them, Nyx was anxious his mother would show up out of the blue and derail everything.
Nyx paced Amelia’s reception room while Morgen walked Evra to the Station, since the needed to return via the ley lines so that her papers showed she had legally returned to Earth.
Once he returned, Nyx wasted no time in portaling them back to Earth between.
They arrived Hidden, as was her habit when portaling to Earth, because while few people ventured to the small section of Earth Between on the other side of the Station’s boundary, “few” wasn’t “none”, and she never wanted to risk being seen.
Unlike normal, she didn’t immediately drop that Hiding after verifying no one was in sight. A sense of unease crawled up the back of her neck and she scanned the Station’s exterior, searching for the cause.
Kaden came up next to her. “What is it?”
“I don't know. Something isn’t right.” She finally realized what it was. “Where's Temerex?”
“Maybe Griff has her inside?” Morgen offered. “Or perhaps Jevryn has returned.”
“Maybe.” If Jevryn was back, Tem would be plastered to his side whether he was indoors or out.
She took a step forward, but only one before she realized what else was wrong.
“The windows.” The every window facing the back, from the regular ones to the glass on the sliding patio doors, had turned to stained glass, impossible to see in or out of.
Nyx skirted the perimeter of the Station, and they arrived at the front to see the windows on that side were perfectly normal.
“That message couldn't be clearer,” Morgen said.
Tristen looked between them and the Station. “What message?”
“Arrive in plain sight from the front, so it looks like I’ve been in Earth Between. Someone’s in my Station who shouldn’t be.”
Nyx saw the moment Morgen realized Evra was inside the Station with that someone. “I know what you're thinking,” she said, “but she’ll be fine. She’s traveling legally.”
“What’s going on?” Tristen asked. “Who is in there?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t know. But I have two guesses on the latter question, and neither of them are good.
” Either Laiveran had returned, seeking Nyx and the Harvester, or there was a councilor in her Station.
“Here's what’s going to happen,” Nyx said calmly, a basic plan coalescing in her mind.
“We're going to walk down the hill so I can drop the Hiding on myself, so we can walk back here and look like I’m returning alone from Earth Between.” She turned to Tristen.
“Those controlling threads you saw when you looked through me to the Station? If one or more of them matches the people in the Station, could you cut the ones belonging to them?”
“I can try.”
“Then try.” She hesitated. She didn’t believe in coincidences.
Jevryn suddenly going off the radar at a pivotal moment and now someone—a councilor, in all likelihood—showing up at her Station?
Either the two were linked, or she had the universe’s worst luck.
If it was the former, it was possible Jevryn was inside.
And if Jevryn was inside, it brought up another problem.
“One more thing. One of those controlling threads might feel a little more like me than the others.
Don't cut that one, even if the person it belongs to is inside.”
“Your father’s, you mean?” Tristen asked.
“How did you—”
“Shaman, remember? I’m better than any paternity test.”
“Yes,” she said finally. “Don’t cut my father’s. And don’t cut the threads belonging to anyone who isn’t currently in the Station. You’ll bring them all here, and that’s not something we can handle.”
He studied her. “Those threads. They belong to the councilors, don’t they?”
No point in lying when it was obvious. He’d have put it together sooner if he hadn’t grown up in Dead Earth. “Yes.”
“And your father is one of them? Your father is a councilor?”
“Yes.”
His voice turned accusatory. “You said you grew up here.”
“I did. It’s a long story that we do not have time for right now because in all likelihood at least one councilor is inside with Griff and Temerex and Evra.
If cutting that councilor’s thread is going to be an issue for you, then I’ll send you back to Raveras.
If we live, I’ll come get you. In fact, that’s probably what you should do.
” It was safest, and didn’t risk him dying while she—hopefully—sorted this out.
He considered it, but then he shook his head. “I’m glad I found my mother, but I have no intention of living the rest of my life on Raveras if you die. I can’t travel the ley lines without revealing who I am.”
“Then you could stay out here and go back to Dead Earth if we never come out.”
“And have my mother think I died because I can’t get in touch with her? I’m not putting her through that.”
“It’s better than actually dying. And you don’t need to show identification to send a letter to another planet. Your mother can travel legally. She could come here.”
“Why are you trying to convince me not to go?”
“Because you aren’t accustomed to combat and I don’t want you to die. Why are you so dead-set on going?”
“Because if that is a councilor in there, I want to see them. They left me to rot in this place when my mother reported me missing. And I may not be combat trained, but your chances of survival go up with me in there. Because I can cut their ties to the Station, and I can kill them if I need to.”
If Tristen thought he was invincible, he was going to get himself—and possibly the rest of them—killed.
“Don’t think it will be that easy. These people have been alive for over nine centuries.
You are not the first person to think you could kill one.
You probably aren’t even the first Shaman to try it. They councilors are still here.”
“But you’ve killed one, haven’t you?”
To either side of Nyx, Morgen and Kaden tensed.
Tristen continued. “You told me you killed your uncle. I’m guessing it was on the paternal side. Because there’s a dead thread to that Station that feels nearly identical to your father’s.”
“Yes, I’ve killed one. And I nearly died doing it.
I only survived because I was related to him, because I possessed half of the soul of our dead planet at the time, and because all of my friends helped me.
I have no idea what the other councilors can do.
I am not arrogant enough to think they pose no danger to me when I know they pose a danger to my father, who is much stronger than I am.
“I would advise you not to be even more arrogant simply because you’ve been living in a world that is largely without magic, where you are the apex predator.
So come with us if you want. Help if you want.
I won’t deny you that agency. But do something stupid that is going to get my friends killed and I will lock you in a windowless room in the Station faster than you can blink. Am I clear?’
He didn’t answer.
“Am I clear?”
“Yes,” he said grudgingly.
“The same goes for you two,” she said, glaring at Morgen and Kaden. “Talking my way out of this is preferable, which means I am the only person they will see when we walk in, and none of you had better do anything to change that unless everything has already gone sideways. Got it?”
“Yes, General,” Morgen said.
She didn’t tell him where he could shove his Yes, General only because his voice contained a tense undercurrent of worry no doubt brought on by the fact that Evra was inside without him. “Kaden?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Good. Let’s get this over with.” The others trailed her as she walked out of sight to remove the Hiding on herself, leaving it intact over the rest of them.
Nerves fluttered in her stomach as they returned.
She was acutely aware of the others behind her, of Evra and Griff and Temerex trapped inside.
As soon as she crossed the boundary, she felt them—five people in the cafe area.
Her heart rate kicked up at the number. If half the remaining Council had come here...
She felt through Kaliaris’s senses as she walked, remembering how Jevryn’s presence in the Station felt—the weight and power of him, the way he seemed to eclipse nearly everything else.
Only one of the five within felt that way.
The others felt unusual, but they didn’t have the first one’s weight of presence.
A little more searching and she located Griff in the Arrival Room.
He was lying on his side, and she panicked before remembering that, now she was back in the Station, she would know if he were dead.
Sinking deeper into the Station’s senses, she felt the soft rhythmic exhale of his breath against the floor.
More importantly, she didn’t feel any liquid pooling onto that floor from his body. He wasn’t bleeding. He would be fine.
A nearby pressure from the ley lines was Evra trapped on the other side, with no one to let her through.
“Evra’s still stuck on the ley lines, so she’s safe for now,” Nyx reassured Morgen.
“Griff's alive but he’s unconscious. There are five more people inside, one councilor and four muscle. The other four are...different. They aren’t as old or as powerful as the councilor, but they don’t feel ordinary either. ”
She considered making the descent into A-Queltr, to have that defense ready, but discarded it almost immediately. She would have to let go of her connection to Kaliaris to enter and hold A-Queltr, and she needed her tie to Kaliaris.