Blood Challenge

THIRTY-ONE

WHILE they waited for Benedict and Arjenie to rejoin them, Lily took another cup of that coffee Isen had been waving around. And argued with Cullen.

“In learning mindspeech,” Cullen insisted, “you must have learned how to turn off the main function of your Gift.”

“No.” Lily looked over her shoulder. Benedict and Arjenie came in, holding hands again. Well, she knew how comforting that could be, and it looked like Arjenie needed the comfort. She was still pale. “You okay?”

“No,” Arjenie said, circling the table to return to her chair. “I mean yes, I’m okay in the not-falling-apart sense, but I might fall apart again.” She sighed. “There’s a reason I never tried to be a field agent. Even if I could have made it through the training with my …” She shot Benedict a glance. He was holding her chair for her. “With my physical limitations, I wouldn’t have been a good agent. I scare too easily.”

“It would have been a waste,” Cynna announced. “You’re a top-notch researcher. You love research. Why would you want to be an agent?”

Arjenie smiled ruefully and sat. “Why did you?”

“I didn’t. I wanted to help people. To Find people who were missing. The rest just sort of happened.”

Lily waited until Benedict sat, too, then said, “Arjenie, I want to try to do the mindspeech thing again. Or kinspeech. Whatever we call it, it’s pretty intrusive. Are you willing?”

“Do you think it’s safe?”

“We were just talking about that.” She glanced at Cullen. “There’s a problem with both the theories I’ve heard. They don’t explain how something magical could affect me in the first place.”

Surprise lightened Arjenie’s expression. “Of course. You’re a sensitive. Magic shouldn’t hurt you, should it? But somehow it did.”

Cullen shook his head. “Because she’s doing things with it she couldn’t do before. Lily, it seems obvious that when you use your Gift differently, it leaves you less than completely impermeable to magic. Most Gifts aren’t stuck in the ‘on’ position, after all. Cynna doesn’t Find things unless she looks for them. I don’t spray fire around all the time. Arjenie isn’t using her Gift now, so we all see her. You must be—”

“No,” Lily said again. “There’s a lot I don’t know about my Gift, but I’m clear on one thing. I can’t turn it off. It isn’t like those shields of yours—and that’s what Sam says, not my own, uninformed opinion.”

Cullen scowled at her. “Explain your headache, then.”

“The only way I can see for magic to hurt me is if it’s my magic.”

Cullen’s scowl slid into a frown—a thinking sort of frown, not the angry sort. That was one of his saving graces. Cullen might argue at the drop of a vowel, but he didn’t take offense if you disagreed. He just kept arguing … unless he decided you had a point. He was capable of turning around and agreeing with you, because getting it right was more important to him than being right.

“I don’t see it,” Cynna said. “I don’t see how your magic could be doing a number on you. It sure looks like it was Arjenie’s magic that did it.” She shrugged. “But then, I don’t get mindspeech.”

Cullen spoke slowly. “What you did to the Chimei last month …”

“Yes?” Lily wished she could use mindspeech right then so she could think “shut up” at him. She didn’t want him to mention her ability to soak up someone else’s magic.

Either he got the warning, or he was tactful, for once. “In a way, that’s a logical extension of your Gift. You soak up magic. Normally you absorb such a tiny mote of power that the loss isn’t noticeable. Your Gift translates that mote into your own form of magic—and in the process, gives you information about what you touched. You experience that information as a tactile sensation.”

“Yeah,” she said, not seeing where he was going.

“Mindspeech doesn’t fit with that model—”

“I noticed that.”

“—unless we stipulate that receiving thoughts is simply another way of experiencing information. Thought and magic are closely linked.”

Lily’s brows drew down. “I almost understood that.”

“I think I get it,” Arjenie burst out. She looked at Cullen. “It’s the ‘thought given form’ dictum you’re thinking of, right?”

His eyebrows lifted. “That’s right.”

Arjenie turned to Lily, her thin face alight with enthusiasm. “It’s a Wiccan teaching. Spells are ‘thought given form.’ By that we mean the caster’s intent is translated into an external statement using spell components, but the spell can’t function unless the caster’s thoughts are aligned with the statement of the spell. Which means, basically, that you can’t cast a spell that doesn’t make sense to you. But some take the expression farther. They believe that thoughts are part of the statement, just as much an external component as a sprig of rue.”

“I’m sorry,” Lily said, “but if that was supposed to explain something, I’m missing it.”

“It’s the difference between thoughts happening strictly inside our heads or being somehow ‘out there’ as well, like radio waves. Though I don’t think radio waves are a good model because that’s a space-time phenomena and I’m not sure—”

Benedict laid a hand over Arjenie’s. “Later, perhaps, for that.”

“Oh. I suppose so.” She looked at Lily earnestly. “If this model is accurate, thoughts are always external as well as internal, and mindspeech would be a sort of magical translator. Like your touch sensitivity, it soaks up a bit of something that’s out there and puts it in a form your brain understands. Only instead of tactile sensations, you get words. So it would be your magic giving you the information, not mine.”

“Okay,” Lily said slowly. “But that doesn’t explain two things. Sam sends as well as receives thoughts. If mindspeech just translates external stuff, how could he do that? And I still don’t see why really loud kinspeech would give me the mother of all headaches.”

Cullen shrugged. “I can’t answer your first question. I could speculate, but not helpfully. But as for your headache … we don’t really understand what happens in the brain when we think, but we know it involves electrical impulses and the way neurons fire together. I’d guess the ‘really loud kinspeech’ used your own magic to create new neural pathways in a really loud way.”

That didn’t sound good. But Nettie had said she was fine. She felt fine.

“The point is, if that’s the correct model for what happens when you touch Arjenie, it won’t be dangerous for you to try again. You might not be able to repeat what you did earlier, but there wouldn’t be any danger in trying.”

“Glad to hear that,” she said, “because clearly I have to try.” She looked at Rule. “If it hurts, I’ll stop. Promise.” Their eyes met. For a second her mind went light and dizzy in an echo of that free-fall moment when the mate bond had first clicked in place. It was like having your skull vanish. It came back, but for a second, it wasn’t there.

Rule smiled, his eyes swimming in mystery as if he’d felt it, too. “Nadia.” He touched her cheek. “I accept your promise.”

Lily nodded, swallowed, and held out her hand to Arjenie.

Slowly Arjenie reached across the table and clasped it.

… wish I could tell them! The …

She had it. Then she didn’t. This time, though, Lily didn’t try harder. She didn’t try at all. Instead she breathed slowly and thought about candle flame and skin, about the cool, complex feel of Arjenie’s magic. “I’m not getting much, but I got something,” she murmured. “I’m going to ask questions. Answer out loud when you’re able to. And, ah, think softly. Don’t put any power into it, okay?”

Arjenie’s smile sketched uncertain agreement. She added a nod to that.

“Why do you believe Robert Friar is a Listener?”

“Someone told me.” Dya warned me when she called. Wish I knew how she could do that, if it was magic or… snuck into his house? but she … Friar can Listen across the country, she said. Be careful. There wasn’t time to … worried about her. If he …

“I know you can’t talk about Dya. Think about her—who she is, how you know her.”

She’s my sister. That arrived as clearly as spoken words, but trailed a confusing mélange of thoughts and memories. Something to do with Dya staying with Arjenie when Arjenie was young. Staying up talking and talking all night. Love you, little fox. Their father didn’t want Arjenie talking about Dya … didn’t want Dya put to the tears so young …

“Your father brought Dya to you.”

Yes, he wanted them to wait a few years before they gave her the tears. Her elders didn’t agree and the contract … she’s a professional daughter, not like me, but the contract doesn’t … it’s the best thing I know of him, that he wanted to … the tears. I hate them. Addict their daughters on purpose so … her duty, but she’s so different but I …

“These tears are an addictive substance.”

She goes crazy without them. Brain damage that can’t be healed and that’s how Friar controls her but she thinks he’s broken contract which is a very big deal to the Binai but Queens’ Law even bigger I don’t know …

Little by little, Lily pulled together the story. Arjenie was thinking in sentences more often this time, aware that Lily was “hearing” her and trying to be clear, but it was still nothing like the crisp mindspeech Sam used. Plus Lily’s ability faded in and out, and she had to go back and ask again. And again.

“But you believe Dya could have crafted such a potion. One that would cause a heart attack.”

Oh, yes, humans are easy to … Binai make incredibly sophisticated potions that can’t be detected … why they’re feared and coveted says her people couldn’t survive without … but her lord holds her contract don’t know what realm he’s in but sure not here don’t see how Friar got hold of it. Of her.

“I have an idea about that.” Lily was vaguely aware of her head throbbing and wished she could rub her neck, but she needed her one useable hand to … oh. Shit.

She looked at Arjenie, who was thinking about a complex jumble of rules called Queens’ Laws, then at Rule. And sighed. “I’m getting the beginning of a headache. It feels like a normal headache, nothing spooky, but I promised.” She let go of Arjenie’s hand.

The sudden silence in her head was wonderful. Did Sam pick up everyone’s mental chatter all the time? Surely not. She’d ask, though.

“Lily?” Rule looked worried.

“It’s a tension headache.” She could feel the tightness all across her shoulders and neck and scalp. “I’m okay. Now,” she said, looking around at the others. “You probably picked up some ideas from what I asked, but with lots of gaps. Plus we jumped around some. I’ll see if I can put it in order.

“The binding is all about Dya. Dya is Arjenie’s half sister, and the result of a contract job for Eledan. Her other half is Binai, a non-sidhe race who live in one of the sidhe realms. When Arjenie was fourteen, Eledan showed up suddenly with Arjenie’s half sister in tow. She’s small enough for him to take with him when he crosses, apparently. He wanted Arjenie’s family to keep Dya for a while.

“Eledan explained that Dya’s people—her elders—wanted to start her on something called the tears. Eledan thought she was too young for that. Ah … I didn’t understand all of this, but there was something about a contract that allowed him to negotiate for Dya. Or maybe he could do that because he was her father. Anyway, when Arjenie’s aunt and uncle learned what the tears were like, they agreed. Dya stayed with them for over a year. She learned our language and other Earthly things—like how to use a phone.

“That’s how she contacted Arjenie about a week ago. Friar is keeping her at a little guest cottage behind his house. She’s sort of on loan to him—there’s a big-deal sidhe lord who holds her contract.”

“What does this contract cover?” Isen asked.

Lily shrugged. “Arjenie doesn’t know specifics. She believes the Binai hold contracts as sacred, inviolable. Um, when I asked, she thought that the closest analogue we have would be the kind of contracts signed by indentured servants back when we were a colony, only a lot more important. Anyway, Dya managed to make a phone call to Arjenie, who flew out here to see her, but secretly. Arjenie’s afraid of what Friar would do to Dya if he found out. The night Benedict ran into Arjenie at Friar’s was the first time she’d seen her sister since she was sixteen. They talked. Dya gave Arjenie the two potions and told her what to do with them.”

“And these potions were supposed to do—what?” Isen asked

“One was to nullify Arjenie’s scent, so she wouldn’t leave a scent trail. The other … Dya called it an undoer. Supposedly it would undo any other potion she’d made—and one of her potions had already been dumped into Nokolai’s water supply.”

Benedict made a small sound. Lily paused, giving him a chance to speak, but he waved for her to continue. “I wondered about that. If Friar is one of her agents, he couldn’t come into Clanhome without the Rho and the Rhej being aware of it. Or something like that. Or so I’ve been told?”

Isen answered. “You were told correctly. If Friar has been touched—changed—by her, the mantle would react to his presence on Clanhome. But he could send someone who didn’t bear her taint. Most or all of his people probably don’t.”

Arjenie spoke for the first time in quite awhile. “Mantle? What’s a—”

“Later,” Benedict told her.

Mantles were not to be spoken of around out-clan … but a Chosen was clan, even if she didn’t know it yet. Lily felt a pang for all Arjenie had yet to learn, but went on. “It seems that Dya’s people, the Binai, are famous for their potions. I get the idea there aren’t many Binai, and the ones who can make top-grade potions are rare. They don’t make them in the usual way, though. The women—only the women—manufacture them in their bodies. They can do this because of the tears. The Binai have this gland that makes a nasty poison like a snake’s venom. The tears change them, body and brain, so they can control what kind of substance they excrete, tailor it and give it magical properties. But they also render the Binai permanently dependent. Dya has to receive the tears daily. Friar controls her supply.

“These potions are special. Highly targeted. They—the Binai—are used as healers sometimes, and for other things, but most of all—well, the potions are undetectable once they’ve done their work. That makes them the best damn poisoners in the business.”

“Ruben’s heart attack,” Cynna said.

“Oh, yeah.” Though proving it was going to be one helluva challenge.

“And the first potion someone emptied into our water?” Isen said, his voice dropping to a growl. “What was it?”

“Dya wouldn’t tell Arjenie what that one was supposed to do, just that it would be very bad. She—Arjenie—thinks it had to reach critical mass before it took effect. People had to drink the tainted water for several days for enough of the ‘very bad’ potion to build up in their bodies before anything happened. Arjenie emptied the undoer into the well nearest the road before the bad potion took effect. She’s certain there’s no danger from the original potion now.”

Lily glanced at Arjenie, who was silent and tense. “Arjenie wanted me to tell you that her sister isn’t evil. She’s constrained by her contract to do what Friar wants. She’s been taught from infancy that contracts are inviolable. She’s also been taught that providing a weapon is not the same, morally, as using a weapon. If wrong is done by Friar, that’s on his head, not hers. Plus, of course, Friar has the tears.”

Silence. Rule broke it to say, “You believe what she’s told you. Or thought at you, I suppose I should say.”

Lily hesitated. “I don’t know if it’s possible to lie in this kind of mindspeech. It isn’t like when Sam talks to us. Arjenie’s thoughts trail all this—this stuff along with them. Not feelings—I don’t pick up those. More like snatches of memory and meaning. I think if she tried to lie with her thoughts, the trailing stuff would tip me off.”

“That’s a yes, then,” Cullen said. “Next question. How do we get Dya away from Friar?”

“Oh,” Arjenie said. Her eyes filled. “Oh.”

Lily didn’t want Arjenie thinking it would be that simple. “We can’t just rush in and grab her. We don’t have cause for a warrant yet.”

Isen smiled. “You would need a warrant. We do not.”

“Don’t say stuff like that.” Lily dropped her head and ran her hand through her hair. “Look, Arjenie isn’t sure Dya would even come with us if we tried to smuggle her out. Even if we got the tears, too—and we’d have to—Arjenie doesn’t know if Dya would leave because of the contract. She’s got a different set of ethics and imperatives than we do, and we can’t assume she’d do what looks logical to us. Plus Dya doesn’t think she’s in danger, so we’ve got time to do this right. Right means more than getting Dya away from Friar. It means stopping him. To do that, we need evidence. I’ve got some ideas about that.”

“Yet Dya acted against her contract already, didn’t she?” Rule said. “When she sent Arjenie with the, ah, undoer, surely that was a contract violation.”

“Dya thinks Friar’s broken something called Queens’ Law, which would invalidate the contract. It’s complicated, and no, I don’t know what this Queens’ Law is.”

“I can talk about that,” Arjenie said, leaning forward. “Not that I know much, but Eledan did teach me the basics. The sidhe have lots of rulers, but the two Queens are over them all. The Queens outlaw the seriously bad magical stuff: death magic, binders—um, that doesn’t mean regular binding spells, but something much worse—genocide, the two banned Names and the three banned Words … not that I know those names or those words. I don’t know what the last one means, either: interfering with the dead. Eledan shuddered when I asked and told me to wait until I was older.”

Isen and Rule exchanged a look. “Genocide,” Isen said thoughtfully.

“Very likely,” Rule agreed. “If Friar is working for her. She wants us dead.”

Arjenie shivered. “All of you? That’s … hugely bad.”

Lily agreed, but they needed to get back on topic. “The first thing we have to do is figure out how to get word of this to Croft or Karonski. Karonski’s heading the investigation into the attack on Ruben. He and Croft both need to know what we’ve learned, but we can’t call them. Not if Friar can potentially listen at their end. I’m not sure if e-mail is safe. If whoever tried for Ruben can—”

“No,” Benedict said, “the first thing we need to do is to make sure Dya is still there and okay. Then we can ask her if she’d come away with us once we secure her supply of these tears.” He looked at Isen. “I’m thinking Seabourne.”

Isen nodded. “Give him Danny for backup. He’s almost as fast and he knows the terrain well.”

Benedict turned to Arjenie. “Dya will need some reason to listen to Seabourne. Please give me your ring.”

Arjenie rolled her eyes. “That’s an order with ‘please’ tacked on, but at least you’re trying.” She pulled the ring off and handed it to him.

“Lily.” While Benedict gave Cullen instructions, Rule leaned close, his voice low. “I’m thinking of Raymond Cobb.”

“What? Oh. Oh, shit.” She rubbed her neck. She should have thought of that. “It’s possible, isn’t it? He was at a public party, drinking a Coke or something. It would have been simple enough for someone to dose him with a potion.”

“It would explain why he suddenly went insane. Why it looked and felt much like falling into the fury, but wasn’t.” His voice even softer, he added, “I’m wondering if Cobb was a test. A test of the dose and effectiveness.”

“Jesus.” She shivered. “If that’s what the potion Arjenie countered was supposed to do to every lupus at Clanhome … but how did they know he was lupus?”

“Friar keeps files on us. It’s one of the things he uses Humans First for—to assemble files on known and suspected lupi. Cobb only had to slip up once in front of the wrong person to give himself away.”

It made a horrible sort of sense. Friar would have wanted to try out his potion, see what it did. Why Cobb, out of all the lupi in the country? Maybe he was simply convenient. Maybe Friar had an agent in place in the city—like whoever had shot her—and Cobb hung out with humans often enough to make it easy to dose him.

Cullen shoved back from the table. “Got it,” he told Benedict and bent to give Cynna a quick kiss. “Don’t go into labor.”

“Yet,” she said. “You need to put ‘yet’ on the end of that sentence. I have every intention of going into labor, just not tonight.”

He grinned, ruffled her hair, and left.

“Now that the first thing’s been dealt with,” Lily said dryly, “let’s move on to the second thing. How do we let Croft know about Friar’s guest and her capabilities? E-mail’s safer than phone, but I’m not sure it’s safe enough. We don’t know who at the Bureau is a traitor. We don’t know if Friar has a means of hacking into the system, either. We may need to send someone to report in person.”

“Someone from the local FBI office?” Rule asked. “Or someone from Nokolai?”

Arjenie jumped in, her face lighting up. “I could do it. It wouldn’t look odd if I cut my vacation short by a couple days, not with everything that’s going on. It would have to be a written report, of course, but if you gave me a written report, I could deliver it.”

Lily hesitated. If she said no, Arjenie would think they were back to distrusting her. But she couldn’t go jetting across the country. Not without Benedict. Lily met the young woman’s eyes. “I’m not sure a written report is the best way to go.” And Benedict needs to tell you about the mate bond really, really soon.

Arjenie’s eyes widened. “Ohmygosh. That was so weird. What’s a mate bond?”