Page 75 of Ryld's Shadows
Chapter Sixteen
“It’s really not my fault this time, Tenzi.” Kai clung to his husband’s furry arm as they picked their way down the hill to the tents AURA had set up as a mobile command center.
Tenzin sighed and caught Kai when he stumbled. “Playing hero againisyour fault. You could have called for backup without alerting the child thieves.”
“We still thought Jessamine was thegoodqueen, though. More personnel would have been in danger,” Kai tried to argue and stopped at a glare from Tenzin. “I’m sorry, beloved. Truly, I am. I did think I had this under control. Up to a point, it was.”
“I suppose you couldn’t anticipate a curse stone.” Tenzin gave up on trying to support him and scooped him up to carry him the rest of the way. “Your poor hand won’t be usable for some time. The stone dug down into the bones and crushed some of them.”
A wave of nausea threatened, and Kai swallowed hard. “I’m not certain I can talk about this first thing in the morning.”
He didn’t want to think about the hand at all. Wrapped up tight and numbed with whatever anesthetic Medical had brought with them, it only ached a bit, and if no one mentioned it, he could pretend it wasn’t there.
Tenzin took him into the largest tent where half the flaps had been rolled up to let in a cross-breeze. He set Kai down on a pillow-covered lawn chaise beside a computer station, though it was obvious Kai wasn’t supposed tousethe computer since his assistant Mindy had takenthatchair. Frustrating.
“Hey, Mr. H.” She greeted him with a cheery wave. “Good to see you up. You sure you should be up?”
“Don’tstart,” Kai tried out a snarl, but it sounded tired. “Is the team here?”
“Yep. All here. Vicki was super excited about ‘porting. Jordie threw up. They’re helping social services with sorting the pixie kid names until they get assignments from you.”
Kai eased his no-longer-cursed hand into his lap, wincing.Fine. Perhaps it did hurt a bit. “Good. I want Sterling and Vicki to go out to the flower fairy glade. Have them explain to the queen how her fairies were being replaced with changelings, and I need them to search for spells surrounding the glade. They’re most likely subtle, but there must be compulsions keeping the fairies in such a small space.”
“Got it.” Mindy tapped away on the computer as he spoke. “Sterling sends a roger on that.”
“Please tell me he did not sayroger.”
Mindy snickered. “Just an expression, Mr. H.”
“Ha. If I say I missed you, will it go to your head?” Kai waved off her laugh and continued. “Rudy and Terrence, send them up to the orphanage to record the names of every child still there.”
“Isn’t that a social services issue, love?” Tenzin murmured without looking up from the oximeter he’d attached to Kai’s good hand.
“Social services are swamped, and we need to get lists in place to determine which children are actually missing, which need to be returned to parents in Pixieland, and which are truly orphans.” Kai closed his eyes, trying to keep all the pieces in line. “Who’s in charge at the orphanage now?”
“It’s that Albright woman still.” Mindy set a pile of paper reports in his lap, presumably because he would be tempted to do too much if someone, Great Mother forbid, gave him a tablet. “Captain Hartgrove says he’s confident that she wasn’t involved in the trafficking. It doesn’t sound like she was great at her job, letting kids go missing, but as he said…” She lowered her voice in a ridiculous imitation of Val. “Incompetence does not equal malicious intent.”
Kai held back a laugh, barely. “Very good. I want Jordie with the enforcement officers, helping them track down who else was involved, starting with who was doing the orphanage’s accounting.”
“Sent and sent. Good to have you back, Mr. H.”
Tenzin handed him his reading glasses, the ones he needed in the daylight when his eyes were tired—and where Tenzin had dugthoseup, Kai couldn’t imagine—and Kai began slogging through the reports.
Flax was leading the officers hunting the forest for aelfe. While the majority of the court was most likely not involved in illegal activity, theyallneeded to be brought in for questioning. The kitchen staff and palace servants had come in on their own and were being most cooperative, especially Hank’s little informant friend, who was singing his head off, apparently.
Information from his statement had been sent to the human police departments nationwide to assist in tracking down the human buyers, and hopefully the children from there.
Lady Jessamine was in magically blocked custody. She refused to say anything until an advocate could arrive to represent her. In a grim sort of way, Kai didn’t blame her. The list of charges was longer than Tenzin was tall and included conspiracy to commit murder.Thatwould put her in the human system upon conviction. Not a good place for elves, human prisons, but somehow Kai couldn’t muster any sympathy.
Yarrow and Yew—likewise uncooperative so far, though in Yarrow’s case, the reports put his uncommunicative state down to traumatic shock. Eyewitness accounts said the brothers had tried to banish Ryld’s dragons with light spells and had nearly been eaten. Yew just glared at everyone and wouldn’t speak at all.
Social services did have their hands full with Pixieland. There were ongoing negotiations with the unofficial pixie leaders about what should happen there, from relocation for those who wanted it, to better housing and employment for those who wanted to stay. Kellen and Sin had been assigned there temporarily since not having a pixie present could have been disastrous and Sin… Well, Sin was just naturally charming and had brought cases of honey for the kids suffering from malnutrition. Certainly didn’t hurt.
For being on the other side of a continent from their home, everyone was remarkably well organized and there wasn’t much more for Kai to do for the moment. He couldn’t think of anything he was forgetting.
He looked up from the report he was reading as someone approached. Sean Dove-Feather looked every inch the pixie warrior that morning. His dark red hair was braided back from his face in two plaits, and he wore a short clout and a boiled leather vest that tied around his neck and waist, leaving his back bare for his wings. He carried a slender spear in one hand and both his wings and body were painted in a complicated design of whorls and lines in shimmering pixie dust. If Kai hadn’t known better, he would have guessed an Event had just dropped him into this world.
“Well met, Kai Hiltas.” He nodded at the others politely. “There is a young pix by the name of Kellen that sent me your way. He said you might know best the channels to take to have AURA redesignate Elvenhome so that elves, pixies, goblins and fairies each have an equal stake in the land here.”
