Jo’s eyes went wide as she ran them over her hardware.
“Alex Younger knew Soul was missing,” I said. “Did he tell the arcenciels that she was taken from her home here? The Dark Queen has people who know people.” The result seemed to snap into place in my brain. “The military was banking on the possibility that the arcenciels would show up here to rescue their version of a leader.”
“Without the crystals, you can’t control them,” Rettell said. “And the only thing that hurts them is cold iron.”
Both women on the roof bent from the waist and placed their hands on the soil. The rooty place in my middle twisted. I grabbed my belly and stood up from the table and asked, “Tandy, are they afraid?”
“Yes,” he said, his eyes closing as he concentrated. “Very. And confused. And angry.” He tilted his head, his brows drawing down. “Their emotions are not like humans’. They feel spiny, volatile, the way a cactus made of spider fangs might. I’m getting the impression of…insecurity? Uncertainty?” He opened his eyes. “Soul’s emotions never feel this way. I’m wondering if they’re young. Teenagers?”
“FireWind, they seem to like my land,” I said. “May I suggest I go up there alone?”
“Proceed with caution, Ingram.”
“They aredangerous. I have cold iron.” Rettell pulled an iron blade from her duffel, which was still open on the table.
In a move faster than I could follow, Rick ripped it from her hand and stepped back. Seemed as if the wereleopard had regained his sensibilities. His black eyes were calm, if strongly focused on Rettell. “No,” he said. “You will not enslave anyone.”
I thought about the wives he had given freedom to. Yeah. I liked that about LaFleur.
“Ingram,” FireWind said. “Go. Take comms. Be careful.”
Leaving my weapon behind on the table, I stopped by my office cubby and pulled on my coat, hat, gloves, and comms set. I touched the mic on and said, “Jones, Ingram here. Acknowledge.”
“You are loud and clear, Ingram,” Jo said.
I picked up my potted tree and went to meet creatures who were possibly from an interdimensional universe. And teenagers. I thought of Mud and her unpredictability and belligerence.God help me.
I knocked on the door and pushed through. Stepped slowly onto the roof-porch. Let the door close behind me, locking me out. The snow had stopped, but the cold stole my breath, which came out like a cloud and caused my coughing fit to kick in again. “Sorry,” I said, coughing, trying to catch my breath.
The two women rose from my patch of soil and faced me as I coughed. They were woefully underdressed for the weather, though neither seemed to notice the chill. Both wore filmy, fluttery gowns in colors that matched their names and also the colors of their dragon shapes, the fabric moving in the slight breeze, their shoulders exposed. The flesh of the one called Pearl had a nacre-like sheen and her gown was a pale pinkish shade. Opal was dressed in a similar gown but of every shade of blue from nearly white to a hint of black, with a flash of pink in the folds.
When I stopped coughing, I said, “I’m Special Agent Ingram with the Psychometric Law Enforcement Division of Homeland Security, Unit Eighteen.” I stopped. I had almost saidWhat can I do for you?But that offer might be taken literally. Paranormalbeings didn’t view English the way humans did. “You are welcome here, on this roof.”
“You are a Keeper of the Trees,” Opal said. “We have heard of your kind from times past, though we are too young to have met one such as you. May I touch the tree you carry?”
“It may bite,” I said calmly. “I don’t know what your blood in its bark might do to you. Or to it. But I won’t forbid you to touch it.”
The two leaned to each other, their heads touching.
“We will not touch at this time,” Opal said, both of them standing straight. “We are young, but we have been deemed capable of learning, and therefore worthy to participate in human events and activities.”
“I see.” I didn’t, but I was listening.
“We have come to help locate and to rescue She Who Guards the Rift. We are trying the negotiation of words.”
Pearl said, “My sister is currently better at the negotiation than am I. I will kill you if need be.”
“I appreciate the…advance notice,” I said.
“We have tracked the trail of She Who Guards the Rift,” Opal said. “We saw many humans at the location where her trail ended. We no longer sense her, but she is not dead. She has not passed through the rift. Therefore we think she is in human form, not trapped in crystal, and is in danger.”
Pearl said, “In the matter of the negotiation of words. We will continue to search the air and the water of the rivers and the lakes to find her. If we are successful, we will contact you. If you are successful first, you will contact us.” She removed a bracelet cuff from her arm and extended it to me. “Wear this.”
The bracelet looked as if it had been formed in one piece from a huge pearl oyster. It glimmered in the dim light and I had a feeling that if T. Laine were here, she would see strong and amazing energies in a witchseeingworking. “Ummm,” I said.
There were lots of stories about people being captured by jewelry. I was not going to accept the bracelet if I could get out of it. “In the negotiation of words,” I said, choosing my own carefully, “it’s important for you to know that I’m not human. I hope you won’t take offense, but it’s worrying to me to put your…powerful communication device upon my arm. It might interfere with my own energies.”
The two women frowned, identical expressions, and leaned to each other again, touching heads at their temples. Pearl then bowed down to the enclosed bed of Soulwood soil and touched it. When she stood upright, she said, “We do not know how the energies of Special Agent Ingram, with Unit Eighteen of the Psychometric Law Enforcement Division of the Security of the Homeland, might conflict with ours. You have bested us in the negotiation of words.”
