Unless, of course, it was Liv.
“This may be a silly question.”The Dreamer halted, her skirt swirling.She favored tight leather bodices alive with subtle stampwork laced over linen shirts which could have been made from a Renaissance pattern.“But was there any indication before you left your previous temple thathehas any significant interest in her personally?”
“No, my lady.”Erik forced his shoulders back, settling into parade rest with something close to relief.At least this Dreamer knew how to handle his kind.“We found her by accident during city sweeps—my Younger and I, that is.”
“A frontline temple marked dead but somehow still surviving, speaking to a Control somewhere, receiving directions not to move her.And your Younger called in after the attack, but has not appeared since.”Sara folded her arms and tapped a well-manicured finger thoughtfully against her linen sleeve.“It’s all very odd.”
If that were all, I’d call it good.Not really, since losing Jake was an unpleasant thought, but if a Younger had arrived at another temple with a story to tell, the Sons there—not to mention thelirai—should have been all over the airwaves asking questions and looking for a lost potential.“It was odd before that, ma—I mean, my lady.We just didn’t know it.”
“Webeing…?”
“My younger and I, my lady.”Erik found his hands clasped behind his back, his chin level but his gaze down.“We ran sweeps while our Father stayed in the temple.It was just easier that way.He hadn’t left the walls for a long while, and the night we brought her home…” He was starting the story in the middle, mucking up any chance he had to be truly heard.What could he offer but a mass of inchoate suspicions?“It was the first time either of us had seen a potential since training at Belmont.And Control didn’t want to move her until after the solstice.We figured, you know, orders.And Father knew what he was doing.”
“You didn’t see a single potential all that time?”Sara spoke slowly, but he was willing to bet not a lot escaped her methodical calm.“And you were in Islington for how long?”
“Since ’54, my lady.”
“You’re right.Thatisstrange.”Sara studied him from top to toe, a thorough but benevolent inspection.“Daniel’s told you about unsealedliraibeing at risk?”
“Yes, my lady.”Erik debated tacking on the fact that other Sons had, too, and decided that if she wanted to know, she’d ask.
Keeping his mouth from running was always an Elder’s best strategy.
“And you haven’t…” Delicately, she trailed off.
“No, my lady.”
Sara clasped her hands.“Why not?”
“I was trained that consent matters, my lady.Especially in modern times.”Erik’s cheeks were hot.You couldn’t be angry at alirai.Maybe he was just embarrassed.“Any order to the contrary didn’t reach us in Islington.”
“Commendable, if not very effective.”Sara’s gaze was very much a Dreamer’s, thoughts moving behind a screen, sad and well aware of the price of her gifts.Soon Liv would look like that, too, though she probably wouldn’t dress like the other woman.He almost wished she would make another list of things for the Sons to run and fetch.It would be better than her fierce, fragile determination to fight.“Do you need a direct order?”
Erik’s lungs ached.He inhaled, and the fire in his cheeks was almost nuclear-hot.“Is that an order you’d give?”A heartbeat’s pause.“My lady?”he added, an afterthought.
“God’s wounds,” the Dreamer said, softly.“I hope not.”
The blond Elder was staring daggers at Erik; the dark one’s hand was cupped over hislirai’s shoulder, offering comfort—if there was any to be found.One of them probably had the hypo, and the queasy sensation that went through Erik when he thought of a needle piercing his ownlirai’s skin mixed with the heat suffusing his face and the tension in his shoulders.
There wasn’t a scratch on him from the night’s games, because he’d mostly been carrying Liv.And it was lucky that there had been other trios relatively close to the Pangborn building clearing out a nest oftaikflowers in the depths of a parking garage.They’d dropped their work and streaked back for theliraias soon as they realized something was amiss, arriving just as Dak and Robert were almost overwhelmed.
It did indeed seem like the Mad God had it in for Liv personally.Maybe he—or one of his subordinates—had figured out something that made potentials and unsealedliraieven more vulnerable?Innovation wasn’t confined solely to mortals.
It was a chilling, completely unwelcome prospect.
Finally, Sara shook her head.“This will not end well,” she said, quietly.“I gave up the hope of being better than what we fight long ago.I’ve settled for being fractionally less malignant, and it’s worked.Sort of.But I’m telling you, Elder,this will not end well.”
Don’t you think I know?Either he disobeyed his conscience or he was responsible for endangering hislirai.It was a no-win situation, as usual.“I’m doing all I can, my lady.”
“I know.We all are.”Her sigh, soft and impatient, brushed every surface in theliraim.“All right, you three.Hold still.”
Sara’s eyes half-lidded.The pulse ran through them all, a touch far lighter than Liv’s, and though you weren’t supposed to, Erik thought he preferred hislirai’s directness to this one’s flowery, ornate curlicues.Nevertheless, the heat was welcome and his weariness vanished; both Dakshi and Robert regained their color and stood a little straighter, all bruises gone, scrapes sealed, and bones whole again.
“There.”She set off for the door, her elders flanking her, and paused, her profile from some ancient Mediterranean coin.“Erik, is it?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“If you had to guess, which would you suspect?”Her mouth turned down slightly, bitterly; she didn’t like asking this question any more than he would enjoy answering it.“Your Father, or your Younger Brother?”
