Elfhome

Stormsong shook her head. “No, it didn’t. Forge could have taken Oilcan on the train. Do not worry, domi. The train goes only to Wind Clan holdings. We could use the distant voice to have them detained.”

Pony returned, anger clear on his face. “They did not leave Pittsburgh. Iron Mace’s Hand only has their primary weapons. Forge’s Hands took all their field weapons but their shipping crates are here.”

Obviously then, Forge hadn’t gone far but he didn’t plan to return soon.

Thorne Scratch came pushing her way through the Wyverns and Wind Clan forces, a lone black mote in the wash of blue and red.

“Where is my cousin?” Tinker cried. “Where is Forge and Iron Mace? Why wasn’t there anyone here with the children?”

Thorne Scratch blinked at her, confused and then looked up at the school and then back to the children. “They were here when I left. I was just down the street. Why would they leave?”

Tinker wasn’t going get anything useful out of Thorne Scratch. She snatched up her phone, praying that she hadn’t trashed yet another one. It was battered but workable.

She tried Oilcan’s number first. “Godzilla of Pittsburgh” started to play in the grass nearby. She let out a cry of hurt as she spotted Oilcan’s phone lying in the weeds.

Riki answered on the first ring. “How can I serve you, domi?”

“Tell me that you have eyes on Oilcan.”

“I did,” he said cautiously.

“Where is he?”

“I’ll find out.” Riki promised and hung up.

Thorne Scratch had snapped out of her dismay and had gone into fury. “That pig came to me as clan head. He pointed out that with three domana and three Hands of sekasha and the perimeter defenses nearly complete, that Oilcan’s enclave was by far the safest place in Pittsburgh. He asked me to go to the other enclaves and find out how many of our people are still in the city. He said that I should go because I would know all of Earth Son’s household who stayed and some of Jewel Tear’s. He made it sound so reasonable. He even suggested that Oilcan would be receiving the funds that the Wind Clan enclaves were receiving for housing our clansmen. Gods, he wove such a web, that I never once considered he had some other reason to see me gone.”

Iron Mace was the current Stone Clan head in Pittsburgh. Tinker had assumed Forge had taken Oilcan as a poor substitute for his lost son but Iron Mace? There was only one reason why a domana would send a sekasha away — and that was because he was about to commit acts that would turn them against him.

Tinker clenched her fist against the fear racing through her. “They wouldn’t hurt Oilcan — would they?”

“This is a war zone,” Pony said. “Protocol would be for Forge’s people to take their field weapons for any extended stay. A transformation spell, such as the one that Windwolf cast on you, would take hours to prepare and then days for Oilcan to recover.”

Forge had been in the city for days; he could have set the spell up already. Windwolf had cast the spell on her minutes after they arrived at his remote hunting lodge. Forge could transform Oilcan as soon as they reached the casting room. They had to find Oilcan quickly.

“Would Forge’s Hand even allow this — if Oilcan refused?”

Pony and Stormsong exchange bleak looks and then turned to Thorne Scratch.

The Stone Clan sekasha shook her head slowly. “They see him as a child. They believe he has a child’s grasp of time and ignorance of death. That he can call the Spell Stones is proof that he was born Stone Clan, despite all his protests. To — to transform him back to full elf would be returning to him what should have been rightfully his — if they had not failed Amaranth.”

#

There was flurry of wings and Riki winged down beside her. He sketched a bow, panting heavily. He was bare chested and innocent of war paint. One look at his face and she knew that he didn’t have good news.

“Someone took out all three spotters that we had watching this block.” Riki waved toward distant rooftops that had tight knots of tengu on them. “The shooters used high powered rifles. One of our people is dead. The other two are still alive but badly hurt.”

She should have heard the shots. The shooters must have used silencers. “Did they see Oilcan leave with the Stone Clan?”

“He and Iron Mace were at Sacred Heart. Forge was with Prince True Flame.”

It couldn’t have been just a coincidence that the spotters were shot just before Oilcan was whisked away. It terrified her that it was Iron Mace that spearheaded taking Oilcan and not Forge. Her only comfort was that Forge’s Hands had taken their backup weapons. But what if Forge had gone someplace on Prince True Flame’s bidding?

She grabbed a royal marine by the front of his uniform. He went wide-eyed as her act made him the collected focus of her entire Hand plus one. “Where’s Prince True Flame?”

“He and the Viceroy are providing cover for the ground crews and the incoming gossamers in case the fighting spills over to the airfield.”