Elfhome

Yes, she could feel the twin pull on the Spell Stones. Was it a good thing that she couldn’t feel anything from the Stone Clan stones?

“Is Forge with them?” She was afraid of the answer. “Yes” would be worse than “no” because it meant Iron Mace acted alone. Oilcan trusted Forge. Normally Oilcan was a much better judge of people than she was. She sucked at it.

“N-N-No,” The marine stammered. “He returned to his enclave prior to the fighting.”

Tinker let the marine go and he nearly tripped backing quickly away.

Tinker moved through the crowd, grabbing Wind Clan laedin as she spotted them. The area was being flooded by royal troops and her people were increasing harder to single out. “Fan out.” She ordered each of them. “Find out if anyone saw the Stone Clan leaving my cousin’s enclave before the shooting started.” The last she told, “Have someone at Poppymeadow’s take you to the train station and see if the Stone Clan left on the train.”

As she turned to question Thorne Scratch in more detail, she realized that there was a sweep of movement that always preceded Prince True Flame. She didn’t want to talk to him; she wasn’t sure if she could do “polite” at this point. She wanted Windwolf there, making everything right, but today was determined to piss her off.

She remembered to bow in greeting. “The Stone Clan domana are working in collusion with the oni. The oni killed the tengu lookouts so the Stone Clan would take my cousin — mostly likely to spell-work him in secret — and in return, the Stone Clan left his children unprotected.”

Prince True Flame glanced back at the incoming gossamers. “You do not know if that is what happened.”

“What other possible answer could there be?” Tinker cried. “Elves would have used arrows to take out the lookouts. Even my people do not know how to use — use—” She ran into the lack of an Elvish word for the simple gun attachment. “Things that make rifles silent.”

“That is not proof that the Stone Clan colluded with the oni. The oni spawn and the tengu have been at war with each other.”

“That was resolved.” Riki’s High Elvish sounded perfect to Tinker, not that she was much of a judge, only spoken slow enough that she could follow the conversation. “The tengu that acted against the half-oni were punished and Jin apologized to the half-oni.”

Prince True Flame waved that aside. “Your sama has taken the proper action but there’s no telling what the oni spawn might do. They have no sama to take responsibility for their actions, so they can run amok at will.”

The prince didn’t know Tommy Chang if he thought that they had no sama, but she wasn’t going to be distracted by fighting that battle. “My beholden are dead and wounded, and my cousin is missing.”

“I understand.” True sighed and then surprisingly, went down on bended knee in front of her. It made her painfully aware of how very tall the prince truly was. They were now eye-to-eye. Around them was the subtle shift of Wyverns and her Hand to give them the illusion of privacy. “Beloved Tinker, I beg of you to consider Wolf’s position in this.”

It felt like a trick question. “He — He wants to protect my cousin as much as I do.”

“Yes, he does. He will fling himself off cliffs for you; that is why I ask that you consider his safety first.”

It still felt like a trick question. “Are you saying that I have to choose between Wolf and my cousin?”

“You are so blatantly human that I do not blame Wolf for never considering that you may be Stone Clan. No sane being would but war does not foster sanity. I love my cousin well. He came to court barely fifty, wise for his age, and yet modest for all his abilities.” True Flame measured off a size that was just a hair over Tinker’s head. It was intimidating to know that it had been hundreds of years since Windwolf was young enough to look her in the eyes. “Much as I love him, there is little I can do to protect him without endangering our hard won peace.”

“The clan wars are fresh wounds for most of our people. We have lost mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, lovers and children. There are those that will never let the war end and they are the ones that watch for any slight to excuse a new attack.”

A week ago she would have brushed it off, but she had seen how much the Wind Clan hated Oilcan’s kids just because they were Stone Clan. “You want me to just let them take my cousin?”

“Because Wolf took you as his domi and you have taken him as your domou then there is nothing that the Stone Clan can say. Your cousin is another matter. Forge lost so much and his grief made so public, that none would deny him comfort of an orphaned grandchild. If you block Forge, all will be against you, and by default, Wolf.”

“How can I just let them do whatever they want to my cousin?”