Elfhome

“Pixel, sticks and stones, words will always hurt.”

“Broadcasting.”

Tinker shouted the command word for the spells scattered across the island. Her voice, amplified by dozens of hidden speakers, echoed up the river valley. There was a deep cough as the blast spell fired, and then a deep roar as flame engulfed everything.

“Incoming: rocket,” Pixel announced. “Impact in ten seconds. Nine. Eight…”

She snapped up a shield wall between her people and the hallway just as a rocket blasted away the door. Flames blossomed in a deafening roar. The kids all shrieked counterpoint.

The children were not part of the battle plan — beyond a vague idea that they would serve as bait. She needed to get them out of the war zone somehow — all of them — and that included Rustle.

Tinker shouted out the cancelation command of the spell on Rustle. Her voice echoed up all around, still broadcasted over the hidden speakers. The spell continued to blaze with impossible brightness. “Oh fuck!”

“What’s wrong, little princess?” An electronically scrambled voice mocked her from down the now darkened hallway. “Bite off a little more than you can chew?”

So they both needed time. Her shadow hadn’t expected her to be able to block that attack — and she wouldn’t have if she hadn’t realized her old numbering system allowed her to shortcut to spells she had memorized as a child.

It was a race now, but a race to what? What did her shadow need time for?

“Not as much as you have, Chloe!” Tinker shouted back, thinking frantically. She needed to get Rustle out of the spell and block whatever Chloe was about to throw at her. “I know it’s you. A pigtailed little girl, wearing pretty dresses, pretending not to be the monster that you really are! Nice cover, while it lasted. Too bad it’s over.”

“You were born on this island and you’re going to die on it.” Chloe used her own voice this time.

“Actually I was born at Mercy Hospital!” Tinker shouted back. “And if you were sure I was going to die here, we wouldn’t be having this conversation! You only talk when things don’t go as planned; when I’ve done something just so off the wall that even you couldn’t see it coming. I’ve figured something out about you: if you don’t understand what I’m doing, you can’t stop me.”

“What’s so hard to figure out? You just lost the child and you have no idea how to get him back.”

Tinker hated it when the bad guy was right.

“No, I haven’t lost him.” Just temporarily misplaced him. Hopefully. The spell was out of phase, but was reacting to music from the iPod. The dragon’s cast their spells via their mane. It was possible that the vibrating filaments set up harmonics that controlled their ability to phase in and out. Change the frequency and you can key into another universe.

When she applied magic to Rustle, she triggered his ability to step into another world. Oilcan was just going to kill Tinker. All she’d had to do was keep the kids safe…

And with that, Tinker realized why Chloe was there. What the whole mess was about. The Skin Clan had bred the kids, but they didn’t know how to “use” the kids. It was nearly as complicated as Oilcan and her trying to figure out the Spell Stones without knowing of their existence. The Skin Clan might have several hundred children tucked in the wings back in Easternlands, but no way to experiment on them safely.

But Tinker was a clever, clever little tool. You just had to be careful when applying her to any puzzle that she doesn’t figure out what you’re doing…

Close by, a Stone Clan shield flared across Tinker’s senses. One of the domana was about to join the battle. Since Tinker hadn’t passed out invitations, they were here on Chloe’s invite list, most likely under “secondary distraction.” If Tinker had to guess, it was Iron Mace closing fast.

“Get her!” Tinker dropped her shield and cast a force strike at the hallway to nuke it closed behind Chloe. “She’s going to try and run! Stop her!”

The collection of warriors let loose a thunderous volley of rifles down the darkened hallway. Note for future reference: elves will translate “stop her” to “try and kill the bitch.”

Try was the key word as Chloe came bounding down the hallway, twin daggers in hand, and dodging like a hyperactive ninja. All pretense of being human was gone; she snaked past Cloudwalker and Rainlily like they were standing still and mowed her way into the laedin.

Tinker backpedalled. This was going to be one of those times where it was a pain to be only five feet tall. She couldn’t unleash her attack spells without hitting her own people, which was probably why Chloe had closed on the warriors. If she tried to protect her people, they couldn’t attack Chloe. Iron Mace was incoming at a fast walk, destruction flaring on her magic sense, followed by the rumble of nearing explosions. Chloe only had to survive until Iron Mace smashed his way into the casting room, and then she could flee in the chaos.