Elfhome

He hurried back to the small windowless safe room. He did a head count — five kids looking scared to hell — before shutting the heavy door and sliding the bars into place. Even through the thick walls, he could hear the muffled gunfire. And then there was a loud explosion that he could feel the earth underneath him shift. An explosion of that force would kill a sekasha regardless of their protective shield — and Thorne Scratch didn’t have a domana protecting her.

Oh, Thorne, he thought, be safe.

#

Hours passed. The night had gone silent.

Windwolf and Prince True Flame most likely won, but he didn’t know how to find out short of leaving the kids alone or waiting for Thorne.

And Thorne still hadn’t returned.

He hadn’t felt so helpless since hiding in the pantry, watching his father keen over his mother’s body.

23: Scissor Paper Stone

Two spells were woefully inadequate.

Or at least, two spells that Tinker didn’t know all the parameters for. The lack of control was driving her nuts. There was no time to even guess how to increase the size of the Stone esva shield since the gunfire required her to keep it up nearly constantly. The flame strike dealt out a satisfyingly massive blow of damage, but she was in the process of burning down Ginger Wine’s entire enclave. Felt like she should be shouting “Sorry!” every time she blasted another tight knot of oni.

The enclave was a pure chaos of bodies. The oni were taking advantage of the enclaves defenses, fortifying themselves behind stout doors and stone walls. Stone Clan forces — alarmingly only laedin-caste — seemed unsure if they should be escorting their unarmed clansmen to safety or be attacking the oni. They careened around the enclave, randomly chasing or fleeing the oni.

“Where are hell are the Stone Clan sekasha?” Tinker carefully picked her way over the smoldering rubble. There should be sliced and diced oni someplace in the enclave as the sekasha kicked collective butt.

“The oni must have taken them by surprise.” Pony said. “It is the only reason the oni would still be alive.”

“They’re all dead?”

“Those you saw die, those were probably not the first to die, they were last.”

She shifted sideways hurriedly to protect a knot of Ginger Wine’s staff from machine gun fire. “Go! Get to Poppymeadow’s.” She was too late to save the sekasha but she could make sure everyone else got out safe.

They pushed forward, driving the oni back and freeing the elves that been trapped behind them. Since she was dropping her shield to cast the flame strike, her Hand scattered evenly around her, so their shields would protect her from stray gunfire. It made her nervous, so she blasted away without mercy or regard to the property damage she was causing.

They reached the far corner of the enclave and discovered that the handful of oni they’d been chasing had backed into a dead end. The sekasha leapt forward, a whirlwind of blades, and moments later she was surrounded by dismembered bodies.

“They weren’t the main force.” Pony growled. “They were just a distraction.”

“They took Jewel Tear out another way.”

#

Tinker felt like she was nine years old when Prince True Flame and Windwolf appeared. There she was, surrounded by the burning rubble of Gingerwine’s enclave, with no rescued Jewel Tear to show for all the destruction.

“Beloved,” Windwolf ignored the ruin to focus on her. “Are you hurt?”

And that’s one of the reasons she loved him so much. He understood the important part of this mess. “No.” She dropped her shield, suddenly feeling bone weary, and let him wrap his arms around her. It felt wonderful to lean on his strength, knowing he would make everything right.

Obviously the prince wasn’t going to ignore the fact she just leveled an enclave. He was staring down at her with an odd expression. “She was maintaining a Stone Clan shield.”

As Stormsong had pointed out with her limited edition T-shirt, things wear out. Usually not so spectacularly…

“My right hand is broken.” Tinker offered as an excuse.

Windwolf tightened his hold on her. “The Wind esva doesn’t have shields cast by the left hand.”

“It was Stone Clan esva.” True Flame’s tone demanded an answer.

Oh gods, all this burning rubble and dead bodies, and they were going to argue about that? “One of my ancestors was an elf. Apparently he was a Stone Clan domana.”

The prince glared at Windwolf. “You changed the domana of another clan?”

If Tinker hadn’t been pressed against him, she would have missed Windwolf’s anger. He stood quietly, only the tension of his body betraying him. Finally he calmly said, “Her grandfather died of old age before he was out of his doubles. If I hadn’t changed her, she would have had the lifespan of a human.”

“She was a child of another clan.” True Flame stressed the word “child.”

“She was an adult by human counting.” Wolf snapped. “Her family made no attempt to contact the Stone Clan. The ties were severed.”