Elfhome

They’d found out long ago that if they whispered without moving their mouths, their extra-sharp ears would pick it up without them being overheard.

“Move the warren,” Tommy whispered back.

“What about you?” Bingo asked.

“I’ll get them away from here so you can disappear.”

“Tommy…”

“Do it.” Tommy hissed.

Bingo hung his head and looked away.

#

All three TV channels had their news trucks outside of Ginger Wine’s smoldering enclave. Under bright mobile spotlights, the reporters were recording the human take on the night’s activities. They were making a big fuss over the fact that the dead oni were being stacked like cord wood on the curb. Didn’t they know that the oni fed their dead to their dogs?

Tommy used the brilliance and shadows to stay hidden from the reporters as he slipped through Ginger Wine’s front gate. A full battle had been pitched inside the enclave. Half the buildings were leveled, the ruins still smoldering. Empty bullet casings brightly littered the ground, and blood was sprayed across the walls. It was going to be hard to find anything useful in the rubble.

The elves frightened Spot. When Tommy put him down, the boy clung to Tommy’s hand. Spot was silent as usual but his solid amber eyes drank in every detail. The elves shied away from them, trying not to look at the boy’s short black fur, dog-like muzzle and long floppy ears. Spot had his mother’s sweetness; he didn’t deserve the frightened half-glances.

“We need to track the oni.” Tommy kept the anger out of his voice — it wasn’t the boy he was angry with. “You understand?”

Spot nodded wordlessly and crouched down to sniff at the gleaming wooden floors. Hands flat on the ground, he half-ran in circles around Tommy, trying to make sense out of the confusion of scents. Windwolf, Ginger Wine and the Viceroy’s bodyguard stood back, silently watching the boy track.

Spot picked his way through the maze of the enclaves. The oni had avoided the great inner courtyard, instead working their way through almost all of the back passages that the staff used to access the guest rooms. All but one of the dead elves had been killed unaware, not that it lessened the carnage done to their bodies. Oni were like sharks when it came to blood, once they smelled it they went a little mad. Unarmed members of the Ginger Wine’s staff and several of her laedin-caste guards had been hacked apart in hallways and public rooms. Eight of the sekasha been killed in their bedrooms. Obviously the oni had moved unseen and unheard through the enclave. No wonder the elves suspected him.

The boy suddenly veered off to a little back room stacked with baskets, rakes, and snow shovels. Tucked it the very back, hidden from a causal search of the room, was a bed complete with goose down pillows, silk sheets and rich wool blankets. Apples, keva beans, and smoked river shark had been squirreled in easy reach of the luxurious bed. Even Tommy’s weak nose could identify the musky scent of a kitsune.

“Chiyo was living here.” Tommy nudged two baskets that were lined with towels. “Looks like she planned to have her litter here. She’s got another week or two before she’s due.”

Ginger Wine gasped and dropped to her knees. “I didn’t know, domou. Please. I didn’t know.”

“You came to me with your concerns weeks ago,” Windwolf said. “I should have investigated. This is not your fault.”

Tommy locked down on a bitter laugh. The elves get completely forgiven for housing an oni — not even yelled at — but his entire family is blamed for something they had nothing to do with.

#

The moon was rising as Spot followed the track to the side gate that gave cars and horses access to a barn-like outbuilding. The boy lost the scent there.

“They probably had a truck waiting.” Tommy patted the boy on the head and gave him an apple stolen from the courtyard. “At sixty miles per hour, they could be anywhere in Pittsburgh by now.”

Prince True Flame huffed. “I think they will take her west. There are no spell stones there. She will be helpless, as will we.”

“I’m not leaving the city,” Windwolf said quietly. “They almost killed my beloved yesterday. Her arm is broken and she — nearly — helpless. The healing spells will keep her weak for days.”

“Your domi will be safe in the enclave.”

Windwolf stood firm. “I have given up three hundred thousand sen of virgin forest to the Stone Clan and what have they managed to do? Earth Son forced his Hand against him. Forest Moss has gone mad.” As if summoned by his name, the domana started to scream again. “And now this idiocy. A single ground scry would have picked up the kitsune. Three Stone Clan domana and not one checked the buildings they slept in? This is a war zone!”

“That is not how the Stone Clan will see this. They will see it as a failure on the Wind Clan’s part. You should have made sure that the enclave was safe.”

“You know that the wind scry couldn’t have found the kitsune. That was the whole point of requesting Stone Clan to send help.”