Elfhome

“It’s just the children.” Oilcan shifted between the warriors and the hallway.

Red Knife gave a dry laugh. “Your family’s courage is disproportionate to your size.”

“Courage comes from the spirit, not the body.” Oilcan said.

Red Knife nodded at the truth. The Wyvern First came to tower over Oilcan again. “How old are you?”

Oilcan learned a long time ago not to tell elves his age. A human never lived long enough to seem to be anything more than a child. “I’m an adult.”

“That isn’t what I asked.” There was no mistaking the edge on the Wyvern’s voice despite the politeness of the High Elvish.

Thorne Scratch gave her head a nearly imperceptible shake, telling him not to annoy the Wyvern.

Oilcan gritted his teeth and confessed. “I’m twenty-two years old.” It made him basically about five years old in elf terms.

Red Knife scoffed, murmuring, “Just a baby.” He glanced down the hall again at the children cowering there. “Babies taking care of babies.”

“I am an adult now.” Oilcan stated. “My family is no longer immortal. I will not live beyond my doubles.”

“And yet you can tap the spell stones.” Red Knife shook his head and then turned to Thorne. “Stay with him until someone sane from your clan can decide what is to be done.”

#

“What’s happened?” He asked after the other sekasha had left.

“They’re dead. The oni killed them all.” Thorne said bleakly. “They took Jewel Tear. Forest Moss is not currently lucid.”

The gunfire had been part of a massacre. Elves that Thorne had known for hundreds of years had been cut down in the battle.

“I’m so sorry.” Oilcan said. “But I don’t understand how this relates to me.”

“If you can tap the Stone Clan Spell Stones, then you are Stone Clan domana.”

“No, I’m not.”

“You are the only functioning Stone Clan domana in Pittsburgh at this moment.” Thorne Scratch continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “You are head of the clan.”

“No!” Oilcan caught her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. “Look at me! See me! I’m human!”

She studied him hard with her warrior mask on, but then she let the mask drop. She stepped forward and pressed her forehead to his. “I see you.”

26: Providence

“Domi,” Pony woke Tinker in full dark. “The tengu have come to speak with you.”

She flailed in bed, momentarily confounded by darkness and the fact that her right arm was bound tight to her side. “Which ones?”

“It is Jin Wong.” Pony helped her sit up. “And I believe he has brought his entire household.”

Surely Pony wasn’t right; Jin’s entire household was all twenty thousand tengu.

“In the middle of the night?”

“You wanted to talk to them.”

She did? It took her a minute to remember that when they were splinting her arm, she had told Riki that that she wanted to ask him about greater bloods. Apparently Riki decided that Jin would have more information.

“Yes, I did.” Only she wanted to talk to them in small manageable numbers. All did not sound small to her. Now that she was awake, she could hear that the rustle of wings, and distant drumming. “Get me some light.”

As Pony activated a spell light, Tinker stumbled into her closet to grab something to wear. She had on the blue cheetah print cami and boy shorts, but she’d rather meet the entire tengu flock in something other than her Victoria Secrets. She grabbed a dress of deep green silk. She really needed to do something about her wardrobe.

Lemonseed was waiting as Tinker came out of the closet. “Domi, they are asking if we can cancel the defensive spells.”

Pony had on his warrior’s mask and gave Tinker a shake of his head, meaning he didn’t think it was safe to let down their guard. Lemonseed, though, was waiting for Tinker’s word.

When she had called Jin, he had come to her alone and unarmed, trusting that he’d be safe with her. He was asking her to trust him this time.

“Cancel them,” Tinker said. “And bring Jin into the courtyard. That way the overflow of tengu can perch on the roof.”

Lemonseed’s eyes widen at the though of tengu on her roof, but she bowed and hurried away.

#

Tinker went out into the courtyard to find that all the spell lights been removed, pitching the acre of peach trees into darkness. Black wings churned unseen in the sky overhead, masked by branches. Shrill flutes and thin tin gongs had joined the drumming, growing louder as the musicians came through the main hall.

Her Hand pressed in tightly around her, hands gripped tight to their ejae, ready to draw.

Small figures came spilling out the hall, carrying paper lanterns. Tinker lost count after the first dozen that swarmed through the courtyard, slowly lighting up the area as more and more moved among the trees. One came hurrying up to her. It was little Joey Shoji, dressed in a white tunic trimmed in red and carrying a lantern nearly as big as he was.

“Joey, what’s going on?” Tinker asked.

He pressed a finger to his lips. “Shhhh, Providence is coming.”