Decebel nodded. After several minutes he looked back up. “So what now?”
Just as the question was out, Perizada walked through the door holding a piece of paper. She surveyed the room around her and then looked at Decebel. “If I were you, instead of life insurance, I would invest in counseling. Lots and lots of counseling.”
“Peri," Vasile called her name attempting to pull her attention from Decebel and perhaps save her life in the process.
Peri nodded and then held the paper up, “We found this piece of paper at the front doors, on the floor. It is a riddle from dear old Reyaz. And personally I would just like to point out how pissed I am that he got that close to this house and none of us knew it.”
Decebel was up so fast and snatching the paper from her hands that she had barely enough time to back up to keep from being knocked on her butt by the massive man.
“How many times do I have to remind them who I am,” she mumbled, then took a deep breath and let it out slow. “Think happy thoughts Peri,” she told herself, then added, “If you can’t think happy thoughts then picture wolves with their mouths duck taped closed.” She grinned to herself; she felt that idea actually had potential.
Decebel read the piece of paper rapidly ten times before finally reading it out loud.
“You are cordially invited to a hunt in honor of my brother’s mating. This is like no other hunt you have ever been a part of, nor will it end the way any other hunt has. You will have timed tasks you must complete in order to capture your prize and move forward. Two prizes will accompany each task, but only one may be claimed. Your first task is to find out where the hunt begins. I will be kind and give you a clue to set you on your way:
I am home to many; they are held deep in my embrace,
I have a history of greatness, treachery, and demise,
For many years my land has seen two faces but only one soul,
To know me is impossible, unless the wall is destroyed.
I’m feeling generous due to my good fortune in my own hunt, so I will give you two days to figure out the location and arrive there. I would advise you to not be late."
~R
The room was completely still when Decebel finished reading, as if a spell had been cast, freezing them in place. Shock, disbelief, frustration, and anger became tangible emotions in the air ready to latch onto the first person who came near enough.
Peri was the first to move. She began rapidly pacing and muttering under her breath, over and over again, the riddle Reyaz had given. There was something about it that made her think she knew exactly where he had the females, but every time she reached for it, the thought vanished like a puff of smoke dissipating. “Vasile,” she snapped, “gathering hall, now.” She left the destroyed room at an inhuman pace not worried about having just given an Alpha an order and not wondering if he would follow it. As she entered the gathering room she wasn’t surprised to see that it was full of their allies. Wadim had been with her when she found the paper and he had taken it upon himself to get everyone into one place. Smart wolf, she thought as she hurried into the room with a grace that only a high fae could manage.
Once at the front of the room she turned and faced the group. The murmuring that had been steady when she walked in had now stopped as all eyes were on her. She met many of their eyes, holding them only for a few seconds before moving on to the next. She didn’t speak; she wouldn’t until Vasile and Decebel arrived.
A couple of minutes later the two Alpha’s came through the door and the power radiating off of them caused the wolves in the room to stumble, while the others seemed to shrink back from the two men. Normally Peri would have considered it a power play, but not now. Now they were just both that close to losing it and their power was coming out of them like a leaking fuel tank. Heaven help the ones caught standing too close when a flame finally meets the fuel. She noticed Decebel’s blank face and tense shoulders, and she was reminded of the Decebel she knew before he had mated with Jen. The sight sent a chill up her spine.
“Have you told them?” Vasile asked Peri as he reached the front of the room.
“No,” she answered curtly. He nodded and then turned around.
“Reyaz has made contact with us. He left a note and instead of explaining it, Decebel will read it so you can hear it for yourselves.” Vasile nodded to Decebel. In a voice as emotionless as the man who used it, he read the contents of the piece of paper. Just like before, after Decebel was done, the room was in complete silence.
Cypher stepped forward and looked at Vasile and then Decebel. “I must apologize that you are involved in this, and that your females are in danger. It is my fault and I will do anything I can to get them back.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Peri’s voice rang out into the silence, “did you put a gun to your brother’s head and tell him to be a psycho? Did you threaten to cut off appendages unless he chose to allow his bitterness to eat him until all that was left was a decaying soul wrapped in malice?” she didn’t give him time to respond before she continued, “No, you didn’t. You just had the misfortune of being related to him and that is not a crime. If you feel the need to apologize, then apologize for wasting your breath and then making me waste mine in order to tell you to make yourself useful and figure out what this bloody riddle means.”
“Well, when you put it like that,” Cypher said with a slight smile as he gave her a small bow and then stepped back to his original place.
Peri crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked out at the males daring any of them to say something stupid so she could tear into them.
“As you’ve heard we have a very limited window to figure out where this so called hunt will be and get there. I’m asking for each of us here to look into your respective race’s history. The tiniest detail could be the break we need,” Vasile said. He turned then and caught Alston’s eyes. “I would ask something of you.”
“We are at your service.”
“Could you please transport those who need to travel so that we aren’t wasting time moving from place to place?”
Alston nodded. “You didn’t have to ask, that was a given.”
Vasile gave the fae a look that told him just how much that meant to him.
“Okay, enough with all the 'we’re united; hear us roar' crap. We’ve got stuff to do. History boy, you’re with me,” she pointed to the right of Wadim, “you too dimple boy,” she told Costin.
The room began to fill with the noises of feet shuffling, murmurs, and then the door opening and closing as people made their way out, until all that was left were the wolves and Cypher.
“Do you have a plan?” Decebel asked Peri.
“Not really, but I figure if I act like I do, then one will suddenly appear.”
“Well what’s the not really part?” Fane asked.
“I’m going to find the pixie king. Perhaps he can remember something from our long past that I’ve missed. I have a feeling that wherever this place is, it is very old. I suggest you go back and find the troll king as well and share the riddle with Thead. He can be trusted and he will want Reyaz destroyed just as much as we do.” She pointed at Adam as she continued to speak in her brisk manner.
“Skender, Fane, Sorin, you three will go to the troll king,” Vasile interrupted, pointing to each of them and receiving nods in return.
“Adam can find the entrance to their land for you,” Peri told them.
“The rest can come with me,” Cypher spoke up, “we have extensive archives and some very long memories.”
Adam motioned to Cypher, “I can take them first and then we will go to the trolls.”
“We will meet back here in twelve hours to find out what progress has been made,” Vasile told them.
“Can I ask why you chose us?” Costin asked as he regained his bearings from being flashed.
Peri rolled her eyes. “Don’t get all giddy wolf. I chose you two because I tolerate you better than the others. In other words, I’m least l
ikely to make a rug out of you.”
“Comforting,” Wadim said dryly.
“All right, less chit chat and more walking.” Peri took off in a run.
Costin watched after her. “She calls that walking?”
Wadim chuckled. “She calls us walking handbags.”
“They don’t make handbags out of wolf pelts,” Costin pointed out.
“Yeah, I said the same thing. She said there’s a first time for everything.”
They both shrugged and then followed after the fae, putting on as much speed as they could. After half an hour they finally stopped. Wadim and Costin both were slightly winded which was evidence of just how fast they had been running, since wolves rarely got winded.
“Can I just ask why you aren’t doing your flashy thing?” Wadim asked.
“Good grief, were you too just let out of the puppy pen yesterday?” Peri huffed, “Magic, we aren’t the only ones with it. The pixie king is powerful and he doesn’t want fae flashing willy nilly around his land.”
“Okay, wait,” Costin held up his hand, “this is the same pixie that turned us over to Desdemona and put us in the In-Between? Why exactly are we seeking out his help instead of having him as an appetizer to the rabbit I’m going to catch for dinner?”
“Ainsel made a poor decision, but he made it out of a need to protect his people. That doesn’t make it right, but it doesn’t make him evil either. Vasile chose to spare him, and by doing so, gained a powerful ally. You have to realize that there will always be war, and it is a wise leader who picks his battles, and if he can, his enemy as well.”
Costin looked at her thoughtfully and though he understood what she was saying, it did not endear him to the pixie.
“Ainsel, we need to speak with you. Please do not waste my time; I am in no mood to play your games,” Peri yelled out into the forest.
Slowly one by one pixies began to emerge from the surrounding trees and foliage. Costin couldn’t help the way his muscles tensed when he saw the king. He watched silently as Peri knelt down in front of the small being.
“Dark times have fallen over us again, and we need your help,” she told them in a voice that Costin had rarely heard her use.
Ainsel glanced from Wadim to Costin and then back to Peri. “This request comes from Vasile?”
Peri nodded. “His females, as well as the Warlock King’s mate, have been captured by Reyaz.”
Ainsel’s eyes widened. He knew all about Cypher’s brother and had heard the whispers of the evil that had begun to gather around the mountain he had called home for so long.
“What could we possibly do against one such as him? We may have magic, but we would be no match for him.”
“We aren’t asking for you to fight,” Peri explained. “We need you to think,” Ainsel’s head tilted to the side at the odd request. Peri explained to him all about the riddle and then waited silently for his response.
“And you only have two days to figure this out?” he asked her.
“The clock is ticking,” Costin said and tried to keep the growl out of his voice. He must not have succeeded because Peri turned and gave him a look that said she would cause him bodily harm if he didn’t shut up.
“I will do what I can to help, Perizada. I owe the wolves that much if not more.”
Peri clapped her hands together. “Great! Okay, so do we need to go to your archives?”
“Would we even fit?” Wadim asked from behind Peri.
Ainsel didn’t seem to be offended by the question and answered, “We don’t keep our history on paper. Some of our kind are blessed with the ability to hold great amounts of information and they bare the history of our people.”
“They remember all of it?” Wadim’s tone said he was impressed.
Ainsel nodded. “I will bring them here. Because no, you wouldn’t fit in my kingdom,” he told Wadim with a small smile.
The pixies disappeared into the forest silently leaving Peri and the two wolves.
“So I’ve been running the riddle through my head over and over and the first line I think is actually pretty simple,” Wadim said as he sat down leaning his back against a large tree trunk. “'Home to many', I would think that would mean people, since he uses the reference of home.”
Peri nodded, “I’m listening,”
“Then the second part, 'held deep in my embrace', makes me think, they are in the ground.”
“A cemetery?” Costin asked.
Peri thought about it, “A cemetery might work for the second line, but the third and fourth line don’t make sense if that’s the answer.”
“I was thinking a battlefield,” Wadim said.
Peri snapped her fingers, “'Dead bodies in the ground, many of them.' Wadim you’re brilliant!”
“You aren’t going to hug me are you?” he asked her.
Peri’s eyes narrowed, “Do I look like a hugger?”
Wadim shook his head quickly.
“So it’s a battlefield or someplace where lots of people died and their bodies stayed there until the land took them. But why would the second line say greatness, along with treachery and demise?”
“Greatness does not always equate to good,” Ainsel said as he once again came walking out of the woods. Only two other pixies were with him this time. “This is Sully and Dorri. They are the holders of the memories of our history.”
“How do we get the memories out of them?” Costin asked looking at the two female pixies curiously.
“You don’t shake them if that’s what you’re thinking,” Peri snapped.
Costin blushed slightly, revealing that it had indeed crossed his mind.
“They must choose to give them to you, and you have to ask the right question to get the memory. They don’t just give out memories like fae bread.”
Costin frowned, “Is that supposed to be significant?”
Peri groaned, “Bloody hell man, fae bread to pixies is like beer to humans. It makes them very happy little people.”
Costin nodded as he made an ‘ah’ sound in understanding.
Peri took a seat on the ground and looked at Ainsel waiting for him to give the okay to the two girls.
“It’s important that you ask specific questions. That will make it easier on them to narrow it down,” Ainsel explained.
Peri nodded, “Got it, specific. Great, I only have thousands of years to sift through.” She closed her eyes and thought about the first two lines of the riddle and how they had decided that they felt it was a battleground of some sort.
Her eyes opened and she looked at Sully. “What battlegrounds in supernatural history bore the most death?”
“Good one,” Wadim muttered his approval.
Sully walked over to Peri, her small stature barely reaching the fae’s knee. She placed her tiny hand on the skin of Peri’s hand and looked directly into the fae’s eyes.
Peri’s breath caught as images swam in her mind, first they moved so fast she could barely make any sense of them and then gradually they began to slow down until they were moving at a pace that she was able to discern what she saw. So much blood shed, so many battles and all for what, she thought to herself as the images continued to run through her mind like a movie. Gradually they slowed again until there were two that seemed to repeat themselves over and over. Then suddenly a third image showed up but it was distorted so much that she could not make out what it was. The three images repeated over and over and she repeated in her mind, the most death, hoping it would cause one of them to finally be singled out among them. And then they stopped and the only image left in her mind was of a picture that looked as though the lens of the camera had been severely out of focus when it was taken.
“Dammit!” She blew out a breath and the pixie stepped back. “Thank you,” Peri told Sully gently.
“I take it that to the fae the word dammit also means that something severely sucks.” Costin said.
Peri looked up at him with a single brow raised. “If you mean
severely sucks as in the one image that seems to hold the most deaths is so blurry that all I can tell is that there might have been something resembling a place at one time, then yes the dammit holds true.”
“Why would something in your history look like that in their minds?” Wadim asked Ainsel.
“Usually when there is some sort of tampering with a memory. It’s either something someone has done to one of the holders, or there has been some sort-of spell cast over that specific memory so that though you might have been there when it happened, but you would not remember that it even occurred.”
“Why would someone try to wipe out an entire battle?” Costin thought out loud. “Part of surviving as long as we do is from learning from our past, our mistakes.”
Peri stood up and brushed off her clothes and gathered herself. “Haven’t you ever heard the saying that some things are better left forgotten?”
“Yeah, and the idiot who said it died because he forgot not to walk through the forest of his enemy where some of his friends were killed,” Wadim told her.
Peri paused and looked back at the historian. “That’s not true,” she challenged him.
He grinned. “No, but you have to admit it would be a fitting end for someone who would say something so very ignorant.”
Peri gave a noncommittal shrug but didn’t disagree, for once.
“Can you lift your magic just long enough for me to flash back, so I don’t have to wait for nerd boy and sex toy to keep up with me?”
The two wolves behind her coughed on their surprised laughter at her description of them.
Ainsel waved his hand absently. “Done,” he took a step forward when he spoke his next words, “I wish I could help more Peri,” Ainsel told her.
“Ouch,” Wadim muttered.
“Yeah, that was not a wise thing for him to say to this fae.” Costin agreed.
Peri gave the king a curious look and then a slow smile spread across her too beautiful face, “I think you can king. What would you say to action, intrigue, sword fights, pirates, betrayal, and true love?” She nodded at him as if it were the best idea she had ever come up with. “Come on, it will be just like The Princess Bride only better because I’ll be there.”