Chapter Six
Violet will be tried beyond all measure…
“Nehemiah,” Mirie breathed. Her direct supervisor at the Committee stared back at her with growing horror. The older man wasn’t bound and he didn’t look like he was in any way a prisoner. But what he was, was a traitor, a traitor to the Committee and to Mirie. There had been rumors of a mole or moles in the Committee, someone who was interested in the Moon Trinity, and the power they contained, but Mirie thought it was only rumors.
He stared up at her as she crouched over him. The witch blade trembled at his throat and a crimson drip of blood slithered down his flesh. Nehemiah knew exactly how deadly Mirie could be with a blade, after all, he had overseen her training for years. “It’s not what you think, Mirie,” he said hoarsely. “They have my family.”
Mirie’s hand shook minutely. Nehemiah had a wife, Alicia, and two sons, both of whom were under the age of ten. “Here?”
“On earth,” he said. “Kept at our house for several days now, until I could come up with the Book of the Black Moon.”
There was a hiss of noise that escaped Mire’s mouth. “You let them have the Book of the Black Moon,” she said and it wasn’t a question. “You stole it from the Committee’s secure facility.”
Nehemiah’s head dropped a little and the shock on his face was expressive. Mirie knew it meant someone had died in the theft, someone at the facility. Not even Mirie knew where the site was located, but Nehemiah had been motivated. “Sean is eight years old,” he said pleadingly. “John is only six. For God’s sake, Mirie, you’ve had dinner with us.”
“That’s why you pushed the clairvoyants about the Eyes of the Amber Moon,” she said, trying to not think of the two precocious boys who loved to play just about every game ever invented. “That’s why we were put on Prince Anarion’s surveillance. You had to come up with the goods while you stalled about the book.”
“Then you vanished, and it all went to hell,” Nehemiah said vehemently. “Now I don’t even know if-”
If they’re still alive…Mirie finished for him silently. “Did the Committee murder Zyvana and my step-father?”
“Zyvana?” Nehemiah repeated in confusion.
“Korrah was the name she used, the one who pretended to be my mother,” Mirie hissed. She kept the witch blade at his throat while she cast a discerning glance over her shoulder. She could hear nothing but that didn’t mean anything. Amycate, Laris and the unknown human could still be plotting, or they could be coming this way to deal with Nehemiah. Mirie didn’t have time for recriminations but she couldn’t really help herself.
“Never,” Nehemiah gritted. “We found them like that. The Huldufolk left certain signs of their displeasure. You were hidden away, but luckily the house had been used as a safe house for the Committee for decades and we looked for you.” He looked at her intently. “If she wasn’t your mother, then who…”
“Amycate doesn’t keep you informed,” Mirie said coldly. “You yell, you’re dead. If you’re telling the truth, the first thing I will do is save Alicia and your children. If they’re not already dead.” She didn’t like saying the words but the truth was plain. If Nehemiah had traded the Book of the Black Moon to Amycate, she had no reason to keep her hostages alive. They were loose ends, just as was Nehemiah. As a matter of fact, it was odd that he was still breathing after delivering the goods. After all, what else could he do?
“Why are you still alive?” she asked in a voice that could have sliced through an iceberg.
“They want me to spy for them,” Nehemiah said promptly. “They want to know what the Committee knows about the Silver Moon’s Mystery, so that they can obtain it as well. With the three relics in their possession, then you know what they can do, what they can use against any realm they happen to be in.”
“Are you armed?” she said quietly.
Nehemiah shook his head. “They don’t trust me.”
“How many of them are there?”
“The Lady Amycate, an elf named Laris, an elf named Penril, a human I don’t know, and three unnamed elves outside patrolling the grounds,” Nehemiah answered quickly. He frowned as he suddenly concentrated on her features, adding, “Amycate looks just like-”
“Where are we?” Mirie didn’t bother with semantics. If it were up to her, Amycate wouldn’t be around much longer for anyone else to remark on resemblances.
“A black realm,” he said. “It’s always twilight here. Never day, never night. There was a war here and the curses filled the land. The occupants fled for other dimensions or died. It’s been abandoned for hundreds of years as far as I can tell. The Lady and her crew use it as a hiding place. The manor and the immediate lands are spelled against the things that live here.”
“Where’s the nearest portal?”
“At the back of the manor, through a huge stone fireplace. It’s a great hall with two fireplaces at each end. They’re bracketed by carved beasts at each end. One side has a beast with broken limbs and that fireplace has the portal.”
“Point the direction,” she said.
Nehemiah indicated a direction away from Amycate, Laris and the unknown man. Mirie withdrew the witch blade and stepped back. “Go. Go to the portal and return to your family. Call the Committee on the other side and bring reinforcements for their rescue.”
Nehemiah crawled to his feet and swayed slightly as his wild eyes considered Mirie. “What if…”
“Get Jack to retrieve your family,” Mirie said. “And Nehemiah, if you’re lying to me, I’ll kill you in a very ugly fashion.”
“I’m not lying,” Nehemiah said hoarsely. “What about the Lady and the other elves? The other human”
“If I can, I’m getting the Book of the Black Moon and the Eyes of the Amber Moon back.” Mirie stepped back and kept her eyes on the doorway and on Nehemiah at the same time. “Go on, Nehemiah. I can’t trust you at my back and I can’t kill you without evidence, so run through the portal. If someone comes to help me, then I’ll know what you did.”
Nehemiah nodded shortly and spun in the direction of the portal at the rear of the ailing manor. In moments he was gone, although Mirie could hear his footsteps leading steadily away from her. She waited for a moment and then took a deep breath.
Knowing what she was going to have to do didn’t make her feel better. Mirie was going to face off against her mother, Anarion’s personal bodyguard, and the unknown human. She was going to be the only thing standing between the artifacts and the use of them by a subversive group of elves and humans.
Mirie went back through the kitchen and the ball room, noticing that the dead elf was still lying in the shadows. As she crept closer to where she had left Amycate, Laris and the human, she could hear nothing. Neither voices nor subtle movement disturbed the silence. They hadn’t passed her in the hallways, so they could still be in the same section they had been in previously.
One thing she was certain of was that she had to get the drop on Amycate, before the elf could start casting her spells on Mirie. Mirie had some protective measures but she wasn’t sure how strong Amycate was, and Amycate was strong enough to be feared. She had frozen Mirie before when Mirie wasn’t expecting it, but Mirie was more knowledgeable now.
Jack and Mirie had faced witches on the wrong side of the Committee before. None of them had the powers that Amycate possessed. Then Mirie knew. Laris had saved some of Mirie’s blood and given it to Amycate to use in her spell. Perhaps the missing t-shirt was the source. It didn’t matter much, because Mirie was forced to act no matter what magicks were in Amycate’s repertoire.
“I should have killed you when I had the chance,” Laris said from behind her. Mirie ducked and the katana knife sliced into the doorframe above her. She whirled and one leg shot out to hit him in the knee. He made a broken noise and his knee quivered.
Then Mirie had the witch blade out and the weapon was glowing
fiercely in the gloom. Laris recovered by backing up in the room. She said, “You should have tried, dipshit. Where’s Mom? I want to catch up.”
Laris growled and swung at her again. The knife’s squared end scraped across the top of Mirie’s ribs as she leapt backwards. She felt the sting of skin splitting but was already twirling away. Laris’s large form lurched at her, using the katana knife like a blunt instrument, swinging it down on her body as she retreated into another large room with massive windows. The twilight gloom of the realm had brightened slightly as they faced off in the expanse. More of the ratlike creatures scurried for cover as the pair twisted and turned in silent combat.
Laris made another error that allowed Mirie to whirl past him and use her foot to crush the back of the weakened knee. He fell to the floor on his good knee and cursed her roundly. Mirie took a breath and backed up, casting a glance over her shoulder for the others. However, they remained alone.
Not for long, she thought. They were making enough noise to summon anyone in the vicinity. “So where’s Mommy, Laris? And does Anarion know what you’re up to? Well, heck I guess not since you’re here with me. I think he’s got something against me oh, say, dying.”
He stood up in a rush and even in the sunset of the land, she could see the flush that flowed across his cheeks. “Like most of the humans, you talk too much,” he said.
Mirie feinted to see if he would remember her favorite tricks and he didn’t fall for it. Then she kept spinning, putting all of her body weight into the turn, aiming for his head with her right boot. Laris didn’t have the time to react. It connected with a dull thud. The next thud was his body hitting the floor.
“Yeah,” she said to his unconscious form. “It’s one of my failings.”
Abruptly she heard running footsteps and alerted to someone charging past the room she was in. Headed for the portal, she thought. She looked and saw the form of a man disappearing down the hallway. To the right was a dim purple glow and Mirie knew that Amycate was waiting for her.
Amycate or the human? Mirie made her decision and went after the human. It was possible that he had the Book of the Black Moon and the Eyes of the Amber Moon, and it was unthinkable that the two deadly artifacts could slip from the Committee’s fingers. She poured on the speed and passed the ball room and the kitchen. Then she was in an unknown part of the manor and the footsteps were increasing their speed. The man looked over his shoulder at her but all she could see was a white flesh and large eyes. There was more as well, in the dimness, for the briefest of instants there was a certain something visible in his eyes.
Mirie was holding the witch blade up and it was glowing fiercely as she ran. Dimly she realized she must look like an armed demon intent on taking his flesh from his body and leaving only steaming entrails. And it was true, she was more than a little ticked off.
Then he put the pedal to the metal and pushed through another door. The room was large and had the two fireplaces in it. The one with the broken limb on the statue of the beast was on the far side and he unerringly ran to it. Mirie cursed as he screamed out a spell, not hesitating as he plowed forward. The portal flared like an iridescent explosion and he vanished into it. A split second later Mirie crashed into the stones of the back of the immense fireplace. The portal was gone.
Shaking her head to clear the pain of head meeting stone, Mirie gasped with the knowledge that she might have lost the two artifacts. “Damn. Damn. Damn.”
Turning back to the room, she stared at the doorway. There was Amycate, staring at her with intent awareness.
“Mom,” Mirie said plainly. “I think there’s some things we need to discuss.”