Blood Double (God Wars #1)(48)

I wondered, too, how and why such a race as hers had been created in the beginning and what had happened—nobody seemed to know of it now. Sirenali. That was the race in question, and in all my research and gleanings on comp-vid for information, I'd not found a single word about them.

*

"Willem, tell me what you see. What are the Winds predicting?" Ildevar's gaze was troubled as he asked his elvish seer to consider the future.

"Kaldill asked me that yesterday. It grieves me to give you the same answer," Willem mumbled, lowering his head.

"What answer is that?" Ildevar was even more worried if Kaldill Schaff was consulting Willem. The Elf King had his own ways of seeing things.

"The Winds are unstable, Founder. Images become clear, only to become blurry, like a static-riddled vid image. Then, when the images become clear again, they are different."

"That is more than frightening," Ildevar sighed.

"As frightened as you are, there is reason to be frightened beyond that," Willem whispered.

*

Lissa's Journal

"All dead. Even the ones Reah saved are gone," Kiarra shook her head over the skeleton of a gryphon, its bones picked clean by a murder of crows we'd frightened away. "There's no illness to detect, no signs of trauma, nothing. They're just dead."

I watched Adam as Kiarra examined the skeleton, Looking with the enhanced ability she had to detect any reason for the gryphon's death. None were left alive on the planet, when Reah had placed nearly two thousand after the battle she, Edward and the Saa Thalarr had waged against rogue Ra'Ak and a multitude of dark creatures they'd gathered throughout time.

"You may be the last," I shrugged at Adam. He was the Black Gryphon, and had fought rogue Ra'Ak in that form for centuries.

"You're forgetting your father," he said gently. "He was the first to take that shape."

"My father." I said it flatly. Yes, he'd saved us, but at the direction of another. I'd learned that from him, so there was no doubt that he might have left me, Rigo, Ry, Nissa, Tory, Trik and Toff to die. I'd been pregnant with Gavril at the time, so that death might be counted as well, had someone not intervened on my behalf.

Griffin had shown up off and on through the years, most notably at the birth of Drake and Drew's sons, Travis and Trent. He'd left gifts for them—two blades each, forged by Grey House. Drake and Drew hadn't allowed their use until the boys were sixteen and knew how to properly treat and handle two blades each. I'd attempted to get Nissa to tell me how much Griffin had paid for those blades, but she'd been curiously silent on the matter.

"Lissa, I understand your feelings in this matter," Merrill sighed. He hadn't spoken since we'd come across the skeleton. Until now, anyway. "I have reasons to be angry, too. Someday, perhaps we'll call a truce with your father."

"Someday," I nodded. I just had no idea how far off that someday might be. "Have you seen Amara?" Amara was still avoiding Griffin, and he continued to search for her. At least she'd given up the idea of having Belen separate her particles. She'd found several children's causes to contribute her time and efforts to, and she stayed in touch with Merrill, Adam and Kiarra. I had the feeling that Merrill and Kiarra had a great deal to do with her decision to keep her life.

"A month ago," Merrill nodded. "She asked if I had any information on child disappearances on Ooblerik. I got the idea that she was working with a charity group there."

"Reah's father, Edan, works with a charity group there," I pointed out.

"It's the same one," Kiarra sighed. "Amara and Edan work together, now."

"Does Reah know?"

"She probably does," Kiarra nodded. "We've got nothing, here. Let's look for another, fresher body if we can find it."

*

"Rabis says she'll need love and care, so if we find her, we'll have to provide as much peace and quiet as we can," Ashe sighed as he sat down for dinner at the kitchen island.

"What's wrong with her?" Trajan asked.

"He doesn't know—he just says she'll be damaged and need help."

"Boss, that doesn't sound good."

"I know, and it's got me spooked."

*

Breanne's Journal

Three nights I shorted myself on sleep and combed through Casino City, without a single trace of Erithia Cordan. Casino City was enormous, with more than five million in residence and more than that in other cities scattered nearby. Gamblers and tourists on any given day easily swelled that initial number to ten million.

Casinos, condos and other housing also crowded the city, which meant Erithia Cordan could be anywhere. I attempted the trick of Looking—I'd learned it from Graegar, and while I could locate other things (I always knew where Trevor was) I couldn't get a lock on Erithia. Something about her or her race prevented it. Not only that, but her obsessed follower was somehow included inside her shield.

All this went through my mind as I lay on the Queen's bed on off-day—I allowed myself the luxury of not going to my office to work for an extra hour before rising.

"Get up, you have a visitor," Gavin almost blew the door down as he rushed inside the suite.

"What?" I stared—who would come for a visit in the first place, and why would Gavin allow it in the second place? I didn't ask questions—impatience marred Gavin's features so I rose, cleaned up and dressed in a matter of minutes. Following my angry sire down the hallway leading from the family wing of the palace, we made our way into a sitting room.