Lord's Fall (Elder Races #5)(36)

He should not cross the Elven border.

And he never did well with things he should not do.

The intolerable pressure that had built up inside him eased as he took to the air. It was an unutterable relief to fly south.

He would go as far as the city limit. That was all.

Once he reached that point, he would decide what he would do next.

• • •

The fastest messenger in the group was Hugh, the gargoyle who could fly out in a few hours the distance that had taken them an entire day to travel by horseback.

Theoretically.

Pia thought of the stories of the lost hikers, and her stomach tightened at the possibility that the Wood might somehow interfere with Hugh’s flight. What if it screwed with his sense of direction so that he flew in circles? If that happened, who knew when he might emerge?

Eva didn’t like the idea of sending out their only avian capability, but then Pia was pretty sure that Eva didn’t like anything that she thought of. “Stop wasting time,” Pia said. “You know it’s got to be Hugh if we’re going to have any chance of getting in touch with Dragos quickly.”

“Fuck,” said Eva. “Fine.” She turned to Hugh. “Get ready to go.”

“You got it,” said Hugh.

By then everybody in the apartment was awake and alert. While Hugh prepared for the journey, Pia sent Johnny out to look for an attendant. Johnny returned almost immediately, followed by a pleasant-faced attendant who wore the High Lord’s plain green-and-brown house uniform.

“Good morning, Lady,” the Elf said, smiling. “Would you and your group like breakfast brought up to your rooms?”

Nobody outside the group needed to know the reason for Hugh’s journey. Pia told the Elf, “I must send a messenger to Charleston right away. I need to know how safe he will be traveling through the Wood.”

The Elf blinked rapidly. “You are the High Lord’s welcome guests,” he said. “The Wood will not harm either you or your messenger, but if you are concerned in any way and can wait for a short while, I’m sure the Lord or Lady would be most happy to send an escort.”

Pia looked at Hugh, who had returned to the room. The gargoyle balanced on the balls of his feet, his long rawboned body coiled with readiness. His sword and crossbow were strapped to his back, and he carried a belt filled with crossbow bolts angled across his chest along with a long knife in a sheath tied to one thigh. He no longer looked sleepy. He looked interested and capable, and very deadly.

Hugh shook his head at Pia’s unspoken inquiry. “I’m good.”

Once again, Pia thought back to the events in May. It had taken Dragos and her several hours to make the journey back to New York, but part of that time had been spent traveling out of an Other land.

If Dragos chose to travel south this morning, there was no guarantee how he would make the journey. If he took the corporate jet, he could hit the Charleston International Airport as soon as two hours from the point of departure. And who knows when he might decide to take off? The only thing she felt confident about was that he would wait as long as possible in case she had simply been very late to bed. Now that morning was officially here, it was possible he was already airborne.

“Go as fast as you can,” Pia said to Hugh. Telepathically, she added, If you don’t get through to Dragos right away, call Graydon or Bayne. She paused. Dammit, there was no way for them to know which sentinel might be fighting when, or if they might be recovering from an injury. Actually, try all the sentinels until you talk to a live person, but don’t just rely on them to pass on a message. Keep trying yourself to get through to Dragos and call to him telepathically as well. He has a much larger telepathic range than anyone else.

All right, Hugh said, frowning. But since I’ve never talked with him telepathically before, I don’t know if I’ll be able to connect.

Exasperated, Pia said, Look, Dragos might already be in South Carolina by the time you get out of the Wood, so just try everything you can to get in touch with him, and don’t stop until you get through and actually talk to him yourself. If you tell him I’m okay, maybe we don’t have to have anything turn into a disaster, all right?

Right, Hugh said.

Eva walked out with Hugh and the Elf. Several minutes later Eva returned alone, and she asked, “Now what?”

Pia had gone to the window to stare out. The early morning was shrouded in a thick veil of fog. She could barely see the water down below. The only details that she could see when she looked toward the horizon were black tree branches that appeared in the dull white fog like dismembered limbs. She shuddered at the thought.

“Now we figure out how to get some breakfast, and I’ll send a request to speak with Calondir,” Pia said. “Maybe either Ferion or Linwe will show us around like Beluviel suggested. And we wait.”

And as for herself, she would be crossing her fingers that the day did not end badly.

• • •

Breakfast turned out to be a simple and social affair. The same Elf from earlier returned to ask if Pia would like food to be brought up to her apartment, or if she would prefer to come down to the main hall. After washing and dressing in a clean pair of jeans and sweater, Pia was more than ready to leave their rooms.

The main hall was quite large with several tables, a high ceiling, more flagstone floors, two fireplaces at either end that were so massive a grown man could walk into the ash pits, and walls that were mostly windows and that provided more views of the river and the forest. The trees and rocky forest floor were dark with moisture and occasional patches of startling green moss, and tendrils of fog drifted along the foaming water at the foot of the falls.