Chapter 419: Liam By Default
Why was it my default location when I felt sad had Liam in it? Not that I was deep in the doldrums or anything, but thinking about Meira leaving me was enough to set me off in search of comfort.
Didn't help Gram was still nowhere to be found. The rest of the house felt so quiet. Maybe that was why I couldn't stand to stay around while the sound of Meira's laughter and chatter echoed from upstairs like she was in another world.
I sealed the wards on the house as I left, sending her a soft touch of magic to let her know where I was going. She hugged me quickly back, a flash of a very cute guy passing between us before she blocked me out, giggling. I was a little surprised to find Sassafras at my feet, tail twitching, as I locked the kitchen door.
Who was I to question why he needed out of the house? Maybe Meira's growing up bothered him, too.
Not feeling super talkative, but in the need for exercise, I led our small procession, Charlotte at my side, toward town hall and my Sidhe friend.
It was a beautiful day, the leaves fresh on the trees, the beginning of summer just around the corner. A few deep breaths helped raise my spirits as did the memory of Quaid's visit the night before. Sure, he may have lied to me about the blonde, but no way was I letting it ruin the fact I had a great time.
How grown up of you, Syd.
Galleytrot lay in the entry, big head on his paws as we entered through the green glow of the Sidhe wards. He looked up as we did, nose lifting, sniffing. I reached out to him, gave his ear a scratch on the way by, only to hear him grumbling to himself.
"Quaid," he said.
Oh no he didn't. I withdrew my hand, suddenly cold despite my rising temper.
I already told you to mind your own business. My mind snapped against the black dog. And I meant it.
Galleytrot shut me out, rising to pad toward the archive, ignoring me. We'd had this argument already. About Liam. Galleytrot's concern was touching, but irritating at the same time. Liam was a big boy and knew perfectly well I was in no position to be his girlfriend.
I'd told him enough times. I just wished he'd listen.
Happy mood now tainted with anger and a bit of guilt, I stomped my way through the door, Sassafras scampering ahead of me to take his favorite chair. I had a brief after-image of him in human form, draped sideways over the arm, one foot up on Liam's desk, a book in his hands and had to shake my head as the silver Persian curled up into a ball, tail tucked around him and stared at me with glowing amber eyes.
"Syd!" Liam rushed toward me, hugging me, a book pressed uncomfortably between us. "You must be psychic."
"Sorry?" I rubbed at my breastbone where the spine of the thick, brown leather book had made an impression.
Liam grinned. "I was just about to call you. You have to read this." He pulled me into his office toward a cluttered old desk of heavy, carved wood in Sidhe motif. Piles of parchment and books lay everywhere, his only nod to the present his silver laptop open to one side, a spinning vortex screensaver making me dizzy.
He pressed me down into the chair I usually took, the velvet seat shaping almost perfectly to my butt as he laid the book in my lap with something like reverence. One scan of the scrolling handwriting and I shook my head, looking up into his excited hazel eyes, green flecks winking at me.
"You know I don't share your ability for languages." I let my fingers trace over the writing, feeling something familiar about it, but not able to make a connection just yet. "What is it?"
Liam set one hand on it, not taking it from me, the pressure of his touch weighing the book more heavily on my legs. "It's maji," he said.
Maji? We knew so little about the magical sect, long since extinct, or so it was believed. I knew almost nothing of their history, until the chamber under the vampire's mansion was discovered. I did know they used to be the big boys, until their power started to fade, but came up empty when I tried to remember why.
Liam finally took back the book, stroking the side of the page as he smiled down at it. "This was written by one of their scientists, a powerful and brilliant woman named Iepa."
Okay, why did that name make me shudder? Not in a bad way, but as if I should know what it meant?
Freaky. And yes, I was used to freaky, but then again, did anyone really get used to freaky?
It did prompt me to recall my dream from last night, though. Which struck me as odd. "Why are you researching the maji?"
Liam sank against the desk, open book cradled against his chest as he frowned a little. "I'm not sure. I was looking into Sidhe court rituals when I stumbled on this by accident." He tapped the cover with one hand.
Sassafras perked immediately while Charlotte twitched where she leaned against the wall behind me.
"There are no such things as accidents in a place like this," Sass said. Hmm, true. The archive almost had a mind of its own, showing the seeker exactly what was sought from the endless stacks going back into who knew where.
"Sass is right," I said. "This is too much of a coincidence." The misty form I'd seen, the ancient feel of her, the way the veil seemed new, not old. The woman in my dream. Was she somehow tied to the maji? Or was she really some random nightmare I remembered because I woke up from falling? Just in case, I told them all what I'd dreamed about, Charlotte silent though she'd heard it before, the others tensed as I wrapped up.
"My falling dream," I said, eyes on Sass. "The Demonicon one." He'd comforted me a few times since, so he knew what I was talking about and I didn't have any secrets from Liam.
Well, I did have one. But I wasn't going there right now.
"I thought you said it was nothing?" Charlotte's soft tone cut nonetheless.
"I guess I was wrong." I turned to see her lips twitch. Yeah, she could have her private little laugh fest.
"Why the falling dream in conjunction?" Sassafras stood up, ears flickering back and forth, his gaze lost in the distance. "Or is there a correlation between the two?"
I didn't want to think about my falling dream though he mirrored my thoughts. "I think the more important question is how valid is the warning?"
Liam frowned over the book. "You said it was like the veil was new, like you were making it. Could this woman have been controlling it, not you?"
"What are you suggesting?" Sassy's ears flickered, whiskers twitching.
"I don't know," he smiled, embarrassed, cheeks flushing from it. "Just a stupid theory."
"Spit it out," Galleytrot said.
Liam cleared his throat. "What if she was maji?"
That was a stretch, wasn't it? Or was it?
Sassafras nodded, nose wriggling as he thought it over. "From what little we demons know, it might make sense. Worth exploring, anyway."
Galleytrot chuffed softly. "The Sidhe respected the maji," he said in his rumbling voice, the echo of thunder from a rainstorm rolling through me when he spoke. "Considered them beyond nobility. Almost as gods."
Well that was interesting. "Why's that?"
He shrugged his great shoulders, red fire dancing in his eyes. "I don't know," he said. "Only that my handlers were almost afraid of them."
The arrogant Sidhe? Afraid? Even more interesting.
"You met them?" Liam closed the book and set it aside, though one hand never left it, fingers steepled on the cover.
"One," the hound said. "A woman. And her very presence made my blood go cold."
Liam was nodding, flipping the book open. "They were beyond Spirit," he said. "Iepa knew she made others uncomfortable."
I shook my head, frowning. "There's nothing beyond Spirit." Or so I'd been taught.
Sassafras grunted softly, tail twitching. "And in all your nineteen years of accumulated wisdom, you've learned everything there is to know, have you?"
I hated it when he did that. "Okay then, smarty pants," I said. "What's beyond Spirit?"
Liam saved Sassafras the trouble of answering. "They are outside Spirit," he said. "Pure Universal energy. According to Iepa, they were literally the hands of creation."
"Were?" I felt my hands clenching together as the wavering image of the woman I'd seen in my dream hovered in my mind's eye. "Where did they go?"
Liam looked suddenly sad, the book thudding shut. "They fell when the sorcerers attacked." I felt my stomach ripple with something unpleasant. "The maji were pure creation power, without offense. The sorcerer's sect was offense only, drawing power from the world around them, destroying what they used to fuel their magic. The maji didn't stand a chance against them."
The compulsion to get up, get up, GET UP was so strong I found myself on my feet and heading for the door before Liam was through speaking. I forced myself to stop at the threshold and turn to the others.
"I'm going to the mansion," I said while the pull of it grew stronger. "Coming?"
As I turned once again, giving in to the need of whatever led me, I heard Quaid's voice in my head, telling me not to go looking for trouble.
If trouble would leave me be, I'd be happy to take his advice.
I wasn't surprised to find out I was far from alone, either.
***
