Dark of Winter: A Between the Worlds novel Page 4

  There was no response.

  Before he could do anything else the door in front of him opened and he was face to face with his brother. The Guard Captain looked alert and official even after a long day on-duty: his dark green tunic and black uniform pants were crisp, his blond hair pulled back in a tight braid without a hair out of place, his expression calm. Seeing his brother standing almost at the threshold Zarethyn cocked his head to one side, his expression openly unsure, “Jess, what is wrong?”

  “Hmmm?” Jess replied, distracted as he continued to try to sort out why Allie was not answering him. He knew she wasn’t blocking him because on the few occasions that had occurred in the past he had always clearly felt it as a wall between them. This was different, as if she was there but not. It reminded him of something but he couldn’t quite remember what.

  “Jess?” his brother repeated reaching out and grasping his arm.

  The physical contact distracted him and he looked up meeting his brother’s worried eyes. He forced himself to relax. “I am sorry. My mind is elsewhere. Our report is finished and ready for you to review.”

  He held out the completed paperwork and after a moment Zarethyn took it from him. “Is everything well?”

  For an instant he almost responded with a platitude, but he was closer to his brother than anyone else in life save his spouses, and when he spoke he found himself speaking plainly, “I…am unsure. I was trying to speak to Allie just now and I cannot reach her.”

  Zarethyn frowned, and belatedly Jess remembered that his brother was uneasy with his close ties with Allie, particularly the psychic bond they shared. When it had first been formed Zarethyn had been confident it would fade; when the opposite had proven to be the case he had slowly become suspicious of the connection. His unease in turn made Jess anxious, as he worried about what his brother might do if he ever discovered the truth of Allie’s nature. Under no circumstances did Jess want to be forced to choose between his older brother and his wife.

  Zarethyn spoke slowly, “Is this unusual? Are there not other times when you cannot speak to her?”

  “When she is sleeping or busy she does not answer me of course,” Jess said, his voice low as he surreptitiously looked around to make sure they were not being overheard. “However I can always get a sense when I reach out to her that she is there.”

  Zarethyn’s frown shifted to something else, something that was less unhappy with the subject his brother was discussing and more concerned with what he was actually saying. “And that is different this time?”

  Jess struggled to put into words his nebulous feeling of wrongness with the current situation. “This is different yes. I can still feel her presence, yet there is no sense that she is there in the way she should be. I do not know how else to explain it.”

  “Then I can understand your concern,” Zarethyn said, looking thoughtful. “Should she not be at your house by now?”

  Jess considered the time and Allie’s usual schedule. “Perhaps. Either now or very soon, if all is as it should be.”

  His brother squeezed his arm reassuringly. “Then I suggest you go back to your house. Your work here is done in any event and I trust that your report is thorough enough there is no real need for you to go over it with me. If I have any questions I will contact Brynneth since he is staying at the Outpost.”

  “Will you need me to report in tomorrow to go over the results of our investigation with you?” Jess asked, feeling torn between his sense of duty and his growing worry.

  “I do not anticipate such a need,” his brother said, hefting the thick report for emphasis. “Take the rest of this week and the weekend off; I was going to tell you as much anyway. Report back on Monday for your next assignment.”

  Jess nodded sharply, and started to step back only to find his brother still holding his arm. Zarethyn looked at him, his eyes searching his face for something, “If anything is amiss do not hesitate to call me.”

  “Zare, I wouldn’t involve the Elven Guard without definite need-“

  “Brarawn[1] please, she is my family as well, through you,” Zarethyn said, using a nickname for Jess he had not used in many years. “And she is a member of the Guard herself, albeit one on leave due to the pregnancy. If she is unwell or if something has happened to her or that is effecting you both, tell me. If not as your Guard Captain then as your brother.”

  Jess nodded and reached out to clasp his brother’s arm, returning the partial embrace that he was being held in. But he could not meet his brother’s eyes, and in his heart he was afraid. Oh my brother he thought unhappily to himself if only things were still as they used to be and I could trust you fully with everything in my life. But what would you do if you found out what she was? Would you protect her, even if it meant going against the Law, or would you condemn her even if it meant my life? As worried as he about Allie’s strange silence, he was also suddenly consumed with a wave of depression at the realization that her presence in his life had driven an irreversible wedge between himself and his sibling.

  Forcing a calm expression he took his leave of his brother, walking quickly towards the exit. His concern mounted as he waited for his surging emotions to draw Allie’s attention as they always had before only to be met with continued silence. Feeling thoroughly unnerved now he reached out to Bleidd, irrationally afraid that he would get no answer there either, “Bleidd?”

  “Yes Commander?” the former Outcast’s voice resonated through his mind, simultaneously soothing and adding to his concern.

  “Have you spoken to Allie? I cannot reach her.” He knew his worry flavored his words but he could not hide it, especially in this type of communication.

  “Not recently. We spoke earlier in the day and all was well enough then,” Bleidd replied his mental words colored with his own concern as he considered what Jess had said. There was a pause and Jess assumed that the other elf was trying to speak to her as well although he could not hear the attempt. Over the last several months they had all gotten better at speaking to each other individually as well as together, although this method of communication was still the hardest for Jess.

  He had reached the underground level where the Guard vehicles were parked and was selecting a set of keys for the one he would use to drive home when Bleidd finally spoke to him again. The other elf’s words were thick with worry now, “Something is very wrong here Jess.”

  “I know,” he replied, trying not to let himself panic. And then without warning the memory surfaced. “Bleidd, the only other time I have felt anything like this is when Allie had been poisoned and was unconscious.”

  Silence. Then, “Do you think she may be injured?”

  “I do not know, but I think she is likely unconscious,” Jess replied, the pieces fitting together to fill him with a grim certainty. He started the car and pulled out with exaggerated care, heading slowly towards the human sections of Ashwood even as his nerves screamed at him to hurry.

  “I will meet you at her store,” Bleidd said.

  “Do you think she is there?” Jess asked, seeking any reassurance now, as his imagination painted pictures of all the terrible possibilities.

  “I do not know, but that is certainly the best place to start looking,” Bleidd said.

  “As you will,” Jess replied, turning his vehicle in the direction of Between the Worlds, feeling some of his tension leave now that there was a plan in place, even a tentative one.

  **********************

  Bleidd drove with reckless speed, crossing the miles between the house and Allie’s store in a blur of sharp turns and protesting tires. Every few minutes he tried again to reach out to Allie and every time he encountered the same sense of stillness; it was unnerving. The only thing that kept him from panicking entirely was the certainty that she was not dead because he could feel her presence there, still connected to his spirit. But he had no explanation for her unnatural lack of responsiveness. If Jess is correct in his own guess that it means she is unconscious Ble
idd thought his hands clenching the steering wheel then we have no time to waste. It’s well below freezing out there, and if she passed out in the parking lot…He wouldn’t allow himself to finish the thought, but drove faster, oblivious to anything but a need to hurry.

  He slowed as he finally turned onto the street where her store was located, immediately noting that the bookstore was dark and the sign flipped to closed. With a sinking feeling he pulled into the small parking lot, parking haphazardly. For a moment his mind went blank as his eyes searched the empty lot by the door.

  “Jess,” he thought to his lover, reaching out to the other elf’s mind as if he were clutching a hand for support.

  “Yes?” Jess’s voice responded instantly, the single word fear-laced.

  “Her car is not here.”

  A moment of stunned silence, during which Bleidd’s eyes swept the back of the lot over again as if the small green car would suddenly appear. “Could she have begun driving home?”

  “She always follows the same path, and it is the same one I drove to get here. I did not see her car along the way,” Bleidd said, feeling puzzled. He got out of his car slowly, extending his senses as he did. He had learned how to feel the psychic tie that bound them together and the first thing he did was to calm himself and look for that connection. He could see his tie to Jessilaen extending out towards the Outpost, the direction Jess was coming from. His tie to Allie though was threaded out, thin but still obviously there, leading roughly north east. He frowned, puzzled. North east would take her through a few blocks of stores, mostly closed now because almost everything in Ashwood closed early this time of year. The only businesses that stayed open into the evenings were the few bars, the town’s one club, the only restaurant, the clinic, or the hotels, but they were all north or north west from here. Going north east she would pass quickly out of the city area of town, such as it was, and into the farm areas until that gave way to the border with the Queen’s Holding. It was illogical for her to have gone that way as he knew she had no friends that lived in that direction, all the farm stands were long closed by now, and the Border couldn’t be crossed except by a mage. Although he had been working casually with Allie to train her in some elven magic she was nowhere near skilled enough to breach the Border, and she knew it. It made no sense at all for her to have gone that way, and yet he felt her clearly in that direction.

  Seeking some explanation, he tried to examine the area around him. He could feel the dull pulse of the building’s wards. So, he thought to himself, at least we know that she closed as usual and was not under duress. She set the wards as she always does and their energy is not unsettled. He looked around the parking lot, seeking any clue that might remain and as his eyes swept outwards towards the street he saw the form of a body lying near the building. He knew immediately it was not Allie. The shape was wrong and his keen eyes could see the scuffed sneakers and green and yellow jacket easily even in the darkness.

  With a growing sense of dread he walked over to the still form. As he got closer he could see that it was a man, brown hair, perhaps in his thirties – although Bleidd was never entirely confident in his ability to judge human ages on sight – his eyes staring blankly at the night sky. Knowing that Jess was probably only a few minutes away he reached out to his mind again. “Jessilaen.”

  “Have you found some sign of her?” Jess replied eagerly and Bleidd wished he had better news to relay.

  “We have a problem. Allie is definitely not here, although there is no indication that the store was disturbed and it seems to have been closed and locked as usual. However, there is a corpse here, a strange human man. I cannot explain it.”

  Jess’s voice was all business when he answered. “Stay where you are. I will alert that Guard and until we know otherwise we will investigate this as if foul play is involved.”

  “As you will, but this person is certainly human. Should I not call the human police?” Bleidd asked reluctantly, having no desire to involve the police at all, although he could see that the Guard at least was unavoidable.

  There was a long pause before Jess responded, setting Bleidd’s nerves on edge. When he finally spoke his distaste was almost visible. “We will notify them when we must but no sooner. With a human victim they will act quickly to remove us from the scene, and even if we argue that we are searching for Allie…it could become an unfortunate jurisdictional problem. I will not brook such a delay. I have just spoken to Zarethyn and he is on his way. When we are done with the scene we will inform the human police.”

  Bleidd smirked into the darkness, shaking his head slightly. Of course he thought, careful now to shield Jess out I should have realized that Jess would use the Guard ruthlessly to his own ends in this situation. Although it is likely the Guard would act the same way in any such case, to ensure they kept control for as long as possible.

  His humor faded quickly, the potential implications of the situation sinking in. Allie was gone, her car was gone, and there was a strange man dead in her parking lot. None of it made any sense, and the only thing that kept him from panicking was the reassurance that she did still live, wherever she was.

  *********************

  Jess pulled into the parking lot of Between the Worlds, his headlights momentarily illuminating Bleidd and the small black sports car he drove before Jess flipped the lights off. He parked across the small space from the other car, opening the door as soon as the vehicle was turned off. He moved quickly to Bleidd’s side, wrapping his arms around the other elf, needing the reassurance of the physical contact.

  Bleidd returned the embrace before pulling back slightly. “There is no sign of any struggle, even around the body. I did see a few prints that look much like hoof prints, although the snow is so flattened it is hard to be sure.”

  “Hooves?” Jess repeated, frowning.

  “Yes, cloven hooves like a goat if I am any judge,” Bleidd said looking thoughtful. “Clearly something Fey. Perhaps a Púca or Urisk, or another of the Lesser Fey who either take such a form or always walk on those type of feet.”

  Jess looked at his spouse more keenly, some of his own worry giving way under Bleidd’s calm. “Ah, I had forgotten that you served in the Elven Guard yourself.”

  “Indeed,” Bleidd said drily. “For longer than you’ve been alive, as it happens. However, we can discuss my lengthy experience with the Guard some other time. There is no scent of blood, nor any other indication of violence, excluding obviously the body.”

  “Obviously,” Jess said, matching Bleidd’s dry tone. He stepped away from Bleidd to get a better look at the body, careful not to touch anything. “What would you guess? Strangled? Broken neck?”

  “I’d say broken neck.”

  “It would be beyond coincidence to think that this has no connection at all to Allie’s disappearance,” Jess said, turning a brooding look at the building. In the distance he could hear the sound of another Guard car approaching, the distinctive engine unmistakable in the quiet night. “So it is likely we are dealing with more than one person.”

  “Perhaps,” Bleidd said hesitantly. “Unless Allie stumbled across the murder.”

  Jess shook his head, “If that were so then why not simply kill her as well? Why take her?”

  Bleidd inclined his head in a shrug as the other Guard vehicle pulled in. “We do not have enough information to even guess. She could have seemed valuable to them in some way. Maybe they needed her car to escape and needed her to drive it.”

  “But why then would she not answer us?” Jess asked. Zarethyn, Brynneth, Tashlin, and Mariniessa were walking over to join them but Jess ignored them for the moment. “No, I believe she is unconscious. It is the only valid explanation both for why she doesn’t answer and why when we try to reach her we find what we find. The question then becomes why was she taken at all?”

  “And the question remains why was this man killed?” Bleidd said, undeterred. “Did he see something he should not have, or was he part of this a
nd became inconvenient?”

  Zarethyn stepped into the silence that fell between them, glancing around the lot and down at the body. “Tashlin, Mariniessa, examine the body and see what you can learn from it. Brynneth, if you would trace Allie’s path from the backdoor of her store?”

  The three elves all nodded and briskly set about their tasks. Zarethyn turned to his brother and brother-in-law, “You are certain she lives?”

  “Yes,” they spoke together, their voices adamant.

  “Have you thoroughly checked the immediate area, to be certain she is not here, if she is indeed unconscious?” He asked, his voice low.

  Jess scanned the lot again, frowning. Bleidd hesitated slightly before speaking, as always trying to limit how much information he shared. “I am certain, yes. The bond we share, all three of us, is something I can perceive in an objective way, with effort. It is not a precise thing, but I can sense that she is somewhere north east of where we are now and that she is not close.”

  Zarethyn looked at him sharply, his expression keen. “Indeed? That is a useful thing. How far would you say she is from here?”

  Bleidd sighed, his frustration thinly veiled. Jess wished that he could be of more use with this, but he was no mage and despite his best effort he had been unable so far to learn how to see or sense the connection between them as Bleidd could. “That I cannot say with certainty. Not within the city area I would guess.”

  “But you are not certain?”

  “Captain, it is like measuring the strength of a ley line. I can get a general sense of it, but could not give a precise answer. She is further than a few miles of here, but she is within a dozen miles at most.” Bleidd said. Jess felt his heart lifting slightly hearing Bleidd’s confidence. If he could sense her that meant he could track her, now that they knew she would need to be tracked. That was a great advantage in finding her.