Chapter 24

Centralmarket, Oldtown

“Master Lachlan Quinn,” the orc butler’s voice grated out like rocks in a steel drum, as he ushered him into Elisabeth’s hotel suite of rooms.

“Lan, what on earth are you doing here?”

Quinn shot her a friendly grin. After helping himself to a chair, he turned it around so he could see everyone and straddled it.

“Hi, Lizzie. Just seeing how much trouble you’ve gotten yourself into. Here I thought you were being held in durance vile and here I find you sipping tea and eating crumpets with a couple of disreputable females.”

“Honestly, Katherine, you need to get him out of here. The big dummy doesn’t know how dangerous this place is. How did he get here, anyway?”

“They will explain later, Lizzie.” His smile disappeared. “Katie, give me an update on what’s going on.”

His demanding tone seemed to push Katherine over the edge. She set her teacup down and glared. “Listen asshole, once again I will remind you, we don’t work for you.”

“Okay, I am so very sorry, princess. I remind you in turn that your boss is the one who asked me for my help. Please, just fill me in. I swear talking to you two lately is like hiking in a minefield.”

Katherine looked at Niamh. “You talk to the jerk before I strangle him on general principles.”

“The bank has a hex in its vault,” Niamh said crisply. “They had brought Elisabeth in to break it. Before she can break it, we need a copy of the spell that was used. The spell is from some sort of ancient scroll. The three of us are getting ready to go look for it.”

“You’re going to go look for it. Sweet Mother, are you serious?”

Elisabeth watched his face turn red. These three were more fun than a daytime soap opera.

“Is he always like this?” she asked Katherine. “I remember him as being such a calm and easygoing sort of guy.”

“He’s a jerk. If you get to know him better, you’ll want to murder him too. Everyone does.”

Quinn ignored their byplay, “Okay, Ms. Sherlock, let’s just set aside for a moment that this city is huge, L.A. huge. It’s one of the most lawless cities in all four realms and these days on the brink of a civil war. Where were you all going to start?”

Niamh growled. “It’s our business. Nothing to do with you, asshole—so butt out.”

“Lan, it’s okay. We’re going to see someone called Goldeneye,” Elisabeth said, trying to calm the angry emotions she could feel swirling in the room.

“We can handle ourselves,” Katherine said. “Elisabeth and I are 12th circle adepts. You well know that Niamh is deadly in a fight whether or not she’s shifted. She used to kick your butt enough times.”

Elisabeth watched Quinn shut his eyes and take a deep breath. “First of all, I don’t know how much you know about Oldtown, but it’s a weird place. It’s centered directly on the nexus of the four realms; four distinct realities, each with their own natural laws. As a result, there are null places here where magic doesn’t work. The powerful put their headquarters in the null patches. They are not dumb. That is how they’ve protected themselves from magical beings for centuries. Your spells won’t work there. You and Lizzie will be power-blind. And because you’re not used to being power blind, you’ll be helpless.”

Now Elisabeth found herself getting irritated at his condescending tone.

“Wait, a minute...”

“I will accompany them,” a voice from the doorway interrupted.

The emerald clad second dragon daughter, Daiyu, swept into the room.

All eyes turned to her.

Elisabeth watched and smiled faintly as the woman stopped abruptly when as she felt the protective warding.

“See Lan, we’ll be okay. Mistress Daiyu is going to come with us.”

Quinn got up and paced. He took a deep breath and mumbled several of what she assumed were curse words under his breath.

“Okay, I don’t have time to mess with you guys. Please, just be careful.”

With a scowl on his face, he turned and walked out.

“Well, that was fun,” Elisabeth said brightly, trying her best to calm things. It was her nature to be a peacemaker. If it weren’t for her insatiable curiosity, she would have been perfectly happy plying her maternal skill sets on a couple of children tussling in the upstairs bedroom over a favorite toy. “You two certainly have an interesting relationship with Lan.”

Katherine took a sip of her tea. “We grew up together. Our relationship is complicated.”

“Complicated. We have a major disagreement. We think he’s a jerk. He thinks he isn’t. He is overprotective and overbearing...” Niamh stopped talking and stared into space.

Elisabeth slowly turned her head with what seemed like a massive effort and looked at Katherine.

She was staring into space as well.

Then blackness.