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�What? Wait!� Tinker cried, cutting off the flow of Jin�s explanation. She�d been wakened up in the middle of the night to be told that the tengu�s spiritual leader needed to speak with her immediately. The household staff had set out a formal tea in the dining hall and made themselves scarce. They were probably lurking in the deep shadows nearby, just in case she would need more dainty sandwiches or little fruit tarts or another pot of strong tea.

Tinker suspected that the shadows also held Jin�s bodyguards. She knew from experience the tengu could come and go like ghosts despite their massive wings. It would explain why her entire Hand was present for the meeting. The five holy sekasha warriors were fully dressed, heavily armed, and standing guard at her back as if they hadn�t been asleep just minutes before.

Lightning flickered; it lit up the garden outside the dining hall�s windows. The thunder made Tinker jump a little. Was Windwolf fighting for his life someplace? Most of the domana elves in Pittsburgh were gathered at the far eastern edge of the Rim; they planned on fighting the oni in the morning. She hadn�t felt Windwolf call the Wind Clan Spell Stones to cast lightning. Nor could she sense anyone using Fire Clan or Stone Clan esva. None of the domana elves were fighting. The lightning was normal electrical discharge and nothing else. Rain started to drum on the dining hall�s roof. It was an oddly comforting sound.

�I have what?� Tinker was sure this conversation would make sense if it weren�t some ungodly hour in the middle of the night.

�Twin siblings.� Jin looked exhausted. Since she�d seen him late in the evening, he must have flown to his village and back. �Six of them.�

Tinker squinted at him. Maybe she was still asleep. This could be a weird dream. She had had a lot of those lately. �You�re � you�re kidding. Right?�

�No, I�m not.� His great black wings rustled with his nervousness. �I know that technically that they belong to Esme Shanske, but Gracie Wong would love to adopt Leo�s��

�Back up. Back up,� Tinker said. �I have what?�

Jin sighed. �Twin siblings. Six of them.�

�How can I have six twin siblings? Wouldn�t they be six-something � sextuplets?� No, that sounded like a porn video. �No, wait, if I have six siblings then we would be seven. Seven�seven�seven��

The conversation was in English, so only Stormsong was following her muttering. The tall warrior leaned over Tinker�s shoulder to pour her more tea. �Septuplets, domi.�

�Are you sure?� Tinker spooned several teaspoons of honey into the tea before gulping it. �September is the ninth month.�

�It was the seventh month, but it changed to the ninth when the Gregorian calendar added�� Jin sighed again and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. �It�s a naming convention. I believe it�s because all of the eggs are fertilized at the same time. If all the resulting embryos were implanted immediately in one woman, the resulting children would be twins. The term �twin� stays true to that concept even if the embryos are used at different times by different women.�

He was talking about how Tinker had been conceived in vitro ten years after her father died. She vaguely knew the mechanics; Lain had explained it to her when she was very young. She�d alarmed Lain by talking about having a brother who lived far away. (Only after Lain went through all the biology had Tinker confessed that she confused �brother� with �cousin.� She had meant Oilcan, who lived in Boston at the time.) Lain had kept referring to possible siblings as �theoretical� until Tinker thought that the word meant �imaginary� because Lain indicated that it was quite impossible for such siblings to exist.

But Jin wouldn�t wake Tinker up in the middle of the night for imaginary siblings. Since Stormsong was quietly translating the conversation to the others of her Hand, Tinker switched to Elvish.

�Wasn�t all that stuff � the genetic material � stored at some place in New York City?� She had found the paperwork recently while digging through her grandfather�s belongings.

�It was,� Jin said slowly and his wings rustled. �All of the stored fertilized eggs have been used. To make children. Many children.�

�Six of them?� Tinker said.

�As far as I know.�

She wasn�t sure what she was supposed to do with the information. �Two more and we would have had a baseball team.�

�Domi.� Pony murmured. �Since cousin could tap the Stone Clan Spell Stones even prior to being spell-worked, we need to know where these children are located.�

Tinker wasn�t sure if he meant �we� as in her Hand or the entire sekasha-caste whose job was to keep tabs on the domana-caste. It made suddenly clear why Jin was there, in the middle of the night, to report the news. She�d been thinking that this could have been handled by a phone call in the morning. To the elves, her siblings were potential walking weapons.

Jin was waiting for her to ask. His people were safe only because he promised to be her loyal servant. She was learning that everyone else understood that they had to wait for her to realize what the hell was going on and give the appropriate order.

�Where exactly are these�� Tinker paused as she realized that Jin was implying that her siblings weren�t adults. �Did you say children?�

�Technically two are children, and the other four are about to be newborns. They are at Haven.�

The tengu village was someplace deep in the virgin forest, in a location secret even to her. The adults kept travel from Pittsburgh to where their children were hidden to the minimum, going so far as staying at safe houses within the city instead of going home. Jin apparently returned to Haven to discover he�d been invaded by an army of little Dufaes.

�That is not all,� Jin added.

�This gets worse?� Tinker cried.

�In a manner of speaking � possibly. There is a third dragon in Pittsburgh.�

Okay, a dragon was not a phone call in the morning.

�Malice-size?� She spread her hands wide as possible to indicate the massive dragon that Jin helped her kill a few weeks earlier. The monster had been the size of a house. �Or Impatience?�

The second dragon was �small� only in scale to Malice. They were still talking large as a pickup truck.

Jin put his hands together so that they nearly touched. �Her name is Joy. She has claimed all your siblings as her Chosen. We cannot do anything with the children without her approval. She is very protective.�

Tinker snorted. �How protective can a pocket-size dragon get?�

�Very. She can and will summon help. We would be facing Impatience and most likely Providence against any attempts to go against her wishes.�

Dragon tag-team fighting. Okay, that was a very scary thought. Impatience nearly killed Tinker and her Hand when they first met. He had a mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth and impenetrable magical shields all backed with a genius that intimidated even her. Providence was dead and not-dead in a way that made her brain hurt. He was the guardian spirit of the tengu and they worshipped him as a god. It meant that in addition to fighting something that couldn�t be �killed,� it could push the tengu�s loyalty to her to a breaking point. The elves considered the tengu a valuable ally because of Jin�s alliance with Tinker. Otherwise, the elves would have wiped out the tengu � adults and children alike.

What Joy wants, Joy gets. Check. That�s assuming what Little Miss Pocket Dragon wanted was within reason.

Gracie Wong had been married to Tinker�s father and loved him deeply. There was little wonder that she would want to adopt Leo�s babies�

�Wait,� Tinker said again as she stumbled over another weird turn of phrase. �About to be newborn?�

�Yes, in a few months.� Jin�s wings rustled loudly. �Forgiveness, domi.� He murmured the command to dispel his wings and they vanished from his back. The dining room suddenly seemed a lot less crowded.

�So there�s really two kids and a very pregnant woman about to pop? Or are we talking four women about to have babies? What the hell? Is someone on Earth giving out Dufae kids like lottery tickets?�

�It�s�� Jin paused for a minute, obviously trying to find a safe, sane explanation. Considering Tinker�s summer to date, there might not be one. Single-handedly, she�d managed to accidently change her species, rip a hole in the fabric of realty, kidnap a major USA city, fall off the planet, crash a spaceship into Turtle Creek, kill a dragon�

Tinker was sure there was more but she was losing track of the weirdness. Not a good sign.

�It�s�it�s complicated,� Jin finally understated. �Maybe I should back up.� He paused again for several moments, mouth open, eyes flicking back and forth as he tried to find a safe place to start. �There are two girls, Louise and Jillian Mayer. They are twins, and very much like you.�

What did that mean? Short? Dark skin? Genius? Snarky? All of the above?

�Their father worked at the clinic where Leo�s sperm was stored,� Jin said. �Esme used Leo�s sperm to fertilize a dozen or so of her eggs. Some number of the fertilized eggs were used to create you and the rest were put into storage. Nine years ago, Mr. Mayer took some of the frozen embryos and implanted them into his wife. They raised your sisters as their natural-born children and I gather they were very good parents.�

�Were?� Tinker latched onto the word. Adoption usually happened after parents died. �Are they dead?�

�Yes. I�m not clear how they were killed but it was recent. After that, your grandmother gained custody of them.�

�My grandmother? I don�t have a grandmother. I had a grandfather. Two, if you count Forge, but he�s more like a great-great-great-something.� She�d made peace with her elf ancestor that afternoon, though he was still on probation with her for what he�d done to Oilcan. Forge was going to be ecstatic at the news that he had six more grandkids. If they were orphans, he�d probably want custody of them. She wasn�t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. Certainly, it would make the sekasha happy if the babies were with a domana, but her siblings were still human. She would prefer that they stay that way. No more of this changing species without warning.

�Esme�s mother,� Jin stated. When she looked at him confused, he expanded the statement with, �Esme�s mother is your grandmother. Anna Desmarais.�

�Desmarais? Shouldn�t it be Shanske?� Tinker tried to remember if Lain ever even talked about her family. Lain talked about Esme in terms of �my sister, the astronaut� but never anything else. Wait, there been something recently about Empire of Evil and Flying Monkeys. That didn�t sound good.

�Your grandmother remarried after Esme�s father was killed. I didn�t actually talk to the twins; they were asleep and apparently very emotionally fragile after everything they�ve been through. I thought you should be told immediately. I didn�t want to blindside you with any of this.�

�This didn�t count as being blindsided?� Tinker asked.

�This is still just between us � and Joy � and the other dragons. I believe that the Stone Clan might want to claim the children. And there is Esme to be considered. I owe your mother a great deal; without her intervention none of this could be possible. You would not have been born. Everyone on my ship would have been lost. My people would still be enslaved. Biologically, your siblings are her offspring. She did, however, abandon her genetic material when she left Earth. The children were carried by other women. Nor is Esme in a situation where she could take on the responsibility of raising six children, four of which are newborn.�

�Yyyeeeaaah.� Tinker wasn�t even sure where Esme was living since Tinker planted her mother�s spaceship into Turtle Creek. She knew Esme had spent several days in the hospital. Tinker had last seen Esme when they�d dropped her at Lain�s. No, wait, the sisters had come together to Poppymeadows � later � sometime. Tinker had totally lost track of time. It had been a super-condensed-weird summer and not yet officially over.

Esme and six kids in Lain�s house? With all those deadly plants? Tinker had spent the first two years of her life on a literal leash to keep her from toddling into the reach of the various man-eating plants. And there was a good reason why she hadn�t moved in with Lain when her grandfather died. Lain was the type of person who loved kids as long as she could send them home. Tinker had lived with Lain the month it took Tinker�s grandfather to fetch Oilcan from Boston after his mother was killed. Her stay degraded into a battle of wills that only stopped before open warfare because her grandfather had returned.

Esme had been distraught when she thought her �son� had been killed. She�d been overjoyed when she found out that Tinker was her daughter.

�Esme is capable of committing to crazy, impossible plans,� Tinker said. �She might want to try.�

�Domi,� Pony murmured. �By our laws, a child belongs foremost to its mother, but then to its clan. Who exactly qualifies as the children�s mother might be debated, since what your mother has done has never been tried among our people. It means that Stone Clan has the strongest claim, lacking a birth mother. Sunder is currently head of Stone Clan in the Westernlands.�

Tinker growled in frustration. �The Dufae stopped being Stone Clan generations ago. I have always considered myself as Wind Clan.�

�It was your right as an adult to choose a clan, but children are not considered mature enough to decide this.�

That was the same line of bullshit that Iron Mace used to justify what was done to Oilcan, despite the fact that her cousin was twenty-two and, as a human, adult. Tinker hadn�t met Sunder yet; the three new Stone Clan domana had arrived while she was out playing hide-and-seek with Chloe Polanski. With a name like Sunder, though, he or she probably wasn�t a pushover. Forge had promised never to betray any of his grandchildren again. He would be the lesser of evils � if he could be trusted.

�The children are only the tip of the iceberg,� Jin said.

�Oh good gods!� Tinker shouted. �What else? You didn�t even talk with the twins!�

Jin nodded that this was true. �They have been in Haven since you disappeared. I was focused on finding you and supporting Wolf Who Rules. It is our policy to maintain no communication between Haven and Pittsburgh, lest it would give away Haven�s location. They arrived, however, with one of the yamabushi��

�A what?�

�Forgiveness.� Jin pinched the bridge of his nose. �I forgot you do not know the term. There is so much that we should share with you about ourselves, but there never seems to be time.�

Tinker laughed tiredly. �Yes, I know. Story of my life lately.� She needed a crash course on everything from proper etiquette of �formal� meetings between clans to elf reproduction cycles. (The talk of babies reminded her that she wasn�t using birth control and earlier conversations on the subject boiled down to �don�t worry about that now.� She really should find out why she didn�t have to.)

�The yamabushi are what we call the blood guard of the Chosen One. They are descendants of Wong Jin�s loyal servants who�� He caught himself with a grimace. �It�s a very long story and most of it is not important right now. Your siblings arrived at Haven with a young male tengu by the name of Haruka Sessai. He�s been trained since birth to gather information. Haruka gave me a brief but concise report. I wanted to bring him with me so you could question him yourself. The girls, however, wake often from nightmares and find his presence comforting. They trust him and Joy tolerates him, so he is keeping guard over them.�

Tinker made a motion for Jin to move on. �What important details?�

�Your ancestor � Forge�s son, Unbounded Brilliance � died in France during the Revolution. Apparently when he fled Elfhome, he had with him a spell-locked box, which we believe he�d stolen from Iron Mace, hence the reason that the warlord came to Pittsburgh. Iron Mace wanted to know if your family knew what was in the box. When Unbounded Brilliance was beheaded in France, his infant son was taken to America, but the box was lost.�

It felt painfully wrong for something that happened over two hundred years ago to still be important, but Iron Mace had tried to kill Oilcan because of this box. �The only thing my family knows about it is some song.� Oilcan had sung it to her while telling her about his kidnapping. �Knock, knock, open the box��

Jin nodded. �The box was recently found in France and flown to New York. It was at the American Museum of Natural History. It was part of a traveling exhibit that the humans put together using objects that the elves left on Earth before contact between the two worlds were lost.�

Stormsong gasped.

�What?� Tinker asked.

�I�ve seen this box!� Stormsong said. �I was � oh � oh � oh sweet light � I�ve seen one of your sisters.�

�And you didn�t think to tell me?� Tinker shouted.

�You were still human and we had not yet met. Officially,� Stormsong added the qualifier. Tinker wasn�t sure what that was supposed to mean; she would remember meeting a blue-haired sekasha. Officially or unofficially. �I didn�t recognize the girl as your sister at the time. She was just a little human child, one of millions in New York City.�

�How do you know it was my sister?�

�She was at the museum after it was closed to the public, inside an invisible paper box.�

Was this �confound domi� night? �A what?�

Stormsong spread her hands. �I�m not sure how she managed it, but she was using a spell to be invisible so she could move through the museum unseen.�

That did sound like something Tinker would try to do. �But how? There�s isn�t magic on Earth!�

Stormsong spread her hands wider and clicked her tongue in an elvish version of a shrug.

�Esme is a powerful dreamer,� Jin said. �She foresaw that your presence was needed to save Pittsburgh. She apparently also knew that her attempts to produce you might create multiple children. It seems that she set up fail-safes to protect your siblings on Earth before she left the planet. One of the things that she gave them was the Dufae Codex.�

�How did Esme get a copy of that?� Tinker asked. �My grandfather never let anyone outside the family even see it.�

Jin spread his hands to indicate helpless ignorance. �The girls had it when Haruki joined forces with them. From what he could gather, it was through the Codex that they learned of the box and the nactka.�

Tinker stared at Jin while her mind raced. Her copy of the Codex had an entire section on spell-locked boxes. She�d studied it closely before designing a custom lockpick spell to unlock the box she found in the oni whelping pens. Did the Codex mention Iron Mace�s box specifically? Far as she could remember, there hadn�t been any warning written in it about Dufae�s uncle. She was fairly sure that the Codex didn�t say anything about invisible cardboard � she would have been all over that. How would you make something invisible? In New York City? �But-but-but Earth doesn�t have magic!�

�The twins are very intelligent and resourceful,� Jin said slowly, as if every word out of his mouth was carefully chosen. �I would guess they are your equals in that regard.�

Why her siblings were running around invisible was fairly easy to guess. Tinker had seen enough movies to know that Earth�s museums were filled with security cameras to protect their valuable artwork. The most confounding tidbit of information, though, was that Stormsong had been in New York City.

�What were you doing there, Stormsong?� Tinker didn�t think the elves ever went to Earth.

�I was with Sparrow. It was a diplomatic mission. She had taken half of Wolf�s First Hand because they had been to Earth long ago, before the war with the oni. Since I speak English, I was included � or at least, that was the reason Sparrow gave for taking me. It�s obvious now that she took the people most likely able to counter the attack on Wolf. When we returned, Pony met us at the train station with news that Wolf was missing and Hawk Scream was dead. The bitch ran us in circles all day until you brought Wolf to the hospice.�

Sparrow hadn�t survived Pony finding out that she was a traitor. She had been killed little more than a month ago but it seemed like forever now.

�And the box?� Jin asked. �Where is it?�

Stormsong shook her head. �It didn�t come with us.�

�Sparrow claimed it,� Jin said. �The twins hacked the museum�s computer system and intercepted emails stating that it had been taken by her.�

Invisibility aside, her siblings apparently hadn�t gotten what they were after. �What was in the box � and what are nactka?�

�There were twelve magical devices inside.� Jin took out what looked like a Faberg� egg done on a bowling-ball-size scale. �They are called a nactka. This is the one that your sisters took from the box. The twins could not take the other eleven that day and when they realized how important the contents were, it was too late. The box was gone.�

�What is it?� Tinker pointed at the oddly decorated egg.

�The term is oni; it means �trap.� They were developed on Onihida. These, however, seem as if they were crafted on Elfhome; their esthetics are very elvish. Joy was inside this one.�

�Little Miss Pocket Dragon?� Tinker eyed the egg-like container. Yes, Joy would have to be quite small to fit inside it. �You think there�s eleven more baby dragons inside the other traps?�

�We do not know for sure what are in the other eleven devices but we know that your ancestor referred to the nactka as �fully loaded.� It seems likely that they hold dragons.�

Yes, twelve baby dragons and six siblings warranted an immediate visit in the middle of the night. And perhaps more house insurance.

Tinker was positive, though, that the Dufae Codex said nothing about weird magical egg traps. �Are you sure that what the twins have is the same thing I�m calling the Dufae Codex?�

Jin frowned. �I hadn�t considered�there wasn�t time to verify that. We can determine it later.�

�Okay. Assuming the spell-locked box at the museum was the one that Dufae stole from Iron Mace � where did Iron Mace get twelve baby dragons?�

�I don�t know,� Jin said. �I will try to get the information from Joy. She�She�I�m told that she is quite�difficult to work with. You should be aware that the spell the oni used to transform my people � all of my people in a single transformation � was done using Providence�s body. It was a test run of an even greater spell they had developed that required his soul as well as his body. It is why he asked us to kill him.�

�Oh.� Tinker felt like someone had punched her. Eleven possible world-changing spells all locked into one deadly box. �Stormsong, are you sure the box that we took from the whelping pens wasn�t it?�

�No, the box at the museum was smaller.� She measured it out with her hands. �Such boxes are common in the Easternlands. We traded with humans on Earth for centuries. I thought a traveling merchant must have lost it.�

�This is a picture of the actual box.� Jin pulled a slickie from his bag and flipped the pages until he found the desired picture.

Everyone leaned over the digital magazine to eye the gleaming photo. The box was roughly the size of a footlocker with the locking spell along its top edge. On Earth, the lid would have been sealed at a molecular level. The twins shouldn�t have been able to open it to take anything out � nor could anyone else.

�I believe,� Cloudwalker said slowly, �that I�ve seen this box here in Pittsburgh. Or, at least, pieces of it.�

Everyone stared at him in surprise.

�You have?� Pony asked the question that Tinker couldn�t form.

�While you and domi were being held captive by the oni, a fight broke out in the house of history.� Cloudwalker pointed toward the direction of the Carnegie Museum. Elves didn�t have museums so they didn�t have a word for them; it seemed to be a weird side effect of being immortal. �The humans that killed the river monsters in the�the�the�I don�t remember the word for it. The big round place down by the river. The middle is flat. There are many seats. Thousands of seats.�

�The stadium?� Stormsong prompted while Pony continued to look confused. �The thing that looks like an amphitheater but without a stage?�

�Yes. That. The humans with the big�� Cloudwalker struggled with another English word that didn�t have a direct Elvish equivalent. �Ca � ca � cannon?�

�Cannon?� Tinker shouted. �What river monsters? What were river monsters doing in the stadium? Why didn�t anyone tell me about this?�

Cloudwalker spread his hands helplessly. �Because the monsters were already long dead before we could talk with you again?�

�Because there were so many other things to tell you?� Stormsong said.

�Because this is the first that I�ve heard about it?� Pony said. �What river monsters?�

�Massive carp that could walk on land and throw lightning!� Little Egret threw his arms wide open in an attempt to demonstrate either the large size or the throwing of lightning. Tinker wasn�t sure which.

�What? Carp? Like fish?� Tinker asked.

�Yes!� all the sekasha except Pony said.

�Very big fish,� Stormsong added. �Malice-sized.�

�That could throw lightning and walk on land,� Little Egret repeated.

It was oddly comforting to know that she wasn�t responsible for all the weirdness that hit Pittsburgh that summer. Tinker had lost track of how the river monsters related to her six siblings. �What does this have to do with�� What were they talking about? Her sisters being invisible on Earth? No. �The missing box with the baby dragons?�

�The people that killed the river monsters found the box at the house of history,� Cloudwalker said.

�Hal Rogers,� Stormsong supplied a name.

�Who? Wait! Hal Rogers as in Pittsburgh Backyard and Garden? That Hal Rogers? He�s a dangerous maniac! The police all hate him. He sets people on fire!�

�He�s got a new show,� Stormsong said. �Monsters in Our Midst. He�s been very aggressive at educating Pittsburghers about the dangers they�re facing at the hands of the oni. The people who wear blue hats are his fans. Hal�s Heroes.�

Tinker wanted to ask about the hats but didn�t want to derail the conversation even more. Now that Stormsong mentioned it, she realized that she�d been seeing a ton of people out on the streets wearing the same blue hat. �So PB&G was at the museum?�

The conversation screeched to a halt as all of the elves were confused by the initials.

�Yes,� Cloudwalker said once it was clear that they were all discussing the same thing. �I had been delivering a message from the queen, so I arrived just after the fighting broke out.�

Tinker locked down on a confused �What fighting?� because she didn�t want to change the subject again. Obviously, there was much she missed during the summer while being kidnapped by oni and falling off the planet. �You saw this box?�

�Pieces of it. There is a wood shop in the basement of the house of history. We found parts of a spell-locked box that had been cut open. I thought it was odd but the entire building is filled with odd things. They have life-sized dolls that look like humans being attacked by lions. Why would they have that?�

�Stay on target! Stay on target!� Tinker pointed at the fancy egg-thing that Jin claimed to hold the baby dragons. �There was nothing that looked like that?�

�I did not see anything that looked like that,� Cloudwalker said.

Which was a very careful way to say that the eggs could have been at the museum but Cloudwalker didn�t see them. At least the location made sense; Sparrow must have had the New York museum ship the box to its Elfhome counterpart. It would have allowed Sparrow to keep the sekasha with her ignorant of the box�s existence even as she orchestrated its shipment.

�Why would they need to cut the box open?� Tinker had taken days to carefully pick the lock on the box they found at the whelping pens because it was booby-trapped. Cutting that box open would have set off an explosion, destroying the contents and part of Poppymeadows� enclave. �If it was Iron Mace�s box that Unbounded Brilliance stole, wouldn�t the Skin Clan know the key word to open it?�

Pony shook his head. �According to his Hand, Iron Mace owned a medium-sized spell-locked box for centuries before Unbounded Brilliance was born. He alone knew the key word for it. His Hand did not realize the box had been stolen. Only after Iron Mace was killed did they realize that the last time that they could remember seeing the box was prior to his nephew�s disappearance. Red Knife determined that while the song �knock, knock, open the box� seems to indicate that the two events are linked, there is no concrete proof of treason on their part.�

It sounded as if Iron Mace�s entire household was questioned after Oilcan�s kidnapping. Tinker hadn�t been aware of it, so it probably had been done by the Wyverns. The Fire Clan�s sekasha were considered the head of their caste. Red Knife, Prince True Flame�s First, would have beheaded Iron Mace�s people if he thought that they were in league with the Skin Clan. The idea was weirdly comforting and terrifying at the same time.

�After Iron Mace lost the box, the Skin Clan probably didn�t trust him enough to tell him that they had found it again,� Stormsong said. �Iron Mace came to Pittsburgh to find out what you and Oilcan knew about its contents. He wouldn�t have done that if he knew that Dufae had lost it hundreds of years ago.�

Tinker agreed with that logic. �If the box from the whelping pens hadn�t been booby-trapped, I could have cut it open. Most Pittsburghers don�t know how to work with ironwood, but the oni had dozens of carpenters disguised by magic to appear human. They made the wooden framework of the gate I built. Some of them might have worked at the museum.� Tinker ticked off what they knew on her fingers. �Sparrow went to Earth during May Shutdown. She told the museum in New York that the box belonged to her. To make sure that the sekasha with her didn�t find out about it, though, she asked the staff to ship it to Elfhome separately. The museum on Earth ships it to the Carnegie during the June Shutdown. Someone cut it open and took out the egg-thingies. After the July Shutdown, Cloudwalker finds the box in pieces. It�s September now.�

�Kajo has had the dragons for months,� Jin whispered, his voice filled with horror.

�He hasn�t done anything with them yet.� Tinker stood up, her mind racing. So many problems that needed to be answered. Now. She snapped her fingers, calling to everyone that was hiding in the shadows: elves and tengu. �I need my datapad from my bedroom. Someone find me a printer, a whiteboard, some power strips, and every lamp you can bring me. There�s a cardboard box in my closet; get that.�

The box contained the original Codex. She needed to cross-reference her digital copy with it. She had noticed recently that her grandfather had deleted key information, presumably to protect her as a child. What exactly had he taken out? She needed to know what Dufae actually knew about the Skin Clan�s plan. What else? She was still in her nightgown, bathrobe, and slippers. �Get me some clothes! Pants and a shirt, not a dress! I want my boots. A couple yards of string in five different colors. Send someone to get my cousin. Tell him to bring his digital copy of the Codex. And get me another pot of strong tea.�

�Oilcan.� The tiny voice whispered in the ultrasonic range. �Oilcan!�

He opened his eyes and blinked. And blinked again. Four mice on tiny hoverbikes stood in the pool of light on his nightstand. They wore racing goggles perched on their heads and scarfs of various colors wrapped about their necks.

�We did it!� The pink-scarfed mouse fist-pumped its little paw. �Hooyah!�

This made the other three mice cheer and clap their hands.

�Hello?� Oilcan whispered. He might be dreaming � or his life just got a whole lot odder.

�Oilcan, we have an important mission for you!� Pink Mouse cried.

�Life and death!� the Green Mouse and Red Mouse squeaked in unison.

�Me?� He couldn�t imagine what he could do for talking mice.

�You are Orville Wright, correct?� Blue Mouse asked. Unlike the other three, this one sounded male. Like Christopher Robin to be exact.

Oilcan glanced around, trying to determine if he was actually awake or still asleep. His new bedroom at Sacred Heart still disoriented him by the unfamiliar play of darkness and moonlight through the tall windows. The bed beside him was empty. Thorne Scratch had gotten up, turned on the lamp, and gotten dressed. Her sword and armor were missing.

He seemed awake�

�And you hate your name, correct?� Pink asked. �Orrrville.�

Which was exactly how the kids in grade school used to mangle his name.

�Yeah,� Oilcan said. �But what does that have to do with anything?�

�You have to find us wonderful names!� Red and Green cried. �Orville Oilcan, you�re our only hope!�

�They don�t want to call me Chuck Norris,� Pink explained. �They want to call me Charlene! Chaaarleeennnneee!�

�And they say we can�t be Jawbreaker!� Red and Green cried.

�Jawbreaker?� Oilcan echoed.

A wordless squeal of delight and the rattle of hard sugar candy within a cardboard box announced a fifth visitor. A tiny dragon phased out of his nightstand with its discovery. Oilcan thought for a moment that Impatience had somehow been reduced to squirrel size. He realized that the colors were wrong. This tiny dragon was a delicate dusky pink color instead of bold red.

The dragon held up the box of Everlasting Gobstoppers that Oilcan had bought for Impatience. In a little girl voice, it said, �Candy! Yummy!�

She tore open the box. She stuck in her arm up to her armpit, fished about and pulled out a piece of candy the size of her fist. �Nom, nom, nom!�

�Jawbreakers are Joy�s favorite candy!� Green and Red explained in unison.

�By the time we can do anything about our names, it�s going to be too late,� Chuck Norris said. �We�ll be stuck with horrible names. Once those names get pinned on us, we won�t be able to get everyone to use the ones we really want.�

Their point wasn�t completely off since Oilcan still had people who refused to call him anything but Orville. All the tax forms and legal documents too, required him to use his �real� name.

�We want cool names!� the Jawbreakers cried.

�I want to be Chuck Norris. If Alexander can be Alexander Graham Bell then I can be Chuck Norris Dufae.�

Dufae? That was his mother�s maiden name. Were these mice somehow related to him? Were they descendants of some long-lost great-great-uncle? His grandfather had handed out some stupid names to his grandchildren � Orville Wright and Alexander Graham Bell � but Oilcan never thought being bad at naming children was a genetic trait.

Two kids both called Jawbreaker was worse than anything his grandfather handed out. It should be easy to pick out something better.

�What names do you want?� Oilcan asked.

�Crimson Death!� Red cried.

�Cthulhu!� Green cried.

This wasn�t going to be simple as it sounded. This was so surreal. It had to be a dream. He glanced down at the mice feet. His notepad lay open with his to-do list written on the top piece of paper.

Find more dishes for Barley. Thrift clothes for Cattail Reeds? Sheet music for Merry and Rustle. Dog food for Repeat. Find out where the piglet came from! Tell Baby Duck no more pets!

If he could read the list, was he really dreaming? If he wasn�t dreaming, was there really a tiny dragon standing on his nightstand, inhaling gumballs? Whose �children� were these mice? Were they really related to him?

The door of his bedroom opened.

�Code red!� Chuck Norris cried. �Abort!�

She vanished, along with Crimson Death and Cthulhu. The tiny dragon bounded away, phasing through the wall.

The mouse in blue was the only one that remained. �Please, Oilcan, help them. I don�t want to be the only one with a cool name.�

�What�s your name?� Oilcan asked.

�Nikola Tesla Dufae.� Nikola looked past Oilcan toward the opening door. �Got-to-go-bye!�

�Domou?� Thorne Scratch stalked into the room, ejae drawn and pointed toward the nightstand. �Who are you talking to?�

That was a good question.

�I might have been talking in my sleep,� Oilcan said.

Thorne Scratch looked troubled as she sheathed her ejae. �Most domana do not true dream but most are not wood sprites.�

Tinker had told him about her odd Wizard of Oz dreams fueled by her mother desperately calling for help. What in the world could the mice symbolize? What was the importance of the weird names?

He realized that his nightstand was littered with pieces of cardboard. He picked up a jagged shard of brightly colored paper. It was the remains of the Everlasting Gobstopper box.

His future was going to be very odd if it involved a miniature dragon and talking mice.

�A runner from cousin is at the door.� That explained why Thorne was awake and armed. �Beloved Tinker of the Wind wishes to talk to you immediately. She wants you to bring your copy of the Dufae Codex.�

�The Codex?� Oilcan glanced at his bedside clock to confirm that it was indeed in the middle of the night. Tinker was still recovering from breaking her arm twice. She should be deep asleep, not in mad-scientist mode. �Oh, that can�t be good.�

Louise jolted out of sleep. She flailed with the light sheet covering her. Her quiet cries of dismay turned to ones of frustration. Her twin, Jillian, had her left hand pinned to the futon mattress that they shared.

For a moment Louise was completely disoriented. She expected her old bedroom, the one she had shared with Jillian most of her life. The streetlights would shine through the one window to fall across the foot of their beds. There was always the hum of traffic, the sirens of distant ambulances and police cars responding to some unknowable emergency, and occasionally the bark of a lonely dog.

The airy space wasn�t their bedroom. It swayed ever so slightly in the wind. The smell of autumn leaves hung in the air. Elf shines floated like fireflies through the air, barely holding back the cave dark of moonless night.

�Oh,� she whispered as she realized that she was in Gracie�s small treehouse, far above the forest floor, on Elfhome. Their home in Queens was hundreds of miles and another universe away. The treehouse, while charming, was rustic in almost every sense of the word. Their playhouse on Earth had more bells and whistles before they blew it up. Electricity. Wi-Fi. Furniture. Direct access to the ground.

The twins were in the roughly eight-foot-square living room of the treehouse that looked like a Japanese teahouse. Tatami mats covered the floor. One wall was the trunk of the ironwood tree. The other three walls had sliding shoji doors. The east and west panels of translucent paper over wooden frames were closed against night drafts. The southern door stood open to the narrow patio that wrapped the treehouse. There was an overhead light fixture powered by small windmills but they weren�t allowed to turn it on. The oni might spot it. The only piece of furniture was a kotatsu table currently leaning against the wall to make room for their futon mattress. The rest of the area was taken up by the nesting box.

Gracie Wong Dufae � their biological father�s widow � was asleep in her tiny bedroom, another thirty feet up the massive tree. Proving that the tengu weren�t just humans with wings, the poor female had spent the day laying four huge eggs, each larger than an ostrich egg. They were sky blue with black speckles; apparently it was the normal coloration for oni crows. The twins had strategically missed all the drama; they�d deliberately spent the day exploring the hidden tengu village, returning only to find another egg had been laid in the blanketlined, temperature-controlled nest. Louise was glad they managed to save her unborn siblings but Gracie popping out eggs was a little weird and creepy.

�Oh, you little brats,� Louise whispered as she remembered the dream that woke her. Crow Boy � the yamabushi Haruka Sessai � was missing from his normal sleeping spot of the treehouse�s patio. It could mean that her dream had been true; he might have met or was meeting with Jin Wong even now to give the tengu spiritual leader a report on all that they knew.

�Hm?� Jillian woke. She tightened her hold on Louise�s hand.

�I dreamed that � that � that�� Louise stuttered to a halt. Had she told Jillian that her dreams had been coming true since they first turned on their magic generator? At first Louise didn�t know what was happening. She couldn�t see magic like Jillian could; she never thought that it would affect her in any way. By the time she realized she had a special power, Jillian was lost in grief. Her sister was still fragile.

�I dreamed of Mommy and Daddy,� Jillian raised their joined hands to wipe tears from her face. �Peter Pan had taken Mommy away to tell the lost boys stories. Daddy went too because he wanted to fly. We were tiny and helpless like Tinker Bell; just little gleams of light. We tried to find Mommy and Ming locked us in a birdcage like the one we saved Crow Boy from.�

Louise didn�t know what to say or do to make things right for her sister. Their grandmother hadn�t let them go to the funeral. They hadn�t gotten a chance to say goodbye or even confirm with their own eyes that their parents were dead. Louise hadn�t truly believed it until she talked with their Aunt Kitty, who had no reason to lie. Considering Jillian�s state, though, perhaps it had been for the best. Maybe Jillian couldn�t have taken the brutal truth.

What could Louise do? Her own dream pressed close, frightening not because it was of things that could not be changed in the past, but loomed over them as things that might yet come. Was Jillian strong enough to deal with all the things that Louise had seen in her dream? Did they have the time for Louise to even delay the truth?

She decided to start small. �In my dreams, the babies rode little hoverbikes to visit Orville. They wanted him to help them pick out new names. They�re not very happy with the ones we chose.�

Jillian laughed, sounding more like her old self. �What? Don�t you think Chuck will like Charlene?�

�No. She hates it,� Louise said. �Orville wasn�t any help. He doesn�t like his name either. He likes to be called Oilcan.�

�Oilcan?� Jillian let go of Louise�s hand to stretch. �Oilcan? What a weird name. How do you think he got it?�

�I�m not sure.� Louise frowned in the darkness at the innocent-looking incubator. While they were at the mansion, the babies said that Joy had taught them to dream walk, allowing them to explore. The babies had known about the caves under the house long before the twins. Were they really still restlessly exploring despite growing in eggs instead of suspended in frozen nitrogen? How did they interact with Oilcan? It didn�t seem safe, them wandering around like that, even if they weren�t really leaving their eggs. �I think we really need to pick other names for the babies.�

�I liked Charlene.� Jillian even looked more like herself, as her short �Peter Pan� haircut of June had grown out. Her hair had been a brash carrot orange after she�d bleached it in New York City in an attempt to disguise herself. The tengu had taken pity on her and produced a hairdresser to dye Jillian�s hair back to her original brown color.

�Charleeene.� Louise mimicked Chuck Norris.

Jillian laughed again. �Okay. Why don�t we just call her Chuck Norris Dufae and be done with it? No one seems to go by their real name on Elfhome. At least, not in our family.�

�I want to stay Louise Mayer.� Louise lay back down beside her twin.

�I want to stay Jillian Eloise Mayer.� Jillian shifted the blue-flannel pillowcase that housed the remains of her childhood huggy blanket Fritz to curl beside Louise. �Together, we�re Lemon-Lime JEl-Lo. But what do we call the Jawbreakers?�

They�d picked out two girl names after considering hundreds. Louise couldn�t even remember what they settled on. Obviously the babies didn�t like the choices.

�Jawbreaker could be their middle names,� Louise said. �It not like we use our middle names. I bet no one outside our family knows what they are. We could use some other names that still mean Red and Green. Red. Rose. Ruby.�

�What�s wrong with Cherry? It�s a flavor of candy.�

Was that what they settled on? Louise couldn�t remember but apparently the babies didn�t like the name. It wasn�t as dramatic as Crimson Death. She was blanking on the shades of red. �Maybe Vermilion?�

�Gag!� Jillian cried. �Cerise.�

�That�s just cherry in French.�

�They won�t know.�

Louise wasn�t too sure of that. �Magenta.�

�Makes me think of Rocky Horror.� Jillian threw her hands up in the air and sang, �Let�s do the time warp again!�

�That might be a good thing.� Rocky Horror was cool and that�s what the babies wanted. Still it felt off. �Scarlet? Scarlet Witch. Scarlet Overkill.�

�Oh she would love that!� Jillian said. �Or Skarlet from Mortal Kombat. Finish him!�

�Scarlet Dufae.� Louise tried it with the last name that the babies had already claimed.

�I like it. It rolls. One down. Green. Moss. Olive.�

�No and no.� Louise vetoed both Moss and Olive.

�Why not?�

�I don�t know. They just don�t feel � right. Emerald. Lime.�

�We�re Lime,� Jillian said. �Lemon-Lime JEl-Lo.�

In other words, both Lemon and Lime were off the list.

Louise tried to think of another green name. All that was coming to mind was Avocado. The babies� names weren�t their most pressing of problems. If her dream was true, then the box full of baby dragons � possibly Joy�s brothers and sisters � had fallen into oni hands.

�Pickle,� Jillian said.

�What?� Louise asked in confusion.

�I�m still trying to think of green names. It sucks that this place doesn�t have Wi-Fi. We could look up shades of green. None of the ones I can think of sound like a little girl.�

�I don�t think they want to have names that sound like little girls.�

�All the green words I can think of is food. Basil. Mint. Pistachio. I think I�m hungry. I want ice cream.�

�Ice cream!� Joy cried from the shadows. The baby dragon bounded across the floor to their futon bed. She had a Gobstopper in either paw.

�Where you get that candy?� Jillian cried.

�Found them! Yummy! Nomnomnom!� Joy shoved both into her mouth to demonstrate.

Louise�s heart sank at the proof that Joy had raided Oilcan�s nightstand. It meant that her dream of Jin telling Tinker about the box was probably also true. Louise had noticed that the tengu leader had carefully given the impression that the babies would be born, not hatched. He�d dodged the question about how many women were pregnant with Dufae babies. He�d said nothing about eggs.

Crow Boy had told them that it normally took a great deal of ceremony to summon Providence�s spirit to discuss important issues. Impatience had vanished after the dragons had implanted the babies into Gracie. Joy was uncommunicative to the tengu, whom she saw as Providence�s property. She might tell the twins but her English mostly consisted of food-related words. It wasn�t that she couldn�t learn more, she merely refused to.

It meant that no one knew exactly what the dragons had done to the babies in order for them to survive.

When the twins had taken Crow Boy to the hospital, it became apparent that the tengu weren�t human at a very basic level. It was possible that the dragons had changed the babies so that they could thrive within eggs. They might be genetically tengu in addition to elf, dragon, and human. No one would know until the eggs hatched.

Louise didn�t care what kind of feet the babies had when they were born. Human. Crow. It didn�t matter to her. Jin probably avoided the issue because it would matter greatly to the elves. Would it matter to their older sister, Alexander, who obviously liked to be called Tinker? To their �biological� mother, Esme? To Oilcan, who probably was going to end up as their guardian? It made Louise uneasy just thinking about it.

Even more worrisome was the matter of the box. If only she�d known while they were robbing the museum to take all of the eggs. If only they�d tried to intercept the shipment to Elfhome. She and Jillian had been so focused on the babies, they hadn�t thought beyond their own needs.

There was a lot that Jin didn�t tell Tinker domi. It was possible that in all the chaos, the information had gotten lost. Had she and Jillian told Crow Boy everything that they knew? It had been July when they rescued the tengu youth out of the cage. It had been a frantic scramble to escape from the fortress of evil, get safely to Monroeville, and then rescue the Nestlings. It was now September. Louise had lost most of August while recovering from being shot by Yves. Surely, sometime while Louise hadn�t been fully conscious, Jillian had covered everything that they hadn�t told Crow Boy.

Did Jillian know everything?

After their parents died, Louise kept more and more secrets from her twin. Jillian had been so fragile. Louise had been afraid that if Jillian knew how truly perilous their situation was that Jillian would break. Even now, with all the surviving members of their family safe, she wasn�t sure if Jillian could handle more.

Louise had a terrible feeling that �more� was in store in the near future.

�I�m sorry, Lou.� Jillian distracted Louise from her quiet fears. �I lost it at the mansion. I was so scared for the babies. They�d become real to me � as real as Mom and Dad. They�re our baby brother and sisters � and I couldn�t see how we were going to save them. I�m angry at myself now. I should have known that the two of us can do anything when we put our minds together. We robbed the Museum of Natural History! We stole millions and millions of dollars from Ming the Merciless. We checked into the Waldorf Astoria and lived like queens. We rescued all those kids and�and�and�we�re Lemon-Lime JEl-Lo! We�ve been internationally famous video producers since we were seven years old with millions of fans around the world. We can do anything!�

Louise wanted to believe that Jillian wasn�t that broken after all. She might have grown stronger while Louise was sick. Or maybe Jillian was lying to herself. Maybe Jillian needed to believe she was stronger in order to be stronger. Louise didn�t know.

�You were great,� Louise said. �The fake elves didn�t know how scared you were.�

�It was just an act.�

�You could have won an Oscar for your performance.�

�It helped to be someone else,� Jillian whispered. �Someone a lot braver than me. Next time, I�ll pretend to be you. You were amazing.�

Louise hoped that there would be no �next time.�

�Oh!� Jillian made an odd hurt sound.

�What�s wrong?� Louise stood, ready to fight because fleeing would be impossible.

�Crow Boy!� Jillian had noticed that the teenager was missing. �I told him that he�d roll off the patio if he slept out there!�

Louise followed Jillian out onto the patio. Night pressed in around them, full of the rustle of leaves.

�That idiot!� Jillian peered down at the ground, two hundred feet below. The forest floor was lost in the darkness; it was like looking down into a well. �How do you think we�re going to get down to check on him? I don�t think tying our sheets together would work. They�d only get us twenty feet at most. Maybe if we made parachutes.�

�Shhh!� Louise pointed up to indicate the sleeping Gracie somewhere above them; it was too dark to see the tiny bedroom. �I don�t think he fell. I think he went to talk to someone.�

�In the middle of the night?� Jillian whispered.

�The warriors have returned.� Crow Boy�s voice came out of the darkness.

It was surprising how quietly he could fly. One moment the twins were alone on the balcony, and the next, the teenaged tengu was landing on the railing. With a soft rustle, he closed his large black wings. He�d abandoned all pretense of being human since arriving on Elfhome. He was bare chested and barefoot, wearing only a pair of blue jean shorts. Jillian must have gotten used to it while they were at the caves; she didn�t seem to notice his bird toes curling down to grip the railing tightly. Louise was still trying to see it as normal. It took all her control not to stare at his feet.

�You just left without telling us?� Jillian crossed her arms and looked just like when their mother would go into warrior princess mode.

�I�m sorry.� Crow Boy gave a slight bow. The tips of his black hair were still bleached blond from their attempts to disguise him in New York City. For some reason Louise found it comforting, as if they still had some claim on his loyalty. �I thought I would return before you woke up. The warriors, who had been out searching for Tinker domi, have returned to Haven. I saw Jin Wong! I never thought I would ever meet him; he left Earth before I was born. He�s been lost to us my entire life. He has this � this � calmness. It�s like a deep mountain lake.�

�You could have left a note,� Jillian grumbled. ��Dear Jillian and Louise, I didn�t fall to my death.��

Louise stuffed her knuckles into her mouth to keep from crying out in dismay. Was Jin still flying to warn their older sister or had that already happened too? Joy had the candy. Tinker had sent for Oilcan after Jin left. Yes, Jin had delivered Crow Boy�s report in full.

�What did you tell Jin?� Louise tried to keep her voice steady. �I know you � you � you probably told him about the babies and Joy and the box � but did you tell him about Ming? Crown Prince Kiss Butt? Flying Monkey Four and Five? Tristan and�� What had been Tristan�s older brother�s name? The elves at Ming�s mansion had talked about Esme�s half brothers and the mysterious �Eyes� only once or twice. Tristan had been scolded when he asked about his younger sisters, raised in secret from their mother, Anne. What was his brother�s name? �Lucien. His name was Lucien.�

�Monkeys?� Crow Boy�s confusion was clear on his face. �Crown Prince Kiss Butt?�

�They�re all back on Earth.� Fear tinged Jillian�s voice. �Aren�t they?�

Louise slowly shook her head. Crow Boy�s confusion she half expected, since she was using Esme�s nicknames for her stepfather, stepbrother and half brothers. Louise was sure she�d told Jillian about the conversation that she overheard at the mansion. She�d been so angry at Ming for stopping Tristan from seeing his mother. Ming made Tristan live alone even though he was still technically a child. In her dreams, she�d seen how lonely Tristan�s existence had been. Did she leave out that Tristan had been sent to help his older brother? �Lucien has been here on Elfhome the whole time. Tristan was sent to back him up in July. Ming came across too.�

�Yves?� Jillian whispered.

Louise flinched as the memories from the cave flashed through her mind. Huddling in the absolute dark. A killer nearby. The pain of being shot. Her blood spilling warm down her arm. She thought that Jillian and Crow Boy would have seen Yves� body when they found her. There must have been a second cave-in.

I killed him. Louise opened her mouth but couldn�t force the words out. She tried for an less than honest truth. �He�s � he�s still on Earth.� Under a ton of rocks. Better him than her. He had a gun. She thought she was unarmed until she tried to do magic out of sheer desperation.

I did a Force Strike! Louise gasped as she realized that if she had done it once, she could do it again.

�What?� Jillian asked as Louise stared at her hand.

�We can call the Spell Stones,� Louise whispered.

Jillian squealed with excitement. Jillian put her left hand to her mouth and called the Spell Stones to cast a shield. Louise felt a sudden tingling flush like static electricity and the air pressure around them changed. �Yes! Yes! Yes!�

The sense of power disappeared as Jillian bounced about the room in the dance of joy.

�We can do magic!� Louise whispered, full of happiness.

�We�re elves!� Jillian whispered loudly. �We can do magic! We�re domana elves!�

Oh, yes, that.

Crow Boy was looking slightly alarm. �I think I need to talk to Jin again.�

�No, don�t tell him!� The words were out of Louise�s mouth before she even knew what she was going to say. �No one can know that we can cast spells.�

�He�s my leader. I�ve dedicated my life to him.� Crow Boy said in a low, serious tone.

The words continued to pour out. �If you tell him, he�ll need to tell Tinker domi. Tinker domi will need to tell Prince True Flame. He�ll have to tell the current head of the Stone Clan, which is Sunder. If Sunder finds out, then everyone will die.�

�The tengu can�t lie to Tinker domi,� Crow Boy said. �We cannot afford to lose faith.�

�There�s lying and then there�s just not saying anything,� Jillian said.

�Jin isn�t even here in Haven,� Louise said as Crow Boy frowned at Jillian�s statement. �He�s in Pittsburgh talking to Tinker domi. He won�t fly back tonight. It�s four in the morning. He�ll sleep at one of the safe houses in the city. We need time.�

�Time for what?� Crow Boy asked.

�To be ready,� Louise said. She wasn�t sure for what.

Jillian gave her an odd look, obviously unsure if Louise was lying or not.

Crow Boy frowned at the floor, thinking. His left foot scratched at the railing as he considered Louise�s request. �If you had not pulled me out of that cage, saved the Nestlings, and got us all safely to Haven, I would never allow this. You could have left me in the cage � at the hospital � at the hotel � and gone on without me or mine at any time. It would have been easier and safer for you. I have seen you move mountains for the good of my people. You are Joy�s Chosen. While it goes against my training, I will keep my silence for now.�

�Thank you,� Louise said.

Jillian held up her finger. �What exactly are we getting ready for?�

Louise waited for the answer. Whatever truth had battered its way out of her, it was spent. Gone. �I don�t know.� She glanced around the room. The tengu gave them forest camo towels. She picked up a middle-sized one to use as a blindfold. �I might be able to find out.�

�You want to dream walk?� Crow Boy pointed toward Gracie�s bedroom. There were no lights on in it. Their talking hadn�t woken the female. �I could get Wai Sze. She�s the Flock�s dream crow.�

Louise shook her head as she tied the blindfold into place. She wanted to say yes. There was a little niggle in her chest that made it seem like a bad idea. As darkness closed in, the feeling grew. �She would tell Jin. She doesn�t really know me. She doesn�t trust us like you do. She sees us as her husband�s children. Small. Helpless. She will feel like she needs to protect us. She will stop us from doing what needs to be done.�

Jillian caught Louise�s hand and squeezed it tight. �We�ll kick butt and take names.�

Brave words. Jillian, though, was shaking.

Louise took a deep breath. She had only done this once before on purpose. It seemed as if she needed to enter search words to lock in on a vision. Last time it had been like being hit by lightning. What was coming? How did they prepare for it? Why shouldn�t they tell Jin or Gracie? She said that if Sunder found out, everyone would die. Why?

Was this going to work? Could she actually control seeing the future? There was something she was missing. The other times she had focused on their older sister. If magic worked some weird quantum effect on time, then at some distant point, she and Tinker had been within their mother�s body and then a test tube and bathed in their father�s seed. It could have just as easily been Louise that ended up in the salvage yard when Windwolf came over the fence. Tinker could have been the one who became Jillian�s twin�

�Hurry! Hurry! The time is at hand!� It was like plugging into an outlet. Power surged through her, sure and strong. �Clarity�s Vision reaches across time and space! All that she has put in place must come together or perish! Youngest to the oldest, Brilliance must stand against the darkness. Heed the words written by the father. He was guided by Vision. He provides the protection against the danger that comes for them all. When the times come, the youngest will save them.�

Then it was gone.

�Well,� Jillian said after a moment, �that was helpful. Not! What the hell did that mean?�

The power was gone but a stain of the image remained. �Something horrible is about to happen. Everyone is in danger. We have to do something. If we don�t, everyone will die.�

�Do what?� Jillian asked.

�What�s going to happen?� Crow Boy asked.

Louise shook her head. �I don�t know. Something horrible. Something huge. We�re the only ones that can save everyone.�

They sat in silence for a minute, lost before the vision.

�Okay,� Jillian broke the silence. �We�re not going to save the day stuck way up here with no power or tools or anything. We�re going to have to go down to the ground, get all our stuff, and get linked into whatever passes as internet here.�

When Tommy Chang had left the half-oni warren to find Jewel Tear, he�d told his cousin Bingo to shift their family to someplace else. He hadn�t been able to give detailed instructions as they were whispering to each other under the gaze of the elves. Tommy thought he could trust his cousin to pick someplace safe and reasonable.

He was wrong.

Tommy had meant someplace in a deserted part of town, big enough to take them all, but easily defended. It needed electricity, running water, sewage, and enough heat that they wouldn�t freeze come winter. Pittsburgh was filled with hundreds of empty warehouses and industrial parks. Any one of them would have worked.

Bingo had moved them into the William freaking Penn Hotel.

Nor was it just their family in the twenty-story hotel. Somehow while Tommy had been tracking down Jewel Tear, saving Oilcan, and finding Tinker, Bingo had taken in three other families made homeless by the fighting on the South Side. It doubled the size of their warren to over a hundred people, but most of them were under the age of twenty.

�We need to get out of this shithole.� Tommy had been woken up by a phone call from Oilcan. He�d promised to drive out to Oakland as soon as he could get dressed. He would need to trust Bingo � again � to move their warren. This time, he was going to give detailed instructions.

�What? Don�t you like your room?� Bingo gazed about Tommy�s suite. It looked like something out of a movie. �It was a real circus getting everyone settled in, what with us having so many little ones. I let Mokoto figure it all out and then me and Babe made sure people went where they were supposed to go. I think Mokoto did a swell job. There are apartments upstairs with two bedrooms and a little mini kitchen. He put my mom, Aunt Amy and Aunt Flo in those so that all the babies could be with them. Some of the rooms have a door connecting it to the room beside it. Motoko put four little ones on one side and then two teens on one other side to be built-in babysitters. He made sure that almost everyone doubled so we only take up two or three floors instead of scattering throughout the hotel. Just you, me, and Mokoto have our own place. Mokoto calls them �sweets� like candy. I think it�s a great room.�

Sweets. Tommy shook his head. They were suites, as in having separate sitting rooms. All the colors in Tommy�s � from the subtle gold-printed wallpaper to the ornate carpet in blends of mute reds to the fancy umber curtains � worked together to say �money.� The bedroom had a massive bed with more pillows than any five people could use piled on it. The sitting room had two matching armchairs and a coffee table of gleaming perfection. Between the two areas was a bathroom that looked too nice to pee in.

�It�s a hotel in the middle of Downtown!� Tommy�s family had shifted all his belongs to his new room. Someone had washed, folded, and neatly put everything away, but Tommy couldn�t figure out how they decided where to put what. He opened the top drawer of the dresser and found it filled with underwear. He had boxers on, so he closed it and tried the next drawer.

�Yeah � it�s a hotel,� Bingo said slowly, his brain obviously overheating as he tried to figure out why Tommy was upset. He became Tommy�s lieutenant by default of birth order and size. He was the biggest and strongest member of their family. He wasn�t, however, very smart. It came as no surprise that he let older and smarter Mokoto deal with the circus of assigning rooms. �This place was being renovated when the first Startup happened. The oni worked some deal Stateside and took it over. Aunt Flo says that the greater bloods lived here the first year or two � all quiet like � before they disappeared into the woodwork.�

Tommy jerked to a stop. �You moved us to a greater blood camp? You said you found someplace safe!�

�It�s safe.� Bingo waved away Tommy�s concern. �The greater bloods abandoned it years ago � not that anyone seemed to notice. We needed someplace big, what with the others losing their places in the train derail��

Tommy smacked Bingo in the head. �Stupid! The greater bloods burn down the places that they don�t plan to use again! They�ll be back!�

�No, they won�t!� Bingo cried. �They stripped out all the rooms that they were using instead of burning the whole place. The biggest apartment upstairs � the one with three bedrooms � has been gutted. They even took down the wallpaper and ripped out the carpet. Half of the sweet rooms like this one had all the beds and chairs and dressers taken out � which isn�t all bad. The little ones are using them as playrooms. I thought about this hard! I talked to Mokoto and Trixie and even my mom and our aunties. We think that the greater bloods couldn�t burn this place without the wrong people taking notice. It�s a big, historic building in the middle of Downtown, not some house out in the boonies. Presidents of the United States have stayed at this hotel.�

�Maybe.� Tommy wasn�t sure. His father had been the commander of the lesser bloods; he�d murdered Tommy�s mother and didn�t give a shit if Tommy lived or died. Tommy only knew about the greater bloods from a lifetime of chance remarks. �I don�t have time for this.�

�I figured if the oni could waltz in and out of this hotel without anyone knowing what they were doing, that we could use it too.� Bingo continued to defend his choice.

�Things have changed.� Tommy found the drawer holding his shirts. Were all his shirts black? He dug out his only blue one; if he was going out to Oakland, he wanted to be recognized as one of the good guys. �Downtown is full of royal marines, and what�s left of the EIA knows that we exist.�

�There�s ways in and out so people can�t see us coming and going.� Bingo plowed on in the hotel�s defense. �Besides, I thought we were with the elves now � all part of working with Oilcan.�

�Oilcan isn�t a god,� Tommy went through the other drawers, looking for clean pants. The blue jeans that he�d taken off the night before were covered with dirt and blood. �Oilcan isn�t going to be down here, making sure each new train full of marines know that we�re to be left alone. Even if he was down here, I don�t know if he could stop them if they wanted to screw with us. Being made an elf hasn�t changed him; he�s still a little pacifist squirt.�

�Then why team up with him?� Bingo asked.

�Because I said so!� Tommy didn�t want to go into what Jin had told him about creating peace nor his own emotional journey to come to his decision. None of the drawers had jeans. Where were his jeans? �I need you to go out and find someplace else for us to live. Oilcan called and said they needed me at some kind of war conference.�

�We�re going to fight the oni?� Bingo�s voice was filled with fearful doubt. �With Oilcan calling the shots?�

�When did Team Tinker ever start a fight?� Tommy opened the closet and found his blue jeans hanging up on wooden hangers. He took a pair out and pulled them on.

Bingo worked through being unhappy about being wrong to realizing what it meant for the half-oni. �Never, but Team Tinker always won any fight they got into.�

�Exactly.� Tommy pulled on socks and boots. �I think Tinker and Oilcan just want to pump me for information about my father�s warriors. They�ve already called in the tengu, but my father never trusted them completely.�

�Your father never trusted anyone completely,� Bingo said.

Tommy grunted and opened the door to the hall. Bingo�s eight-year-old little brother, Spot, sat on the floor opposite the door. Spot looked up with silent expectation.

�I�m going to Poppymeadows,� Tommy said to crush any hope that Spot had about going back to Sacred Heart. The day before, Tommy had taken a carload of his younger cousins with him, saying that they needed to socialize more with people outside the half-oni. It had been an excuse to give Tommy the freedom to roam the building, looking for Jewel Tear.

Spot had found a soulmate at Sacred Heart; a cute little elf girl by the name of Baby Duck.

�Poppymeadows is on the other end of the street from Sacred Heart.� Tommy headed down the hall. The hotel put him on edge. It was too nice. Even their old place above their Oakland restaurant hadn�t been this nice. It made him feel like he�d fallen into a movie.

�I need you to find someplace else for us,� Tommy told Bingo as they walked toward the stairwell. The building had elevators but they hadn�t gotten them running yet. On the theory that no one could or would quietly climb seventeen flights to attack them, Mokoto set them up on the top three floors.

�This place is nice,� Bingo whined. �Even at the restaurant we were always on top of each other. One newborn with colic could keep everyone up. All of us grown kids have our own room now so we don�t have to deal with the little ones. No more sharp elbows in the middle of the night. No more waking up in someone else�s pee. No more waiting to piss. There�s a big industrial kitchen in the basement and the bar is still fully stocked.�

�It�s too nice,� Tommy said. �There�s no way we could defend the lobby. The doors are glass and there�s two dozen twenty-foot-tall windows. If someone just set a big enough fire, they could burn us out. There would be no need for them to climb seventeen floors.�

�I�ve set guards on all the entrances.� Bingo said. �We�ve got more teens and adults now.�

The stairwell obviously had only been meant to be used in an emergency. It was a bare echoing place. Tommy found it comforting after the richness of the hallway.

�We made nice with the elves,� Bingo said as he followed Tommy down the steps. �Sooner or later, they will leave us alone � won�t they? Why can�t we have a nice place like this?�

�Because we can�t afford it. I don�t know where the power is coming from��

�It was on when we got here.�

�That doesn�t mean anything. The greater bloods had some kind of system in place. Either it was on some kind of automated payment plan, or one of them was writing a check every month, or they have some kind of illegal tap. It doesn�t matter which, we can�t count on it continuing even another day. Tomorrow the power company might find the tap or the bank might stop the payments because we�re cut off from Earth or the elves cut off the head of whoever was paying the bills. Sooner or later, we�re going to have to pay for the power and we don�t have that kind of money. More importantly, we certainly won�t be able to heat a building this size come winter. At that point it becomes twenty floors of frozen pipes.�

A herd of children between the ages of six and twelve burst through the door � all in their underwear � to charge down the steps ahead of him. They�d picked up more adults and teens with the addition of the other households but they�d also doubled the number of little kids. There were more than two dozen children heading downstairs, laughing and shouting.

�Where the hell are they going in their underwear?� Tommy asked.

�They�re probably going swimming,� Bingo said.

�There�s a pool?�

�Yeah, brand new, never been used, in the basement. Like I said, they were in the middle of renovations when the first Startup hit. The sixth floor is totally gutted down to studs. It looks like it had been office space and they planned on converting back to hotel � ow!�

Tommy had smacked Bingo to shut him up. �You put water in the pool?�

�I didn�t. Some of the teens did it. Filled it up. Got the chemicals into it � bleach � whatever � to make it safe to swim in.�

Tommy growled. He was �head of the half-oni� because he was the oldest and meanest. He liked to think he was the absolute ruler � it was best that the elves thought so too � but he knew that his aunts could dig in their heels and make his life hell. It was going to be hard to lever his family out of this building if his aunts took a liking to it. �Find someplace else. Fast. It should be anyplace but Downtown: there�s too many new elves moving through this area. It should be big enough for all of us but we need to be able to keep it heated through the winter even if the oni take out the electrical grid. Think wood stoves and fireplaces.�

Bingo whimpered his disappointment.

�And do something about the elevators!� Tommy said. �The little ones aren�t going to be able to do twenty floors of stairs and they�ll crash wherever they run out of steam. We�ll be losing kids all over the building.�

�Okay, Tommy.� Bingo detoured off to go check on the elevators.

The stairs had opened to the massive lobby, which had been cave dark the night before. Morning sunlight poured through the tall windows, reflecting on the crystals of the unlit chandeliers. Someone was sitting at a grand piano at the edge of the dust-filled shaft of light, playing a melody that Tommy didn�t recognize. For a minute he thought a stranger had wandered in off the street. Then the musician lifted their head and Tommy saw it was Bingo�s younger brother, Babe.

�Hey.� Babe nodded and went back to playing.

�Hey, Tommy!� Mokoto sprawled on a couch behind Babe.

The two were the brawn and brains of the night crew.

Babe was six-foot-three of pure muscle with a baby face. It surprised Tommy that the big man knew how to play piano, but that was like Babe. Fierce on the outside, sensitive on the inside.

Short and slim, most people needed a second look to be sure that Mokoto was a male. His sultry makeup didn�t help � the smoldering eye shadow and deep red lipstick read as female. He had on a pink midrift shirt and a black miniskirt so low on his hips it was surprising it didn�t fall off. Tommy was never sure if Mokoto consciously posed sexily, or it was some weird uncontrollable habit. The man always managed to look like a female porn star, complete with a �come hither� look.

�Why are you two still up?� Tommy asked.

�We walked the Lee sisters back to their warren,� Mokoto answered for the two of them. �Some of the regulars have stopped showing up. You know how it is; someone disappears and you don�t know if they decided to find someplace safer or something decided that Liberty Avenue is a good hunting ground.�

�Are we missing anyone?� Tommy had been out of touch for days chasing after missing elves and not-yet-elves and elves-that-used-to-be-humans.

�No, none of ours. All the heads and fingers and toes accounted for. It�s all been the Undefended. You know how it is. They always show up in the early spring, like cherry blossoms. Beautiful. Smelling amazing. Oh so delicate. Then the summer winds come and they drift away. One by one.�

Tommy nodded. The Undefended were all off-worlders. Some came to Elfhome on student visas to attend the University of Pittsburgh and then dropped out of school. The rest were illegals, slipping through the cracks that the oni made in the border to get their own people in and out.

The Undefended were easy to spot. They wore fashion trends that wouldn�t hit Pittsburgh for another year or two. They did exotic things with their hair like dye it odd colors or shave their heads into patterns. They carried fancy smartphones that they had a habit of pulling out and staring at as if they were getting messages from God. They talked louder, with odd slang sprinkled into their conversation. Most of them walked faster than a normal Pittsburgher would. And as Mokoto pointed out, they smelled like flowers. It was as if they blasted all trace of humanity off their skin and replaced it with perfume.

While the Undefended ran in small herds, using their numbers as a defense, everyone in Pittsburgh knew that they had no real protection. They were without family and sometimes friends. They couldn�t go to the police because they would be deported. They couldn�t even use their real names: the list of expired visas was a matter of public record. It made them an easy target.

Any whore working Liberty Avenue, though, could be mistaken as Undefended. It sounded like Tommy might have to hurt someone hard.

Tommy didn�t like being a pimp; it made him feel like his father. He made anyone who forced him into the role of protector regret it. �All of them recent?�

Mokoto looked oddly pained by the question. �They disappeared while we were moving the warren.�

Babe stopped playing the piano to join the conversation. �I think the Lee family should move in with us. There�s just the four sisters and the two baby brothers that can�t pass as human.�

Tommy sighed. What was six more people after a hundred? �Let them know I would like them in our warren.� Wherever that ended up being. �We might want to put the night crew on hold until we find out why whores are disappearing.�

�Sure thing,� Babe said.

Motoko glanced at the back of Babe�s head, pouting that his opinion wasn�t consulted. It was a measure of how uneasy he felt that he shrugged in the end and said, �Yeah, sure. It would be safer for the girls.�

�We�ll talk,� Tommy said to soothe Mokoto�s pride. Babe might be the muscle but Mokoto was the scary one of the two.

As Tommy headed toward the door, he realized that Spot was following him.

�I�m not going to Sacred Heart.� Tommy repeated slower and louder. Since Spot rarely talked, he was never sure how much the boy understood.

Spot reached out, took his hand, and looked up at him. His father had been a brute doglike thing. Spot had inherited his father�s looks but Aunt Vera�s sweetness. He stared up at Tommy with sad puppy-dog eyes.

�No,� Tommy said.

Spot considered and then quietly said, �Please.�

Tommy growled softly. Normally he wouldn�t give in to begging but Spot had walked alone into an oni camp for him. He owed the boy. �Fine. I�ll drop you there. Oilcan is not going to be there, so find Baby Duck and stay with her. Don�t let her out of your sight.�

Olivia�s father � the man she considered her real dad, not her slime of a zealot stepfather � had always said when you didn�t want to do something, do it immediately to get it over with before you could talk yourself out of it. He also said that after doing something difficult, to remind yourself that you were strong and succeeded despite the hardship. At the time, he�d been talking about cleaning her room and combing out the tangles in her thick red hair, but the advice had served her well over the years.

So, despite not wanting to talk to the famous Wind Clan domi, Olivia marched down the hill, over the bridge, and across Oakland to Poppymeadows enclave, where the Viceroy was currently living. Yes, it was insanely early in the morning to be calling on neighbors. The sun was still on the horizon like a baneful eye. She was discovering, though, that elves kept farmer hours. Chances were good that Tinker domi would be planning to leave the enclave on some unlikely and earthshattering adventure. Olivia wanted to be sure to catch the girl � woman � female.

Her Wyvern escort was off with Forest Moss. All the domana that were fit to fight had gone off someplace far east of the city, beyond the Rim. It left her with an escort made up of twenty royal marines.

The marines followed Olivia like a pack of puppies. Some trotted ahead. Some lagged behind. Some stopped to pee on bushes. In ones and twos, they would pause to investigate anything that struck them as odd. Being that all of them were new to human civilization, there was something every few feet.

Why were there manhole covers in the middle of the streets? What were under them? They insisted in prying one up and peering down into the dark storm drains beneath. What were the fire hydrants for? She was glad that she could tell them that it was illegal to open one up. Why were there lines painted on the road? What did the bus stop sign say? What did the graffiti mean? Then they hit the museum with all its odd statues and the questions came nonstop.

She was already vexed with the marines, as they had let someone or something get into her precious supply of keva beans that she planned to plant. There was a hole in the side, suggesting a rat had gotten into the bag. If she wasn�t so versed on rodents chewing their way into feed sacks, she might have accepted the possibility at face value. But the fabric looked cut to her, not chewed.

The problem was she was on Elfhome, not Earth. There were sharks in the fresh water rivers. Giant electric catfishes that walked on land. Wolves that were the size of ponies and breathed cones of deadly cold. Trees that could stalk people down and eat them. Vines that would strangle you and then feast on your dead rotting body.

Maybe the rats carried switchblades. Who knew? She didn�t. Unfortunately, neither did the royal marines. They were as out of their element as she was. They were from a section of Elfhome that corresponded to Northern Italy on Earth. They didn�t know what kind of animals lived in the Westernlands.

Like puppies, they didn�t see the problem of vanishing seeds. They had come to fight oni, not rats. There was plenty of food for them at their field mess. They held a profound belief in their domana; Prince True Flame would provide. The Wyverns guaranteed that.

Olivia didn�t share that belief. The domana might be immortal but they weren�t gods. An army functioned only when it was fed; supply lines would be the oni�s first target. They had already derailed the train at Station Square in the middle of the Oktoberfest festival. She heard the massive thunder of destruction all the way in Oakland as the diesel engine and passengers cars crashed.

Food from the Easternlands was no longer a sure thing.

Yes, the Fire Clan Wyverns may be able to feed their marines but Forest Moss was Stone Clan. He was in Pittsburgh as a paid mercenary. He was also considered dangerously unbalanced. The Wyverns had considered executing him rather than trying to help him. Olivia�s presence was the only reason Forest Moss was still alive.

No, she could not count on the elves for food.

What little was being locally produced would need to be shared with all the humans in Pittsburgh, some sixty thousand people. The locals were already canning their harvest but there were college students, diplomats, and EIA employees, who had thought that they were only going to be on Elfhome for a few months. While they might not realize yet the danger they faced, they belonged to powerful organizations. The EIA. The University of Pittsburgh. Embassies of Earth�s nations. Those powers were probably already stockpiling food for their people and their people alone. It was the human way of dealing with such emergencies.

Olivia had to prepare for a winter with no supplies from the humans or the elves.

She was two months pregnant; starvation could lead to birth defects in her baby. For her unborn child�s entire future, she needed to be sure she had access to a healthy diet for the next seven months. She had picked the crystal palace of the Phipps Conservatory because its massive greenhouse could allow her to grow food through the winter. She had had the seeds that would allow her to do that. Thanks to the unknown vermin, she needed to replace what she had lost. Quickly.

While the war with the oni kept Forest Moss from her side, she had herded the royal marines all over the city, looking for seeds. Annoyingly every time she stopped to talk to any humans, the puppies would suddenly snap to attention and became fierce-looking warriors, scaring the fudge out of everyone. If she managed to beat the marines aside, everyone would then react with confusion. It was the beginning of September. Hard frost could come at any time, killing anything planted outdoors. Growing season was over.

She would nod. She wouldn�t volunteer that she was living in a massive greenhouse. She felt vulnerable enough with something quietly stealing her seed out from under the royal marines� noses. She didn�t want the entire city to be reminded that the Phipps Conservatory stood abandoned until she squatted in it. She didn�t want to anyone showing up with a stronger claim on the property.

She�d planned on talking to Forest Moss about the seeds, but he didn�t come home. The marine who fetched the evening meal said that all the domana were gathering far to the east for an attack on the oni encampments deep in the forest. Only one Hand of Wyvern and a platoon of marines were still in Prince True Flame�s camp at the edge of Oakland.

�The holy ones asked about you.� The marine meant the Wyverns, as the caste members were thought to be divinely perfect. �I told them you were searching the city for seeds. They said that you should talk to the Viceroy�s domi.�

Tinker domi was the last person in Pittsburgh she wanted to talk to.

Olivia�s life was a series of deceptions stacked like a house of cards. She�d deliberately led the elves to believe she was older than her sixteen years. When she admitted to being old enough to be married, she left out that she been forced into a polygamous marriage at fifteen as the youngest of three wives to a man twice her age. She omitted the fact that she fled Kansas and illegally crossed into Pittsburgh during Shutdown so she would be an entire universe away from her husband and his religious cult family.

Her life wouldn�t stand up to close inspection. She could normally evade most questions with half-truths but Tinker domi was famous for her brilliance. The older girl would probably see through any dodge. Since the vicereine was now an elf with sekasha bodyguards, Olivia wouldn�t be able to lie.

If anyone in the city could get seeds, though, it would be Tinker.

There was also the possibility that �should talk to� was a command. Her Elvish wasn�t very good.

Jane Kryskill stared at her phone, willing it to be silent.

She was in the middle of a rare production meeting at WQED for her team�s new television show: Monsters in Our Midst. In June, they had put Pittsburgh Backyard and Garden on hiatus to focus on the new show. Outwardly, the two shows were nearly identical: Hal Rogers discussed how to safely deal with Pittsburgh�s dangerous monsters. The emphasis had been shifted from �natural� monsters like strangle weed to bioengineered weapons of war like the wargs. It was such a small change that most people didn�t pick up on it. The new format also helped to secretly organize their viewers into a trained militia willing to protect their city against the oni invasion. Every episode, Hal would sing the praises of some resident who came forward to help him eliminate the oni-borne threat, calling them �Hal�s Heroes.� He would gift them with a blue boonie hat. Jane�s family sold Hal�s Heroes merchandise as a way to scout for potential militia members, who were then set up in spy cells so that despite their loose recruiting method, a strike against the militia wouldn�t uncover all the members.

No one at WQED had been told about the show�s real agenda. Her coworkers might guess, but if asked they could honestly say that they knew nothing about the militia�s activities.

The deception had made Jane uneasy; she didn�t like lying to friends and coworkers. But then she found out that reporter Chloe Polanski had been working as an oni spy. She knew that Polanski had the morals of a snake but Jane hadn�t known how low the woman had sunk. Nor could she be sure that Chloe worked alone. Pittsburgh�s three television stations were logical targets of any convert activity. There was no way Jane could be sure that WQED didn�t have its own infestation of oni spies.

Jane�s phone had just vibrated with a call from her little brother, Duff, that she couldn�t answer. Duff ran the communication hub for their covert militia. He could be calling with anything as trivial as yet another glitch to her impending wedding or as important as a warning that heavily armed oni forces were spilling into the city.

If it was about her wedding, he wouldn�t call a second time. He would wait for her to return his call. If her phone rang a second time, it was a life-or-death emergency. Duff knew that nothing short of an oni offensive � not even her seemingly cursed wedding � was more vital than keeping the show on the air and running smoothly. The fate of Pittsburgh might balance on the militia that they were building behind the fa�ade of Monsters in Our Midst. Her boss, Dmitri Vassiliev, was hands-off since MiOM had proved as successful as PB&G but he had a strict �no cell phones at meetings� policy. Even Jane could not break the rule; she was broadly skirting it just having her phone out.

Not that the �production meeting� was being very productive. Somebody had put �Jane�s wedding� on the conference room schedule board. Nor did it help that someone else � most likely multiple people � had decorated it. She suspected the entire art department had been involved � partly because of the quality of the work, but mostly because of the massive quantity of the art. The pictures had been printed onto paper and tacked beside the board with sticky putty until they covered the entire wall. There were wedding bells, churches, hearts, ribbons, roses, cupids, and an odd assortment of �romantic pairings.� There was a very swoon-worthy drawing of her fianc�, Keaweaheulu Ka�ihikapu Taggart, as a bare-chested Tarzan and a �Jane� with a yellow Victorian gown and a sniper rifle. Another had a scruffy �Aragorn� Taggart and Jane as a blond Arwen. There were a handful of other pairings that Jane didn�t recognize but they were obviously from some popular fantasy work. (The art department folks were all romantic-minded geeks.)

Hal was being Hal because the schedule board was there, reminding him in the most romantic of ways that Jane wasn�t marrying him. At the moment, Hal was standing on the conference room table, demonstrating his new toy: a bullwhip.

�I had one of these in grad school,� Hal was saying, making it crack loudly. �I went full-on Indiana Jones: bullwhip, safari shirt, brown fedora. UC-Davis took the whip away from me; the students were complaining. I don�t know why. The archeologists shouldn�t be the only ones to get to have fun!� Hal pretended to be addressing an undergraduate student. �Cytosine! Guanine! Adenine! Thymine!� Hal cracked the whip at his imaginary student with each scientific term. �If you want to call yourself a biologist, you need to know the basics!�

Dmitri was holding up a chair like a lion tamer. �Sit!� he commanded. �Sit!�

There was a reason that their production meetings were rare. (Jane was letting Hal keep the bullwhip in favor of the box of dynamite she had confiscated and stashed with her cousin, Roach. Where was Hal getting his endless supply of explosives?) Hal�s chaos, at least, was keeping anyone from noticing that Jane had checked her phone.

Could Jane get up and walk out of the meeting to find some place more private to call Duff? Everyone from station manager down to head of accounting was crowded into the conference room with her but nothing was getting done, not with Hal trying to prove�something�with the bullwhip.

Jane looked at the meeting�s agenda memo. They had already covered all preproduction issues for their next six episodes including budget concerns. All they really needed to do was make delivery of rough-cut video for the upcoming episode and discuss a handful of postproduction details. It shouldn�t be too harmful if Jane slipped away. Hal ignored mundane work issues, using his position of �star� to skip anything that could be boring. Could she trust Taggart and Nigel to cover for her?

Taggart was working on his laptop, ignoring Hal�s insanity. His ability to generate a pocket of calm in the middle of chaos was one of the many things that she loved about him. They were running behind on the rough cut as every frame needed to be checked to make sure they hadn�t included anything that gave away their many secrets. Taggart had a video editor open in one window but in the other he was answering an email. Jane�s mother had discovered Taggart paid more attention to the fine details of their wedding than Jane did. Her mother called it �getting the groom�s input� but mostly it gave her plausible deniability if she forgot to ask Jane about something truly important. Jane hated to dump yet more of her responsibilities onto Taggart but she supposed that was part and parcel of getting married. (Every day she discovered new joys of marriage � the only downside so far was the actual event.)

Nigel was patting his pockets and glancing at the floor in an out-of-character air of alarm.

�What�s wrong?� Jane asked.

�I�ve seemed to have lost my snake.� Nigel looked under the table, making everyone sitting at the table push back from it as an Elfhome-honed defensive mechanism kicked into overdrive.

�Snake?� asked the head of Accounting, Joe McGreevy. He was a big man with a Neanderthal-like response to snakes: grab the nearest item and use it to club any snakelike object to death. The clubbing usually only stopped once both snake and club were reduced to pulp. Everyone in the room edged away from Joe, taking their belongings with them.

�What snake?� Dmitri said in a tone of voice that seemed like he was afraid that he�d heard correctly but was hoping otherwise.

�I found the most beautiful snake out in the car park. I was afraid he�d get run over, so I put him in my pocket. Just a little thing.�

Hal paused, whip cocked. �Banded with red and black and yellow?�

�The very one!� Nigel cried, sounding like a British schoolboy. �Yes, I know it was most likely venomous with those colors, but it was such a wee thing!�

That triggered a sudden exodus from the room with the exception of her team and Dmitri. Taggart didn�t look up from his laptop but changed to sitting cross-legged on the table.

Dmitri put down the chair and stood on it. �This changes nothing. We still need your rough footage for next week�s show so that we can start producing promotional material and music score.� Dmitri worked his way across the room, going from chair seat to chair seat in a version of �the floor is lava.� He paused at the door once he was safely in the hallway. �You are not to leave this room until that snake is found and contained. And keep it away from Accounting.�

Snake wrangling was not one of Jane�s skills. Pittsburgh had a few poisonous snakes, most of them rattlesnakes and their Elfhome cousins. She�d never encountered any brightly colored ones but she wasn�t a naturalist. She joined Taggart on the table while Hal and Nigel looked for the snake. �Is it deadly, Hal?�

�Possibly.� Hal lapsed in to host mode. �There are sixty-five recognized species of coral snake on Earth. Those in North America have the most dangerous venom found on the continent. Their bite contains a powerful neurotoxin that paralyzes the breathing muscles � so they can be deadly. There are also multiple nonpoisonous species that mimic the coral snake�s coloration as protection from predators, such as the red milk snake. Coral snakes are quite reclusive and non-aggressive, so there are very few recorded bites on Earth. It tends to be a warmer clime breed but I�ve been hoping for one to show in Pittsburgh so we could compare the Elfhome species to Earth ones.�

�Whatever.� Jane shook her head. Naturalists! She was glad that she�d left Chesty at the motor pool, guarding her SUV. Her big elfhound would have insisted on joining the hunt. �Find the snake.�

She called Duff. �I�m clear. What�s up?�

�Yumiko tracked Alton down this morning to rake him over the coals: Hal�s name came up in an emergency meeting between Jin Wong and Tinker domi. Yumiko wanted to know about finding a box in pieces after a gunfight at the Carnegie.� Duff raised the pitch of his voice slightly to mimic Yumiko. �Why hadn�t yinz told the tengu about it?�

Jane doubted that Yumiko used the Pittsburgh slang of �yinz� for �you guys,� but the sentiment was probably correct.

Duff dropped his voice back to normal. �Alton called me since he didn�t know. What shoot-out at the museum? Does she mean Nigel�s baby-dragon box? Did you find that?�

Did Jane not tell her family about the shoot-out? It happened a week after July�s shutdown � back when Sparrow was still alive and second-in-command of the elves. It seemed like a lifetime ago. Two little girls � known to Nigel only as Lemon-Lime JEl-Lo � had somehow crashed a ritzy party in New York City to give Nigel a magical whistle. The girls weren�t alone; they had a baby dragon with them. Lemon-Lime told Nigel about a box filled with other baby dragons and then warned him that Sparrow was an oni double agent.

Jane hadn�t wanted to believe the information but Lemon-Lime had made a cartoon of Jane�s fight with a saurus � months before it happened. There was no denying that the whistle worked; Jane�s team used it on the namazu. Somehow these little girls on Earth were magical geniuses who knew the future.

What�s more, Jane had had an odd conversation with Tooloo. The elf talked about playing poker with children. Tooloo�s coded message seemed to be that Nigel and Taggart were �cards� being played by Lemon-Lime in a dangerous game against other people who could �see� the future. To seal the deal, �an anonymous female� called the EIA with wildly specific details of what was about to happen at the museum, and then, from halfway around the world, Queen Soulful Ember had gotten a message to the Wind Clan to intercede on behalf of Jane�s team. While it seemed to indicate that the queen�s oracle, Pure Radiance, and Tooloo were two �poker players� helping Jane�s team, the question became who else was playing? Normally you needed five to seven people to play the game correctly. Did Lemon-Lime count as one player or two? Did the oni have people who could see the future?

To protect Lemon-Lime, Nigel hadn�t told Yumiko about the box, only Jane and her family. He had already done some legwork on tracking the box: the official report on Earth was that the curator accompanying the museum pieces had vanished on Elfhome during the June Shutdown. Jane and her team had gone to the Carnegie just to double-check that the box hadn�t arrived after Startup. What they found was a horde of oni disguised as humans.

Jane thought that her family knew about the shoot-out at the museum. Hal had blown up part of the Hall of Architecture during the fight. It had been on the news � hadn�t it? Actually, now that she thought about, no reporters had shown up at the museum as Maynard had personally debriefed them. Windwolf had done something newsworthy while searching for his bride; all the local reporters had been in the South Hills covering the Viceroy. Maynard might have put a lid on the information because of the queen�s rare and odd intercession.

Jane glanced at Hal; he and Nigel were carefully peering under the credenza across the room. She lowered her voice and explained why the shoot-out slipped her mind. �That was the day that Hal found out about the wedding.�

�Ahhh.� Duff made sounds of understanding the problem. �You got distracted by Hal going ballistic.�

�Yup.� Jane explained to Duff in quiet tones how her team ended up in a fight at the museum. They were rescued from the oni via the arrival of the Elfhome Interdimensional Agency. They were then saved from being arrested for blowing up parts of the museum by a message from Queen Soul Ember. The short note � arriving via one of the holy sekasha warriors � reminded Director Derek Maynard that the treaty had made the museum property of the crown. �The queen gave us free run of the place. We found parts of the box in the woodshop but nothing of the baby dragons or the eggs that they were in. I didn�t consider it as �finding� anything. All we managed to do was verify what we already suspected: Sparrow had gotten the box to her oni masters. We just put more dots on the line. I would have thought that the tengu spy network would have connected those dots before now.�

Duff laughed. �I got the impression that Yumiko knew about the shoot-out but bought whatever official statement you gave the EIA. Something about filming that scary-ass wyvern they got strung up?�

�Something like that.� Jane had lied so much that week that she�d lost track of everything she said. She would have stuck as close to the truth as possible. She probably did blame their presence on the wyvern. Nigel had been struck speechless by it.

�Yumiko let something slip,� Duff said. �Although I don�t think she�s connected all the dots. Lemon-Lime is in town.�

�What?� Jane snapped in surprise.

Duff explained that the emergency meeting with Tinker domi had been focused on the baby dragons inside the missing box. The female yamabushi had let slip that the tengu had learned of the box when some Nestlings and �other children� suddenly arrived from Earth with a tiny dragon named Joy. �Given how Yumiko talked about dragons in the past, the chances of being more than one tiny dragon teamed up with a bunch of kids seems unlikely.�

Tooloo had made it sound like the new player at the dangerous poker game had just arrived.

�Okay,� Jane said slowly. �That doesn�t change much. Yeah, we found the box but it was empty. The egg thingies inside were what was important. The trail went cold at the museum. We searched the whole place, top to bottom.�

�Maybe,� Duff said. Jane could hear him typing on a keyboard. �The Carnegie runs on human tech, not oni magic. I�m going try to get people in to see if there�s any computers still have any stray usable information on them.�

Jane doubted it. They�d gone through the director�s office and the woman � oni � whatever � had been a sticky-note kind of person. There was a rainbow of little squares littering every surface, all with cryptic comments. They�d taken pictures of everything and pored over the notes later. They hadn�t found anything that suggested where the box�s contents had been moved to. �Give it a whirl.�

�Will do,� Duff said.

�Is that it?� Jane prepared to hang up.

�You�re going to want to call Mom,� Duff said. �She�s on the warpath about something. Bye!�

Taggart must have overheard that part as he nodded and murmured, �We lost the band.�

�Oh no! Why?� Jane cried. Carl Moser had been best friends with her younger brother Geoffrey all through elementary and high school. He�d started an elf fusion-rock band with a mix of human and elf artists and set up an enclave-styled commune in the Strip District. Unbeknownst to her mother and other brothers, Geoffrey had been dating the band�s male elf drummer, but that was a whole other kettle of fish. Jane had picked Moser�s band to play at her wedding because she could trust him and his band mates to keep their mouths shut if any of the family�s dangerous secrets � tengu involvement, resistance leadership, rescued baby sister, yadayadayada � slipped out during the wedding. Replacing Moser�s band would be a matter more complicated than just finding a group of people who could play instruments together.

�We locked them in months ago!� Jane cried. �Oh, Moser is dead meat if he pulls out on my mom.�

Taggart shrugged in ignorance or acceptance of Moser�s fate.

Jane growled with frustration. She hated being the center of attention as it usually meant that she had lost control of a life-or-death situation.

If Jane had had her way, she would have married Taggart in July. Pittsburgh kept the Pennsylvanian law that required a three-day waiting period. They could have gone to the Frick Building on Grant Street and gotten married at the weirdly named Orphans� Court. She and Taggart had to go there to apply for the marriage license anyhow.

But her mother had spent twenty-six years dreaming of a huge blowout wedding for her daughter. Her mother wanted all the bells and whistles. The fancy wedding invitations on linen paper, engraved with charcoal ink, with a square of tissue to protect the type. The calligraphy addresses printed by hand on the outer envelopes. The white dress with the full train (ordered for her mother�s wedding but never used and carefully kept in tissue paper for the day that Jane could wear it.) A full church service. An elaborate reception with tons of flowers and cookies and booze and a live band. Jane hated the whole thing because she would be center stage from the moment she walked down the aisle to the first dance.

She needed to live with her mother, though, so she had compromised on a small wedding held on the last weekend before Taggart�s visa expired. The fact that they had little more than two months to plan the wedding made it seem as if they could skip many of the embarrassing bells and whistles.

Life had other plans.

Things started to go wrong immediately. Another couple had already claimed the Kryskill family�s church for that date. Jane suggested that they just have the ceremony at Hyeholde, seamlessly going from wedding to reception, but her mother insisted on a church. After days of frantic searching, her mother begged her way into a Russian Orthodox church. The onion-domed cathedral sat in an abandoned section of Homestead, ironically not far from Sandcastle Water Park.

The ceremony location finally secured, they could have the invitations printed. The printing company that her family normally used had had a car dropped on it during the Veterans Bridge shoot-out in June. Their fallback printer seemed to have a death wish, dragging out the normal hour-long decision process into a week of back-and-forth phone calls. It didn�t have cardstock for Jane�s first three choices � but it took an entire day to verify that for each selection. After Jane had picked out a fourth choice, the printer kept putting holds on the print run as they checked and rechecked that they were spelling everyone�s name correctly. (Any company with the name of Kolodziejski Kwikie Print shouldn�t complain about Aheahe, Elikapeka, and Keaweaheulu Ka�ihikapu Taggart.) Jane had been seriously worried her mother would firebomb the company and start over with a new printer.

Then Tinker domi dropped an orbital gate on Jane�s wedding plans. The entire visa problem for both Taggart and Nigel had been instantly rendered moot. At that point it seemed saner to just push back the date of the wedding to when the Kryskill family church was free.

Jane had regretted the choice since the moment she agreed to it. It had given her mother more time to get more extravagant and more time for things to go wrong.

�There! See? In that crack?� Hal lay on the floor, shining his phone�s flashlight under the credenza.

�Oh, yes, there�s my beauty.� Nigel was in a slightly more cautious pose but right there beside Hal in terms of danger.

Much as Jane didn�t want to talk to her mother, she couldn�t in good conscience leave the conference room until the snake was caught. �Do not get bit!� she ordered the two naturalists as she dialed her mother�s phone number.

�Jane!� Her mother answered the phone with the joy generated by the planning one of her children�s massive flashy wedding.

�I just got off the phone with Duff. He said you wanted to talk to me�?�

�Elliot is trying not to let it show, but Elliot is really feeling blue about being left out of the wedding. I had a thought, if we double up the wedding party size, no one will notice one or two stray people.�

Jane had been braced for a rant against Carl Moser. �What? Who is Elli�Oh!�

The oni warlord, Kajo, had kidnapped Jane�s baby sister, Carla Marie � generally called Boo by everyone � and transformed her into a tengu of the Chosen bloodline. He planned to use her as a tool to control the tengu Flock. It was only by luck and daring that Jane managed to finally find and rescue Boo in July. They�d kept Boo secret from everyone � even extended family � in fear that Kajo might try to steal Boo back.

Duff created daily code words for the family to use when discussing Boo, just in case the oni were monitoring their cell phones. �Elliot� was today�s codeword for Boo.

In July and most of August, it had been unthinkable that Boo could be involved in the wedding as the tengu had been still enslaved by the oni. Tinker domi, however, had performed miracles and now it might be safe for Boo to attend the wedding. The place was going to be crawling with good-looking blond people once you counted all Jane�s aunts, cousins, and kids. Could Boo be part of the wedding party? Center stage of the entire long ceremony? Jane had serious doubts.

Her mother obviously hoped that if Jane�s wedding party was larger, they could slip Boo into the mix without anyone noticing. �You have your uncle standing in for your father, but it�s not right to leave your siblings out of the most important day of your life. You have five brothers. They should be part of the wedding party. And what about Hal? His nose is already out of joint over you picking Taggart over him.�

If they added Hal and her five brothers on top of Taggart and Nigel as his best man, the male side of the wedding party would jump to eight. Sixteen people. Good God, what a circus.

Jane wanted to say no but she didn�t want to hurt Boo�s feelings. �Mom, the wedding is in two weeks!�

Her mom plowed on. �We�re already renting tuxedoes for your brothers. I�ve got enough of that dusty rose fabric to make six more dresses. I�ve lined up a team of dressmakers. I�ve talked to Julia, Cora, and Ina already and they�ve said yes. That will give us six counting you and Brandy. We just need two more women � preferably ones that your cousins don�t know. As soon as possible.�

�What about Rachel?� Jane asked since her mom had only named three of her four first cousins.

�Rachel is in Mercy Hospital with preeclampsia.� Her mother used the tone of voice that indicated that her mom believed she had told Jane this more than once. She might have or she might have emailed Taggart and he hadn�t passed the information on yet. Jane had been tuning out the wedding stuff. �She might be having the baby on the day of the wedding. I really hope not, I want all of my sisters to be there. I�m going to need them for damage control.�

�Okay. Rachel is a no-go. Wait.� The numbers didn�t add up. They would need six women to balance her five brothers and Hal. Her mother had only recruited three of her cousins. �Don�t I need three more?�

�Elliot and two others.�

�Oh, yes. Okay.� Boo would be one of the three girls. Two would still be impossible. Jane�s father had died when she was twelve, just days after Boo was born. It left Jane as a semi-parent to her five younger brothers. It had also made her impatient with typical high school drama. She knew what real-life problems looked like. It wasn�t getting a date to the dance but trying to cope with a two-year-old who was grieving for his dead father at three a.m.

Her attitude hadn�t made her popular in high school. Her friends were mostly girls like Brandy Lyn Pomeroy-Brooks-Abernethy who had their own life problems that gave them similar outlooks. Others like Cesia Cwiklinski�Jane was never sure why she was friends with Cesia beyond the rule of opposites attract.

�Mom! I already asked Brandy to be my maid of honor. CC is pissed off that I didn�t ask her. She says we made some weird vow back in junior high school to be each other�s maid of honor. I don�t remember it. Frankly, I think she�s confusing me with someone else. I�m fairly sure I never thought about wedding parties until July. Whatever � Cesia isn�t talking to me. Brandy will not give up the spot either, not to CC. You know how competitive they are with each other.�

�What about what�s-her-name? You and Brandy and CC went to the prom together with her? I still can�t believe that all the boys in your class were too afraid of the four of you to ask any of you out.�

�Mel? She moved Stateside! Most of the girls in my class went off to college and didn�t come back. I don�t know any other women! I�ve been too busy since high school doing Pittsburgh Backyard and Garden to make new friends. The wedding is in two weeks! Who wants to go to a stranger�s wedding with that short a notice?�

�Oh, Jane, don�t be so dramatic. We�re talking about half of the population of the city. Surely you know someone who will bite the bullet for you. Just find two more women that your cousins won�t know and we can trust. Ask them to be your bridesmaids. We can slip Elliot in opposite to Guy and no one will question it.�

Like hell people wouldn�t! They hadn�t told anyone in their extended family that Jane had found Boo. The minute her cousins saw Boo, though, they would recognize her. Boo was a young woman instead of a child, but she had the same halo of curly white-blond hair. Jane was going to have to tell her cousin Roach since he�d spent most of the summer putting his neck on the line for her. Roach had loaned her use of his boat, volunteered to run the merchandise end of Hal�s Heroes, and was currently babysitting a crate of dynamite.

�Open up, let me see what you have in your mouth,� Hal murmured quietly. He was kneeling beside the credenza with a small striped snake in hand. The �wee thing� looked only slightly bigger than a ballpoint pen. �Winner, winner, chicken dinner!�

In Hal-talk, it meant that the snake was venomous.

�Hal!� Jane snapped. �Get that into some kind of cage!�

The naturalists set off in search of a secure container, snake in hand.

�What does he have?� her mother asked.

�A cute deadly snake that Nigel carried into the building in his pants pocket.� Jane snapped her fingers and indicated that Taggart should follow. The collective common sense of the naturalists was about on par with a five-year-old.

Her mother sighed. �Boys and their trouser snakes.�

�Mom!� What was she saying to her mother? �I don�t have a lot of friends. I�ve really focused on my job for the last eight years.�

�Which was not entirely a good thing,� her mother said. �I�m sure, though, you have more friends than you realize. Just ask some of the girls at WQED. You�ll need to hurry, though, we only have a few days to get their dresses made. Call me with their dress sizes.�

Her mother said goodbye and hung up while Jane was trying to figure out some sane answer.

There were certain things that Jane knew was fact. Her mother had spent twenty-six years dreaming of Jane�s wedding. Having been married shortly before her own husband was shipped off to war, her mother didn�t see the oni menace as an excuse not to celebrate the day. She would move hell and high water to make sure it was perfect. She would not be stopped. Anyone who got in her way would pay dearly.

To keep peace in the family, Jane needed to call her cousins and let them know the truth. But first, she needed to find two women she could trust not to betray her family�s secrets.

�Up you go!�

Wolf Who Rules Wind hadn�t hit his grown spurt yet, so it was simple for his eldest brother, Whiskey Smoked With Peat Fire, to hoist him out of bed and toss him up into the air.

�Whiskey!� Wolf cried in surprise.

�Come on, it�s your big day!� Whiskey caught him and tossed him again.

This time he stayed up in the air, supported by the wind. Whiskey was Fire Clan, having inherited their mother�s red hair and ability to tap the Fire Spell Stones. It meant someone else was manipulating the wind.

Wolf guessed the culprit. �Jay Bird!�

With a snicker, Jay Bird Screaming in Wind swaggered out of his hiding place. He was dressed up to go to court in his namesake�s colors of creamy tan with brilliant blue highlights. �What? A great warrior such as you should be able to escape that hold.�

Whiskey smacked Jay Bird lightly. �Put our baby brother down. No magic in the living quarters. Besides it would not do for him to be presented to the queen with a broken nose.�

�Aunty Ember has seen him thousands of times! I don�t know why he needs to be presented,� Jay Bird sulked. He nevertheless lowered Wolf gently down to the floor. Whiskey was remarkably easy tempered for being Fire Clan, but he was fierce when riled.

Whiskey gave Jay Bird a worried look. �Are you seriously asking that question? You should know it�s all about protocol.�

�I know!� Jay Bird shouted. He turned and stomped out of the room in a huff.

�Looks like Father, acts like Mother,� Whiskey murmured of their brother.

�He�s jealous,� Wolf said sadly. �He wants to live at Court too.�

�Only because he doesn�t know what it�s really like.� Whiskey pushed Wolf toward the hallway. �Yes, our cousins are good and gracious to us, but everyone else looks down their nose because we�re mixed blood. If someone is kind to you, remember that they most likely have an ulterior motive.�

Wolf wanted to say �I know� but it would echo Jay Bird. Besides, he didn�t know. Not really. This day was decreed the day he was born. He�d spent his life knowing it would come. The future, though, was filled with uncertainty.

�I will only be able to be with you through Winter Court,� Whiskey said. �Once thaw starts, I will need to go to my new holding.�

Wolf nodded. He and his many siblings were spaced close together, yet another thing that set their family apart from the norm. There were only two hundred years between him and his eldest brother. It meant that most of his elder brothers and sisters had been busy gathering Hands of sekasha to them, recruiting young clan members to set up households, and building a house guard of laedin warriors. With the exception of Jay Bird and Cricket Chirping by the Hearth Fire, who were in their doubles, all his siblings planned to finish their tasks and set off to claim what they could as their own. Pickings were lean, as their parents had many children and very little could be passed on in the way of land. Whiskey had been given an island to the far north filled with volcanos. It sounded like icy hell to Wolf � and to most others, which was why it was free to claim � but Whiskey was fascinated by volcanos.

�Kiln, Charcoal, and Echo will go as soon as land can be found for them,� Whiskey said.

�Ibis and Dove too,� Wolf said.

Whiskey laughed, �Yes, but they won�t be at Court with us.�

Kiln Fired Vase, Charcoal Banked for the Night, and Sunrise Echo could only tap the Fire Clan Spell Stones. They�d been sent to Court to be trained by the teachers of the royal household. Ibis and Dove both were Wind Clan and had stayed at home.

They were nearly to the bathhouse when Starlight Singing in the Wind came sweeping down the hall.

�Wolf turns fifty today, let us see him off and away,� his sister sang. �Searching in the moldering heaps, I found something for Wolf to keep.�

Starlight had their father�s hair and eyes but their mother�s height. She was dressed for the day in her best gown, a shimmering black dress of fairy silk studded with hundreds of crystals that glimmered like stars in the night sky. She held out a map case to Wolf.

�A star map?� Wolf guessed since Starlight was as fascinated by stars as Whiskey was by volcanos.

Starlight laughed. �If it was a star map, I wouldn�t be giving it away, silly! I was wandering through the Stone Clan market, digging through the stall of an old quad who used to trade with Earth. He only had the most outlandish things left. Humans must be frivolous beings, judging by his stock. Without magic, all they have to guide them are the sun and moon and stars, so their maps of the night sky far exceed ours.�

If not a star map, then what did she have in the map case? Wolf opened it and found a map of unfamiliar coastline. The landmass seemed quite large but Wolf couldn�t match it to any place he�d seen before. The lettering wasn�t in Elvish; Wolf couldn�t recognize any of the symbols. The map looked new, still smelling of ink. �What is this? I don�t recognize any of this.�

�The merchant couldn�t remember how he came by it,� Starlight said. �I got it for a smile and a nod. He saw no value in a map of Earth since all the pathways are closed.�

�Earth?� Wolf eyed the alien symbols that must be human writing. �This isn�t old enough to be from before the war with the oni.�

�I had it copied for father�s collection,� Starlight said. �The land is not a secret, just little known. The merchant said that the �French� and the �British� had a war over it just before we closed the gates. The humans were just beginning to map it in earnest when we lost contact with Earth. The idiot merchant failed to understand the implications.�

Implications? Wolf gasped as he realized what the map revealed. �There will be a mirror continent here on Elfhome. We could parcel it up for holdings for those who have none.�

Starlight grinned. �Very good, Wolf. You see it immediately.�

�Why give it to me? Why not Ibis or Dove? They�re already in their triples.� While their mother was Fire Clan, many would criticize Starlight if she gave the valuable maps to any of her non-Wind-Clan siblings. Even Wolf was a dangerous choice since he hadn�t decided his clan yet.

�I knew you would ask.� She took out another map case and pulled from it a map of the Summer Court and the waters around it. She pointed to an island in the northeast corner. �This is Whiskey�s volcanic island. See this wedge of land, here, beyond it? That is the large island here on your map.�

Whiskey had wanted to claim the larger island but it was more than a mei from the Fire Stones of Summer Court. It would require Whiskey to build a set of Spell Stones. He hadn�t been able to gather enough Fire Clan households to warrant the Crown�s backing. His failure had been a combination of the lack of prestige in his name and the perceived quality of his sekasha. Like their father, Whiskey had taken a female he loved as his First. Whiskey had to settle for the closer, smaller island that was at the very edge of the stones� range. If the scale was correct, Starlight�s map showed a full continent two or three mei from the nearest Spell Stones, Fire Clan or Wind Clan.

Wolf cocked his head. �If no one has been there, then there�s no Spell Stones. A domana would be powerless. They couldn�t protect their people.�

�Yes, it would take someone with bold ambition to venture into uncharted land and set up a holding,� Starlight said. �To gain the support that they will need, they would have to build an impressive personal household and a large number of Beholden. Ibis and Dove are living up to their names as peaceful, loyal followers. Ibis plans to settle in high country and breed gossamers. Dove is lost to silkworms. I don�t understand the fascination. Neither has the desire nor the ambition needed to take on such a task. I plan to head to the mountains, to be closer to the stars. I�m not even sure I want to have a traditional household. If I can talk my way into a monastery, I might go that direction.�

�A monastery?� He had never heard of anyone but sekasha living at the remote mountain temples.

�The sekasha will not allow me to wander the landscape alone. A female domana waltzing about, sleeping with who knows what? Everyone will be happier if I�m under their protective wing while I gaze at my stars.�

Wolf loved his sister�s clarity of vision. She knew what she wanted and went for it with all her passion. He had so many choices open to him. He knew that he could be anything � perhaps even the next king if he chose to be Fire Clan and something happened to his cousin, Queen Soulful Ember. When Halo Dust died, the Wyverns chose the late king�s youngest child, not his oldest.

Wolf was named for greatness. He was bewildered, though: what was he supposed to do? He was the first domana born that could tap two esva. There was no blueprint for him to follow. Everyone was standing back and letting him figure it out. A new land would have no limits or expectations. Perhaps it needed someone like him to settle it.

Starlight leaned close. �Know this: No matter what clan you choose, you will always be our beloved baby brother. Be bold and brave as your name, Wolf Who Rules Wind. If you need us, you will only need to call and we will answer.�

Whiskey nodded in agreement. �Wind or Fire. Blood binds us.�

�Let me get this straight,� Usagi Sensei, the head of the Bunny household, said. �You�re all spies?�

This was not a conversation that Lawrie Munroe wanted to have. She�d been actively avoiding it since the June Shutdown. She sat as pushed-back from the Bunnies� long dining table as she could get, long legs kicked out to distance herself from the conversation. While Usagi was looking at her fellow Bunny, Widget, there was a stuffed rabbit under the table glaring accusingly at Law.

Law should have left after making sure that all the Bunnies were safe. She had taken, however, one too many lumps while trying to keep the oni from attacking Oktoberfest. She�d also left her Power Wagon parked at the train depot in Charleroi. There was a derailed train, a platoon of oni warriors, and an army of pissed-off elves between the Bunny enclave and the depot. At the time, it seemed wiser to hunker down, let Babs Bunny stitch up all her cuts, and make sure she didn�t have any hairline fractures. The last day � or two � had been incredibly hazy as she recovered with the help of antibiotics, painkillers, and lots of bedrest.

�What are spies?� Bare Snow asked over the rim of her chocolate milk. Three months of living with Law had made Bare Snow somewhat fluent in English but there were still lots of words that she didn�t know. The �teenage� elf female was wearing only an oversized nightshirt and one of the kids� bunny hats, her long blue-black hair done in little-girl braids. It was utterly an adorable outfit, but Law knew from experience that Bare Snow also had half a dozen weapons hidden on her at all times. (It was a fact that often boggled Law considering how little Bare Snow wore.)

The Bunny household was having an emergency family meeting before their half-elf children woke up. All five Bunnies were in attendance: Usagi, Babs, Clover, Hazel, and Widget. (Clover, though, had her head down on the table and seemed to be asleep. She�d been up half the night with her colicky newborn son.)

Law wasn�t sure how she and Bare Snow had gotten roped into the meeting, as they weren�t officially part of the household.

The Bunny children all called Bare Snow �big sister.� After a lifetime of being an outcast in her own family, Bare Snow embraced the role with her whole being. The young elf wouldn�t want to miss a �family meeting.�

Usagi was in full mini-Martha-Stewart mode, complete with starched bandana. �A spy is someone who secretly collects information about an enemy.�

Yes, Law could totally be what someone could consider a spy. A freelance spy. Or an assassin. Or an avenging angel. Whatever. She had been one since the June Shutdown. She didn�t want the Bunnies to know, because there were all sorts of dangerous secrets attached to what she�d learned in the last three months. While Usagi and Widget had gotten a massive information download in June � the evils of the Skin Clan Empire and how Windwolf�s grandfather had been assassinated � they were missing key pieces of the story.

It wasn�t that Law didn�t trust Usagi. The problem was Usagi came with six sets of big ears and little mouths that endlessly repeated the most unlikely of things. (There were seven half-elf children but one couldn�t talk yet.)

Law had been hoping that Usagi would never ask about Law�s activities because she couldn�t lie to the woman � not in front of Bare Snow. Elves viewed lying as the worst sin that you could do. Bare Snow wouldn�t lie to save her soul. She would turn against Law if she heard Law lie, especially to someone like Usagi.

�No, we�re not spies!� Widget was the youngest Bunny, a cute teenage African American girl. She was stunningly intelligent yet lacked common sense. She�d actually swum the shark-infested Ohio River during winter, thinking that river sharks hibernated. �We�re Hal�s Heroes! We�re like the Sons of Liberty during the Revolutionary War, only less sexist.�

Law controlled a grimace. Widget�s other loyalties also made Law worried about telling the Bunnies the truth.

�Who exactly are these Hal�s Heroes?� Usagi asked. �How did you get involved with them?�

�It�s like Fight Club,� Widget said. �The first rule of being in the Resistance is not to talk about the Resistance. Besides, you know how hard it is to keep a secret in this house with all the little kids hearing everything and repeating it over and over and over?�

�In the name of the moon, I�ll punish you!� Bare Snow struck a Sailor Moon pose. Law wasn�t sure if Bare Snow was actually following the conversation. The discussion slipped in and out of the two languages on the fly. Her quip, though, illustrated Widget�s point, since it was one of the first things Bare Snow learned in English.

�The Resistance?� Babs was the oldest of the Bunnies. She had a skunk stripe of premature gray that she liked to dye various colors. Currently it was purple. Her lap was full of squirming ferrets, as part of her being the family doctor extended to the pets. Each ferret had a medical record in a binder that Babs was making notes in. �What exactly are you resisting?�

�We haven�t completely settled on a name,� Widget said. �Some people wanted us to be the Rebel Alliance but it was decided that�s too hokey. We�re using �the Resistance� as in �the French Resistance.� I think the name is to impress on people to be hush-hush and don�t go blabbing stuff to anyone, not even people they trust, because those people might tell other people who would tell the wrong person.�

�We need to know what you�re involved in,� Usagi said. �This time it saved all of our lives, but it could also endanger all of our lives. The elves believe that the head of household is responsible for all the actions of the individuals in their enclave. Who are these people? Why did you join them without talking to us first?�

Law squirmed but kept quiet; technically, she and Bare Snow weren�t part of Usagi�s household. Their activities shouldn�t bring the elves down on the Bunnies.

�Well, I didn�t seek them out and join them,� Widget said. �I was crushing on this boy that works at the bakery. I met him when I went in to help them with their computers. He is so fine, with the bluest of eyes.�

�Duff?� Usagi consulted with many of Pittsburgh-based companies, trading her Earth business savvy for things like dining tables. It was through her contacts that Widget ended up doing computer work for the bakery.

Duff was Alton Kryskill�s younger brother; number five in the Kryskill clan. The siblings were all ruggedly handsome as Norse gods. Their stunningly beautiful mother had a coffee shop downtown but their dad had been a sniper for the US Marines. The family�s sniper genetics meant all the siblings tended to keep to the shadows despite being incredibly good looking.

�Yeah, right?� Widget said. �Out of the blue, two months ago, Duff suddenly calls me and asks me to hack the city�s security camera system. ASAP. Matter of life and death. If I hadn�t done all the footwork while trying to find Windwolf the month before, I wouldn�t have been able to do it. I�m not sure how he knew that I could.� She glanced pointedly at Hazel, who worked at the bakery.

�I didn�t tell him anything.� Hazel had a silicon sheet down on the table, flour up to her elbows, and was kneading bread dough. �Duff seems to think you walk on water when it comes to computers, he probably just assumed you could do it.�

�Me? Walk on water? Is that what Duff thinks?� Widget smiled dreamingly at the news. After a minute, she realized that they were staring at her. She shook off the distraction. �Well, I am damn good at what I do, but not that good. I used the backdoor that I made in June. Anyhoo, I didn�t know why he was so frantic and then boom, I�m looking at the pug-ugliest fishes walking around the city, trying eat the police. Duff is all code words and hush hush. We did it. Well�the guys in the Hummer did it but only with my help. We saved the policeman and killed the monsters. Duff was all �Thank you, I love you, thank you� and �Don�t breathe a word to anyone about any of this.� Like I would talk to anyone about hacking the City of Pittsburgh�s computer system! That was before Princess Tinker pulled the orbital gate out of the sky; Duff�s family was worried about repercussions.�

The Kryskills had produced an honest to God cannon, killed the giant walking electric catfish terrorizing the city, and then vanished without fanfare. There were a handful of people who knew it was them � the cop that they rescued for example � but no one offered up the family�s name to the media. Not even the EIA named them in their press releases. It�d taken days for Law to connect the dots and figure it out who had saved the city.

�Duff is part of this Resistance?� Usagi asked.

Widget cringed. �You can�t tell anyone.�

�You know we won�t tell anyone.� Usagi glanced to Law.

�I swear on my honor, I�ll tell no one.� Law was fairly sure no one would ever think to ask her. People saw her as an antisocial backwoods man-hater. (She didn�t hate men. It was simply a case that few seemed worthwhile and many needed a firm beating � administered by her � immediately.)

Bare Snow rarely talked to anyone outside of the Bunnies, so it was easy for her to nod in agreement.

�He�s my cell leader,� Widget whispered. �It�s all been hush-hush from the very start. We don�t really know who-all is working for the oni. We don�t know what level of technology that they�re operating at. We have to assume that anything we say might be overheard. I told Duff about the French guy � Mr. Fancypants � Brous-whatever.�

�Andre Brousseau?� Law named the first person whose death she was responsible for, although technically he shot himself.

�Yeah, him. I told Duff how Andre looked human and worked for the EIA but was kidnapping girls like me off of Earth for the oni. I couldn�t tell Duff what Andre�s name was or I�d have to explain about everything that happened in June. It turns out that the tengu had told Duff that �the people that look human� were oni greater bloods. When Tinker domi returned Jin Wong to the tengu, Jin ordered them to quietly wipe out the greater bloods. The problem is that �the oni� never trusted the tengu completely. Jin�s people only knew a few greater bloods. The tengu knew that there were more. I�m not sure if anyone knows about the Skin Clan angle � but I couldn�t explain it without telling them about Bare Snow.�

Widget had been hopping around certain information landmines from the very beginning.

�You�ve kept the right hand from knowing what the left hand was doing?� Law said.

�If the tengu knew about Bare Snow, I think they would feel honor bound to tell Tinker domi,� Widget whispered. �I know that Bare Snow was set up to be a scapegoat for the attack on Windwolf. I don�t know if the sekasha would believe that she had nothing to do with it. I don�t think they would hurt her, but what do I know? I thought river sharks hibernated. I couldn�t risk it.�

Law hugged Widget. �Good girl.�

�I�m the only one without a baby,� Widget whispered. �I felt like I was the only one able to fight to make sure they all stay safe.�

�You could have told us,� Usagi said. �Quietly. When the kids were sleeping. We can keep secrets.�

Widget cringed. �I was afraid that if I started to talk I wouldn�t stop. I needed to keep it all compartmentalized or I was going to start babbling it all out to the wrong people. And it seemed unfair to put that kind of pressure on you. You literally can�t tell anyone about Duff and the Resistance. You wouldn�t believe how stupid some humans are! There are people that are saying we should just step back and let the elves lose! Pull the police and the EIA off the streets and let the oni take control of the city! These idiots would be perfectly okay if the oni killed every single elf in the city �because the humans would still be alive to make deals.� They don�t realize that the greater bloods have always treated the true bloods and lesser bloods as disposable tools. It�s why even the half-oni have turned against them. Once the oni wipe out the elves, there�s no reason that they�ll leave the humans unharmed. Or at least, most Pittsburghers used to be stupid. Maybe after what happened at Oktoberfest, they�ll start to realize that the oni will kill everyone � empty the city � if that�s what it takes.�

That was a chilling bomb to drop but probably completely correct.

�I think Oktoberfest was a wake-up call,� Usagi said. �It was for me. We�ve been cautious but I think we haven�t been careful enough. A lot of people know that the Bunnies exist. That we have half-elf children. If the oni are bent on genocide, then we have to assume that they�ll come after our babies.�

�Yes, they will,� Bare Snow said. �They�ll see the children as dangerous mutts and will want to eliminate them before they can breed.�

�But they�re just little kids!� Widget shouted.

All the mothers hushed her. The meeting would have to end once the children woke up.

Widget whispered fiercely. �They�re not dangerous. They�re little and they�re going to stay little for years and years.�

Bare Snow leaned across the table to take Widget�s hands. �I know that a hundred years would seem forever for you. It is all of my life plus few more turns around the sun. To the Skin Clan, it would be a blink of an eye. They are an ancient evil, easily ten thousand years old. They might not come for the children this week or this month or even this year, but they will come. They will want to wipe clean anything that could be immortal and remember what they�ve done here.�

�What are we going to do?� Hazel whispered.

�Make sure they don�t win!� Widget said loudly.

�Those of us without babies should focus on that,� Law said, meaning her and Bare Snow.

Clover stirred for the first time. She opened her exhausted eyes and reached out to take Law�s hand. She proved that she hadn�t been asleep the whole time by saying, �Thank you, Law. Bare Snow. Widget.�

Clover had a toddler and a newborn who would be orphaned if she was killed fighting. Their fathers didn�t know that the children existed, if Clover even knew which male impregnated her. Clover lived up to the �sex drive of a rabbit� myth.

�We�ll do what we can without drawing the line of fire on everyone.� Babs most likely would be a backline medic once fighting broke out. Her son was only a few months younger than Moon Rabbit.

�We need to double-up on our hoarding.� Hazel started to shift her bread dough into the kitchen to rise. �What we got during the keva-bean handout won�t last long.�

�We can gather food for you!� Bare Snow turned hopeful eyes to Law. �We can, can�t we?�

�We�ll make sure you have fresh fish and such.� Law couldn�t promise more as it was already September. In the last two months, more and more people were out foraging the old abandoned fruit trees, and hunting small game like turkeys, squirrels, and rabbits. It was pushing the bigger game animals deeper into the forest, making them harder to find.

�I think we should move.� Usagi shifted into planning mode now that information gathering was over. �I only picked this restaurant so we had access to a kitchen that we could get FDA-approved. That�s useless until Tinker links Pittsburgh back to Earth � assuming she stops getting hurt.�

�She can do that?� Widget asked.

�She can only juggle so many grenades but yes, probably she can from what I�ve heard,� Usagi said, making Law wonder where Usagi was getting her information. Law had heard that Tinker domi had been out at Squirrel Hill tunnels, looking them over, but there had been no confirmation that Tinker could actually link them to Earth. �We should find someplace farther from the front line. Someplace smaller that�s easier to heat and easier to defend. We should get some weapons. We should learn how to use them.�

�We can teach you!� Bare Snow said.

Hazel came back for another round of bread dough. �We need to come up with protocols on how we�re going to deal with emergencies so we all know what the plan is. I had no idea what to do when fighting broke out at Station Square. If Widget hadn�t been able to tell me that everyone was safe, I would have gone there.�

There was a sudden stampede of little feet in the room over their heads.

�Oh, the children are awake,� Hazel said.

The kids were good and didn�t scream or shout as they came thundering down the stairs, but the damage was done. Clover�s baby woke up crying.

�Once more into the breach, my friends.� Clover stood up.

Counting Clover�s infant, the commune had seven children. The six who could walk swarmed the table. The Bunnies were all shades of hair color, skin tones, and sizes. Their children, though, all looked like full siblings with straight black hair, blue almond-shaped eyes, and pointed ears. Moon Rabbit, the oldest, led the charge. She was fourteen but looked and acted six, which was why she only occasionally seemed able to dress herself. This morning she only had on her Wonder Woman underwear and was dragging her rabbit onesie behind her. Her right pigtail braid had unraveled, so her black hair hung to her waist. The other children were equally in various stages of dress. Her little brother, Shield of a Thousand Leaves, still looked like a toddler at five years old. He was crying because he had tried to put on a pair of costume butterfly wings and gotten them stuck on his head. Blade climbed into Bare Snow�s lap since his mother, Clover, had headed upstairs to deal with her colicky baby. Thunder went to lean against his mother, Babs, but her lap was still full of ferrets. All the kids were talking and crying and screaming.

Law loved the children and enjoyed the chaos in small doses, but she had hit her limit. She was already standing up when her phone rang. The screen showed that it was Alton Kryskill.

�I need to take this.� She used the call as an excuse to flee the house completely. The sidewalk outside the house was strewn with toys. She had to pick her way carefully to a clear spot. �Hi, Alton! How did it go?�

She�d asked Alton to check her fish traps and deliver anything he found in them. Luckily she had only promised �water produce� to Caraway�s enclave as she had expected Oktoberfest to chew up more of her time.

�I found your traps without any problem,� Alton reported. �They were full. I got everything to Caraway�s and Chili Pepper was happy.�

�Great!�

�Are you free? There�s something I want to talk to you about.�

Law frowned at her phone. What would Alton want to talk about? It boggled her mind. About how she found out about the train? She had left dead bodies behind her. How she derailed the train alone? She doubted Hazel or Widget would have mentioned Bare Snow to Duff.

�Now?� Law said when she realized that she�d been silent too long.

�Yeah, if you�re free. I�m on Mount Washington at the moment.�

Which was an alarming coincidence.

�What are you doing there?� Law glanced around.

�My little brother Marc has a place on Grandview, the old Greely place.�

Law turned to look toward the distant WESA radio tower. She had only been to the house once during an epic high school party that went south when one of the football players didn�t listen to the warning �she�s drunk, leave her alone.� He did listen to the autographed hockey stick to the side of the head, though. There was a reason she wasn�t offered the place when the Greely family moved Stateside last year. �Okay, meet me at the Duquesne Incline.�

Two Tinkers.

Two.

Oilcan barely survived a childhood riding herd on one little mad scientist. He couldn�t even count the number of times they�d narrowly escaped death and/or dismemberment. It started when he was ten and Tinker had been an insanely brilliant six-year-old. When most kids were learning how to read, she�d been making go-karts out of old lawn mowers. Making the go-karts led to racing them on a small island in the middle of a shark-infested river. Then there had been the �let�s see if it explodes� phase that led to the rocket sled experiment. The larger and larger trebuchets until they accidentally leveled one of the Roach Refuse outbuildings with a three-hundred-pound cracked engine block. The homemade fireworks. The magical wiffleball shooter. The hoverbikes. The hoverbike racing on the prototype racecourse. The hovertank experiments put on hold merely because she couldn�t gain legal access to a large enough printer.

What were two of Tinker going to be like?

Being older � and not fearless like her � Oilcan had been the voice of reason, reining in anything that was sure to be deadly, but that left a lot of wiggle room for Tinker to exploit. He had often wondered why he was so boringly sane compared to her. He and Tinker were both Dufaes. He thought it might be a case of nature vs. nurture, where his mother�s quiet control won out over his grandfather�s lax parenting. Having met Forge and Esme, Oilcan was having second thoughts on the whole subject. Forge, so far, had been quietly sane. Esme had been the one who crash-landed a spaceship and flew an attack helicopter against a dragon. Maybe it wasn�t the Dufae bloodline that made Tinker so dangerous. Unfortunately, the twins were also Esme�s daughters and all that implied.

�Auejae,� Pony called from behind Oilcan.

Oilcan had started the summer thinking that he was highly fluent in Elvish. Since Tinker�s transformation, though, he�d stumbled over one unfamiliar phrase after another. He wasn�t sure what auejae meant but Thorne Scratch turned with pleased surprise on her face.

�What is it, Little Horse?� Thorne Scratch used Pony�s nickname with the elves.

�This is for you, auejae.� Pony held out a square package the size of a backpack, elegantly wrapped in cloth.

She undid the cloth wrapping to reveal a wyvern-scale vest dyed to Wind Clan Blue. �I�I did not expect you to have one for me. Not so soon.�

The tone of her wonderfully rough, scratchy voice said that she was very pleased with the gift.

�Rainlily had a late growth spurt after she came to the Westernlands.� Pony patted his hands to his chest to indicate Rainlily�s ample breasts were the result. �She outgrew her armor. We brought both of her old sets with us from Aum Renau to alter for domi. I�m afraid we already cut the other one down to fit domi�s smaller frame. This is all we have at the moment. Forgiveness. You are one of us, now. We should provide��

�It is fine.� Thorne Scratch tugged off her black-dyed armor. �We are in a war zone.�

It did odd things to Oilcan�s heart to see that she was wearing his Team Tinker T-shirt underneath. His kids had done his laundry and left it stacked on his bedroom chair for him to put away. The shirt had been on the top of the clean clothes pile. Had she borrowed it to keep him close or as a secret show of solidarity or just simply grabbed the first thing at hand when Tinker�s messenger showed up at Sacred Heart in the middle of the night?

Thorne Scratch shimmied into the new chest piece. She wasn�t as endowed as Rainlily but judging by the minute adjustments that she made, the younger female had started out smaller than Thorne Scratch in the chest. �It is tight but does not bind. It will work for now.�

�Darkness provided transportation for three Hands from Cold Mountain Temple.� Pony handed Thorne Scratch a piece of paper. �I recognize most of the names from visiting my grandfather when I was young. I do not know their true temperament.�

Thorne�s hastily tied braid had come undone while she had pulled the different-colored armor pieces off and on. Her dark brown hair spilled over her shoulders, making her growl in frustration.

�Let me.� Oilcan held out his hand for the blue ribbon. He hadn�t known how to braid hair at the start of summer. Elves, though, had a thing about long hair. It seemed to be a quiet status symbol to them. The oni had shorn Barley of his hair to humiliate him and it worked. The poor male wore a headscarf in a vain attempt to hide the fact he�d been shaved. The others hadn�t suffered that particular torture at the hands of their oni captors. Their scars were less visible.

Merry felt guilty asking for help from her battered housemates when she had been spared the abuse. Rustle with his shattered left hand needed help to tend to his waist-long hair. Cattail Reeds wanted the comfort of Oilcan�s protection. Baby Duck liked to try different styles as if she was trying to find her lost identity. What did the �true her� really love beyond baby animals? Thorne Scratch was hungry for intimate contact after the rest of her Hand had shunned her.

Thorne studied the list as Oilcan braided the Wind Clan color back into her hair. �I recognize all these names. I think I know them well enough to know their intent. Most are true warrior monks; they have no desire to be Beholden. There will be no moral gray in this war; the Skin Clan are cut off from their resources on Earth. They will do whatever it takes to seize and hold the Westernlands, no matter how barbaric it may be. It is how they have always been. The warrior monks from Cold Mountain Temple will see it as the chance of a lifetime for glorious battle without any stain on their honor. There are only one or two of the younger ones who might be considering leaving the narrow path of moral combat.�

�Warrior monks,� Oilcan repeated the phrase. He�d heard the term all his life but he thought it was just a fancy way of referring to the sekasha-caste. �How are they different from you?�

�Warrior monks are sekasha who have taken certain vows to limit when and where they enter into combat,� Thorne Scratch said. �They are considered the holiest of the holy.�

Pony nodded but added nothing. Oilcan was learning that now that he was domana, the rules of engagement had changed. Tinker�s Hand had taken a step back, letting Thorne Scratch stay center stage in conversations with him. It was an invisible filtering device that the sekasha employed, one Oilcan never noticed until it was applied to him. Had Tinker noticed yet? She usually ignored social constructs, maybe because she was so isolated while growing up.

Another odd change was that Thorne Scratch stopped wearing the cold, unemotional warrior mask while dealing with Tinker�s Hand.

She let uncertainty show as she considered the list. �I think the younger ones will vie to be Jewel Tear�s First Hand. They will reason that the attack came while she was asleep. It had been up to Tiger Eyes to see her Hand safe; it was not her failing that led to their deaths.�

Oh, they were having that conversation: Oilcan�s First Hand. Here, he was thinking Tinker oblivious.

�There are warrior monks coming from High Meadow Temple,� Pony said. �They are not familiar to me. I do not know their hearts� desire but I suspect some hoped to be Beholden to Wolf. They might be tempted by the promise of First Hand.�

Oilcan cringed. He really didn�t want more entanglements than he already had. He�d been a loner most of his adult life. His tangled knots of responsibility � with six babies looming on the horizon � felt suddenly claustrophobic. He didn�t want to add to his household but Thorne Scratch had already changed her clan alliance for him. He didn�t have the right to deny her support � strategically or emotionally � from other sekasha. Yes, they were ears deep in the holy warriors at Sacred Heart but none would put his desires above others. The fact Oilcan was now an elf was proof that he couldn�t depend on Forge�s Hand to protect him.

Thorne Scratch made a rude noise. �They will not want to serve under a First that abandoned her clan.�

�If they are so blinded by clan loyalty from the obvious truth that we�re all one people, then they are not for you,� Pony said. �There were those that thought that Otter Dance should seek out her father�s clan since she was short and dark. They were not the ones that make up Longwind�s First Hand.�

�What a mongrel group are we at Sacred Heart.� Thorne Scratch tucked away the list. �Elf. Human. Stone Clan. Wind Clan. But verily, is that not what the sekasha are at their core? A mongrel of elf and dragon genetics.�

Pony nodded. �Proceed with caution. Those who will decide the fate of domi�s siblings will be swayed by the presence of a strong Hand � but a Hand can only be strong if they fit.�

A certain irrefutable logic led Tinker to Lain�s house. The only way that the twins could have unlocked Dufae�s box was with the proper key word. The only way they could have learned it was if they had a copy of the Dufae Codex. Tinker could have asked the twins where they got it, but they scared her.

Her grandfather had given highly edited digital copies to Tinker and Oilcan, but he couldn�t have known about the twins. He would have fought for legal custody of them if he�d known that they existed.

Esme saw bits and pieces of the future. She had created Tinker to protect Pittsburgh. She could have foreseen the twins� existence but she had left Earth shortly after Tinker�s birth, eighteen years ago. She wouldn�t have been able to interact with the twins directly. She could have, though, placed a copy of the Codex where they would be sure to find it.

Tinker wanted to see Esme�s face when she explained how Esme�s little experiment with frozen treats had unintended side effects. Tinker was still a little miffed that Lain had lied about their relationship for eighteen years just because Esme asked Lain to. It was some nonsense about evil empires or something.

It reminded Tinker to ask Lain about her mother�s involvement in all this. Tinker�s grandmother. The one she never even knew that she had. The one she would probably never get to meet. Grandmothers were supposed to be like fairy godmothers of love; at least everyone she knew acted like it. She�d never actually met a real grandmother in the flesh. Blue Sky didn�t have one. Nathan�s grandmother lived in Florida. Roach had never introduced Tinker to his grandparents.

Forge�s appearance made Tinker hyperaware that grandparents were a mixed bag of gifts. It still pissed her off, though, that Lain hadn�t trusted her to be smart enough to keep her mouth shut. Tinker could keep secrets if she understood the reasons. Even now she wasn�t sure why Lain felt constrained to keep it a secret. What did it matter if people knew?

Tinker mulled over the question all the way to Lain�s place. Jin had said that the twins� parents had been killed and they ended up in the custody of Lain�s mother. How did that happen? Did it have something to do with the reason that Lain had kept Tinker hidden?

Tinker stomped up the front steps and rang the ancient hand-cranked doorbell. Lain usually dead-bolted her front door; she didn�t trust her neighbors. Tinker expected Lain to answer the door.

Esme calling �I�ll get it!� was the only warning Tinker got before the door was opened by her mother. Esme kept surprising Tinker by popping up in odd places � like in her dreams or the city morgue. Part of the surprise was the fact that she looked nothing like what Tinker imagined her mother to look like: tall, thin, and white-blond hair with a purple dye job. Today she had added mysterious streaks of red, pink, blue, and green on her cheeks like war paint. Esme was in her early thirties but something about the way she moved suggested that she was only a few years older than Tinker�s eighteen. It made her seem more like an older sister who would compete with Tinker for Lain�s affection. It did not help that Esme wore a set of khaki shirt and pants that Tinker recognized as Lain�s favorite outfit.

�Scarecrow!� Esme smiled brightly, although not looking surprised that it was Tinker at the door. �And your guard dogs.�

�Don�t call them that,� Tinker said. �And don�t call me Scarecrow.�

�Okay, Princess!� Esme grinned widely.

�Don�t call me that either!� Tinker brushed past Esme. She could smell sugar cookies; it might explain the war paint on Esme�s face. Was getting frosting on your face a genetic trait? �Where is Lain?�

�Come. Sit. Talk,� Lain called from the kitchen. �We have news.�

�News?� Tinker headed for the kitchen.

�Alexander?� Esme called after Tinker, still searching for an acceptable name.

�Tinker!� Tinker shouted back.

�Tinker domi,� Stormsong said as she drifted in Tinker�s wake. The sekasha hadn�t totally forgiven Esme for invading Tinker�s dreams; it had nearly driven Tinker mad.

The rest of Tinker�s Hand was quietly moving through the house, upstairs and down, checking for monsters. They would make themselves scarce after being sure that the house was safe. Stormsong was the only sekasha fluent in English; she would report to the others what was covered in the conversation.

Lain�s house was a big Victorian mansion on Observatory Hill that served as her home and her workspace. It had been built in the late 1800s when the neighborhood was all homes of wealthy and influential families. A small forest had been used to decorate it with wood paneling, wainscoting, and carved molding, all stained to a rich cherry hue. A sage green damask wallpaper with woodland animals hidden within its elaborate design covered the few walls that weren�t paneled. It had always been a warm and welcoming place of refuge for Tinker while she grew up.

Lain sat at the kitchen table with a plate of sugar cookies decorated with frosting. Tinker�s favorite. Was it because the sisters had foreseen her arrival? There were two cups of tea for the sisters and a tall glass of cold milk for Tinker. Yes, they had.

Tinker thumped down into the chair in front of the glass of milk.

Lain refused to decorate her cookies; she made her guests go through the extra effort. Esme must have been the one who used the Mickey Mouse cutter to shape the cookies. Esme had painted the mice ears red, green, pink and blue.

�Have you been dreaming of mice?� Tinker asked. Oilcan had told her of his odd dream about the Dufae babies visiting him as mice wearing different colored scarfs. The colors matched up to the ones that Esme used.

�You too?� Esme answered with a question. �My dreams have gotten really weird since I�ve hit Pittsburgh.�

�That�s a yes, then?� Lain asked.

�Oh, God, yes,� Esme said. �Lots of mice. I�m not sure if the mice are literal or figurative. I don�t think we�re going to be besieged by talking mice � but odder things have happened lately. I do think something satisfyingly horrible happened to Yves, but I�m not sure. It seemed very real. Maybe it�s going to happen.�

�Who the hell is Yves?� Tinker asked.

�Our older stepbrother,� Lain said. �Yves Desmarais.�

�Satisfyingly horrible� was not a phrase you usually used when talking about family members.

�What exactly is so horrible about our family?� Tinker said. �Why couldn�t you tell me, Lain, that you were my aunt?�

�Maybe we should start with our news,� Lain said. �It is profoundly disturbing but it should give you a good idea what our family is like.�

�Okay,� Tinker said cautiously. The summer had served up so much disturbing information that Lain�s statement kind of scared her.

Esme sat down directly opposite of Tinker. �A few nights ago, when we were at the morgue, I met that reporter, Chloe Polanski.�

�She�s dead.� Tinker didn�t add, �I killed her.� She wasn�t happy about the blood on her hands.

�Yes, her picture is on the front page of the newspaper.� Lain believed that televised news was more of a popularity contest than real information. She only periodically watched WQED, mostly for Hal Roger�s gardening show. She did get the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette daily and read it front to back.

�At the morgue, I thought I had met Chloe before,� Esme continued. �She seemed very familiar. It wasn�t until her picture was in the paper that it hit me why.�

Lain took an old-fashioned photograph out of her breast pocket and pushed it across the table to Tinker.

For a moment, Tinker thought it was a picture of Chloe. It was more than that the woman had the same pale blue eyes and white-blond hair. She also wore the same bobbed haircut, flawless makeup, and chunky amber necklace. It was as if someone had tried to cosplayer the reporter. The picture appeared to be taken in New York; the Statue of Liberty stood far in the background. The vehicles in the foreground had the sharp-angled styling of the �70s or �80s.

Chloe was in her late thirties; she wouldn�t have even been born at the time of the picture.

�Who is this?� Tinker asked.

�That�s our mother,� Esme said. �Anna Shanske Desmarais.�

�What the hell?� Tinker said. �Why would Chloe be cosplaying as your mom?�

�It�s a lot more than that.� Lain fished a necklace out of her pants pocket and put it on the table beside the photo. �Chloe was wearing our mother�s jewelry. Our father, Neil Shanske, had this made for her. See their wedding date was etched on the back of the pendant?�

�Mother loved amber.� Esme tapped the necklace. �She never wore this particular piece after she remarried. Our stepfather showered her with amber jewelry that she would wear instead. She tried to keep this hidden from me. When we were little, I used to tear the mansion apart until I found it. I would march up to her, thrust it at her like a knife, and tell her to put it on. She never would. Shortly after I left for college, she called and asked if I took the necklace with me. She couldn�t find it.�

�She called me during Shutdown to ask about it,� Lain said. �She was sure one of us had taken it but I hated the damn thing.�

�I don�t get it,� Tinker said. �How did Chloe get the necklace and why was she trying to look like your mother?�

�I pulled some strings,� Lain said. �Maynard was surprisingly cooperative when I used your name. I got a DNA sample from Chloe�s body. Based on her mitochondria, Chloe was our sister.�

�She was what?� Tinker said.

�Our sister,� Esme repeated. �The three of us have the same mother.�

Tinker frowned at the piece of jewelry. �Chloe was younger than Lain � but � not that much younger. She would have been born before Lain came to Pittsburgh.�

Lain nodded. �Yes, that�s right. And if she had this necklace, then she had to know who our mother was.�

Stormsong breathed out a laugh.

�What�s so funny?� Tinker asked, since her Hand normally did everything in their power to stay silent and invisible during a discussion.

�Chloe came dressed in black to the morgue,� Stormsong said. �She had planned on taking the bodies of the Stone Clan children so no one could learn the truth about why the oni had kidnapped them. The moment you told Esme that you were her daughter, Chloe nearly tripped over herself trying to flee.�

Tinker had noticed that Chloe seemed very unsettled by the news. It had puzzled her. �What�s so important about Esme being my mother?�

Stormsong shifted closer to the table. �If Chloe knew that Esme was a strong intanyai seyosa, she would have had to believe that you were too. Such abilities are passed by the mother�s bloodline. It would instantly explain how you�ve managed to do so many impossible things. What�s more, Chloe�s blood tie to you through Esme�s mother would mean it would have been easy for her nuenae to overlap with yours.�

�My what?� Tinker knew that Stormsong had used the term before but she wasn�t totally sure she understood the word.

�Nuenae.� Stormsong repeated and then paused, thinking. �I don�t know the English word for it � if there is one. It is basically the world that you are trying to grow. Intanyai seyosa literally means �someone who sows or farms the future.� When your nuenae overlaps with another intanyai seyosa, you share visions of things that might affect your shared future. It�s why you and your mother were both having Wizard of Oz dreams. It was also why the tengu dream crow, Gracie Wong, was part of those visions � she was trapped on the damaged spaceship with your mother. She would share any future that Esme created. The more you interact with someone related to you, the more the nuenae transpose. Chloe had already interacted with you once. At the morgue, when she learned that you shared her bloodline, she realized any prolonged interactions with you would make it probable that you would dream of what she had planned.�

Chloe Polanski had been Tinker�s aunt and she had killed her. That totally sucked. It was also totally weird: Chloe knew that she was Esme�s sister but Esme hadn�t?

�How did you not know about her?� Tinker asked the sisters. �Why wouldn�t your mother tell you that you had a younger sister? Or is it some weird compulsion that the women of our family have � to have secret babies that we scatter about the landscape like breadcrumbs?�

�We don�t think our mother knows about Chloe,� Lain said.

�But � but � but � Chloe knew who she was!� Tinker thumped the table beside the jewelry. �If she had this necklace, then she�d been to your mother�s house. Right?�

Esme gave a bitter laugh. �Not necessarily. Yves or one of the boys could have taken it.�

�Boys?� Tinker asked.

Esme and Lain exchanged looks.

�You really told her zilch about the family?� Esme said.

Lain shook her head. �I was afraid that if anything happened to me, she would feel the need to share the news with the boys. They would have wondered why I kept a child close to me, and the ball would start rolling.�

Esme sighed. �Our father � as you might know � was Neil Shanske. He was an astronaut. Our mother is Anna; she was from a family of well-to-do bankers. When I was six, our mother met an evil snake of a man called Edmund Desmarais. Within a few weeks, our father was dead. Desmarais had him killed.�

�There�s no proof of that,� Lain said quietly.

�Our stepfather is evil.� Esme glared at Lain defiantly. �He killed our father.�

Lain scoffed. �Your daughter has made me completely impervious to that look. I won�t argue that he�s evil, but we�ve never been able to prove he was behind the shooting.�

�The man is a billionaire,� Esme said. �He had enough money to make all proof disappear.�

Lain didn�t argue the point. Instead she turned to Tinker and asked, �Do you know how our father died?�

�He was killed in a random shooting.� Tinker knew that small part of Lain�s family history. Their family history. �He was doing a charity appearance in a bad neighborhood � in California? Someone opened fire on the crowd.�

�Esme was six and I was twelve,� Lain said. �Our father was training at the Marshall Space Flight Center, which is in Huntsville, Alabama. Our mother was an investment banker; she had relocated to Huntsville so we could be together as a family. That�s how she met Desmarais. He had an isolated estate outside of Huntsville � a huge plantation house that had been in his family for generations. Our father was on a business trip to the Jet Propulsion Lab when he was killed.�

�On Earth.� Esme stood up to pace the kitchen. �Without magic, you never get that gut punch of �this will be bad� and your dreams seem like they�re just nightmares. But I know what I know: Edmund Desmarais killed our father.�

�And I�ve always believed you,� Lain said. �But to everyone else, you were just a child having nightmares after her father was murdered.�

�Desmarais turned our life into hell to make our mother marry him. Oh, we could never prove it,� Esme said as Lain lifted her hand to protest. �But we knew. He had our mother mugged. The robbers took her wallet, emptied her bank account, and maxed out her credit cards. Our house was burned down. Our car was stolen. It just went on and on. Anyone that she might have turned to was lured away with a job offer on the other side of the country, or had some crisis of their own spring up, or was simply killed.�

�He loved her that bad?� Tinker wondered if it could even be called �love� if it moved a man to be so cruel.

Lain and Esme exchanged looks and shook their heads.

�We don�t know why he wanted to marry her,� Lain said. �We never did, but it wasn�t because he loved her. It couldn�t have been for her banking savvy; he could have had that without marrying her. She was already handling his money.�

�It was his money, not hers,� Stormsong said. �Nuenae extends from yourself. You must always be at the center. It does not include the wealth of other people. If you try to focus on others that way, it becomes like trying to walk two paths at once. Only the most powerful intanyai seyosa can keep track of multiple goals. My mother is part of the queen�s personal household merely so their nuenae would align.�

Lain shook her head. �He couldn�t have known that. They�re both humans living on Earth without magic. This was long before Pittsburgh traveled to Elfhome � at least, in human terms. I was twelve when they married; I was in my thirties when I came to Elfhome that first Startup.� She frowned slightly. �But � you know � Yves was there that first day. He didn�t seem as puzzled as everyone else by the ironwood forest.�

�Yves never looked a day older the entire time we knew him,� Esme whispered.

�Desmarais never seemed to age�� Lain paused. �Oh, God, it makes sense now. Desmarais is an elf trapped on Earth, just like the Dufaes. How did I not see that?�

�An elf would have recognized an intanyai seyosa,� Stormsong said. �They would have known that they had to tie the oracle to them for their abilities to work.�

Tinker gaze fell on the necklace. �But where does Chloe fit into this?�

�I have a theory,� Lain said slowly, gaze distant as if she looked at far-off objects. �Desmarais tried to win our affection.�

Esme made a rude noise. �Buy us off. I wasn�t having it. I knew what he did.�

Lain motioned to Esme not to derail the subject. �If he is an elf, then he�s been on Earth for centuries. He married mother to bind her to his nuenae but that was a short-term fix for him. If he wanted her abilities over the centuries, then he would need to control her bloodline.�

�Operation: Baby Machine,� Esme snarled.

�What?� Tinker said.

�Desmarais talked our mother into quitting her job to devote herself to having children,� Lain said.

�Mother loves babies,� Esme said. �It wasn�t that hard to do.�

�Yes, there is that,� Lain said. �The problem was that she was forty when they married and he had a really low sperm count, so they had to go through in vitro fertilization. It was such a big production that they couldn�t keep it from us. We knew everything. How many times it failed. How many times she miscarried. It took them two years for Lucien and she spent all nine months in bed. But Desmarais wanted more � she wanted more � so the medical circus continued. If a doctor said it was too risky, they would find another doctor. It always made me wonder: If she was the golden goose, why was he risking her? If he was an elf, though, he knew that she would die long before he did.�

�She almost died giving birth to Tristan,� Esme said. �She was forty-six. Some women are grandmothers at forty-six.�

Tinker struggled to control the hurt welling up. �You have two younger half brothers that you never told me about? Lucien and Tristan?�

Lain sighed. �Yes, ladybug, Lucien and Tristan are our younger half brothers. Desmarais had a son by his first wife. Yves was ten years older than � well � if Desmarais was an elf there�s no telling how old Yves is. Oh! Oh! If Desmarais was an elf, it means Lucien and Tristan are half elves.�

�Oh crap!� Esme said. �That bastard! Autosomal dominant genetic disorder, my ass!�

�What?� Tinker said.

�Oh, I feel so stupid!� Lain was shaking her head. �Desmarais made out that the boys had some odd disease that made them look like children even when they were full grown. How could I not see that they were half-elf?�

Esme reached out to cover Lain�s hand. �All that happened before the first Startup; we didn�t know anything about elves and their immortality!�

Lain waved away the excuse. �Even afterward, I never questioned it. It�s so obvious now; the boys were like Blue Sky. When they were eighteen, they only looked like they were six or seven. They were still babies, but Desmarais treated them like they were grown men. He sent them away so they wouldn�t distract Mother from her work.�

�I never laid eyes on them again,� Esme murmured. �Have you?�

Lain shook her head.

Oilcan�s kids ranged from seventy to ninety years old but were still obviously �children.� Even Windwolf was considered a �teenager� at 214. The Desmarais boys would be in their forties, which meant they were closer to tweens in age than teenagers.

Tinker had been thirteen when her grandfather died. She couldn�t imagine being cut off from everyone she loved after losing him. �Did you abandon them because of me?�

�Oh, no, ladybug,� Lain said. �We drifted apart long before you came into the picture. I�I don�t know why. We were close when the boys were little but afterward things started to change.�

�They�re the ones that started it,� Esme said. �Refusing to return phone calls or emails. I drove halfway across the country once to see Tristan before I left Earth. I wanted to say goodbye to him properly. He locked himself in the bathroom and cried until I left. I couldn�t even get within spitting distance of Lucien; I�m not sure he was even living at the address that Mother gave me.�

Tinker shook her head. �I�m still not seeing how Chloe fits into this.�

�Our mother and Desmarais were trying to have another child when the boys were both diagnosed with a genetic disorder,� Lain said. �The plan was to use a surrogate to carry the baby to term instead of Mother. They�d already collected and fertilized the egg. Desmarais had paid a woman to act as the surrogate. Everything was set to go when Mother found out why the boys weren�t thriving. She assumed all her children with Desmarais would be afflicted with the same genetic disorder. He seemed to agree. Chloe was the right age, though, to be a result of that experiment. We think that Desmarais implanted the egg into a surrogate and never told our mother.�

�That�s�that�s horrible!� Tinker said.

�Desmarais is a monster. He�s why I�ve never told you that I was your aunt. Why I never told you about our family. He sees people � his own children � as tools to be used. He�ll kill to obtain what he wants. There�s no way I could protect you from him if the wrong person found out the truth.�

Jin had said that the twins had ended up in the custody of Esme�s mother after their parents had been killed. Had Desmarais arranged another murder? Was that where the four other babies came from? Did Desmarais search out the frozen embryos after stumbling across the twins and had them implanted into a surrogate mother?

�How many frozen embryos did you leave in New York?� Tinker said.

�Me?� Esme said. �We�re talking about Desmarais.�

�More than six?� Tinker pointed at the mouse cookies. �Because there are six of your children at Haven. The tengu found them wandering out in the woods while I was out playing hide-and-seek with Chloe.�

Esme stood up, hands over her mouth, eyes full of horror.

�Esme?� Lain said.

Esme muffled cries of dismay.

�Esme, what did you do?� Lain said.

Esme whimpered. �There was only supposed to be one! There was only supposed to be you! The one old enough to be able to save Pittsburgh. I�ve been dreaming of them. They�re so little. So helpless. Just little mice of children.�

�Six?� Lain had backtracked through the conversation to lock onto the most important detail. �Six?�

�Six,� Tinker said. �Two nine-year-olds and four newborns � or something like that.� She must have been very mentally off-balance not to get clarification on that. Was there one woman or four women pregnant with Dufae babies? Had Jin Wong been as rattled as she or was there a reason he didn�t clarify? The summer had been so full of weirdness that it boggled her as to why Jin might have dodged the question. It was a fairly innocuous question � wasn�t it? It might be something simple like two pregnant women carrying one to three babies each and thus it was just easier to skip to the punch line and say four babies. It was unsettling, though, that Jin hadn�t given a fully accurate body count.

�My mother claimed that seeing across universes was nearly impossible,� Stormsong said. �She likened each world to resting in a separate ocean with only tiny streams connecting them. To know how events were unfolding in a world, one must be in that ocean. Not even she could foresee these children until they traveled here.�

�But she�s aware of them now?� Lain asked.

�Most likely. The intanyai seyosa caste has their differences. Battles between them are like poker games where the cards are people. When I saw your little sister at the museum, I felt the resonance of another dreamer who shared my nuenae. If she was strong enough for me to sense her on Earth, my mother knows that she�s here in Pittsburgh.�

Her little sisters just got more terrifying. They had precognition on top of everything else? Tinker could remember being that age � she was always so sure that she was right about everything. If Tinker had been aware of her limited precognitive abilities, she would have been worse. Much worse.

Chloe had been after Oilcan�s kids because they had special powers. Tinker�s little sisters had power in spades. The only real advantage the twins had was that the oni didn�t know that they existed. Or did they? Chloe was working for the oni.

�The twins reached Haven while I was playing hide-and-seek with Chloe. It means they got to Elfhome while Chloe was alive. Do you think that Chloe knew about the twins?�

Stormsong shook her head. �Chloe could dodge my sword but she was not at my mother�s level. If she was, she would have known you were Esme�s daughter long before that conversation at the morgue.�

That was comforting. Tinker turned back to Esme. �Did you store more than six embryos?�

Esme shook her head. �I�I-I don�t think so. The doctors retrieved a little more than a dozen eggs. One or two failed to be fertilized. We implanted three into your surrogate mother, just to be sure at least one took. I had dreams about twins, so I thought two of them would take. I�m fairly sure that they told me there were six embryos left over and all were of high enough quality to freeze. I left them in case the ones implanted in your surrogate mother failed to produce a genius.�

Tinker shivered. Six babies all like her sitting in cold storage for years, quietly forgotten.

Well � not completely forgotten � or they wouldn�t be up to their ears in Dufae babies.

�I think the twins have a copy of the Dufae Codex,� Tinker said. �How would they have gotten it? Did Grandpa give you a digital copy? Was it a complete copy or doctored, like the one I have?�

�He didn�t give me anything,� Esme said. �Tooloo gave me a memory stick with some old photos of the Dufae family, a family tree, and a large text file. I barely looked at it; I didn�t have time. I think I put some pictures in with the stick; I got blazing drunk that night. I gave it to your surrogate mother to pass on � I think. That last part is fairly hazy.�

�Tooloo?� Tinker said. �How the hell did Tooloo get old Dufae family pictures?�

Esme shrugged. �I got the impression that she had always been your family�s nanny. At least, that�s what she made it sound like. She said something about taking a baby from France to Boston back during the French Revolution.�

�What?� Tinker shouted. �Are you sure?�

�This was only a few months ago for me,� Esme reminded Tinker.

�How � how � how?� Tinker sputtered with too many questions to pick just one. Tooloo always called Tinker and Oilcan �her� wood sprites. Was it because the old crazy half-elf had something more to do with their existence than being an occasional babysitter?

�I�ve always had dreams that came true,� Esme said. �On Earth, without magic, they were like getting one peek into a box. One quick flash of what was to come and then the image is gone. The summer I came to visit Lain here on Elfhome, I suddenly could take the lid off the box and stare at everything inside. But what was inside were horrible, terrible things. I didn�t know how to stop it from happening � what I needed to do to make things right. I didn�t even know if I could change the future. There�s this old technique that some famous scientist used: right before he went to bed, he thought about his problem and then he dreamed the answer.�

Tinker supplied the name of the scientist. �August Kekul� and his discovery of the molecular structure of benzene.�

�It�s one of the first things you learn when you�re born to the intanyai seyosa caste.� Stormsong said. �You focus your mind on what you want to see.�

Esme nodded. �I wanted someone that could teach me how to use my powers. That night I dreamed that there was a red thread wrapped around my fingers, leading out of Lain�s guest bedroom and down her stairs and out her door. I followed the thread into the dark streets and found on the other side of the river a beautiful elf female sitting in a grove of flowering lemon trees with a golden dragon the size of a mountain behind her. She had a red ribbon tied around her eyes and it trailed down and became the thread around my fingers.�

Stormsong breathed in sharply. �Vision?�

�Who?� Tinker asked. �What?�

�Clarity was not the first dragon that the Skin Clan captured, but she was the last,� Stormsong explained. �It is said that she allowed herself to be captured, knowing that her genetic material would create the caste that would lead the uprising. Like the sekasha before them, the intanyai seyosa were created in mass numbers, ruthlessly culled and refined while they were still helpless infants. There was an exception � one attempt to distill a perfect copy of Clarity in elf form. The resulting female child took the name Vision as she was the product of Clarity�s prophecy. She was the most powerful intanyai seyosa ever born. Pure Radiance was her only child. None of the others could ever equal my mother because the blood of Clarity runs pure in her. I have just a pale, hollow reflection of her power. It is to be expected, though, as my father is of a dragon-born caste. When two dragon bloodlines are present in one child, they are often at odds with each other. It is very rare for them reinforce each other.�

�When I woke up, I went looking for the female in my dreams,� Esme said. �I found her in McKees Rocks. She was expecting me but there was no time for her to teach me more than a few things. If I was going to stop everything I could see in my dreams, countermeasures had to be set in motion immediately.�

It was the first time Tinker had ever seen Stormsong completely flummoxed.

�Wh-wh-what?� Stormsong said. �You found her? Here?�

Esme pointed across the river. �Yes, she�s been here since � well � I�m not sure. I think before the first Startup. Before that I think she was in Boston.�

�She�s in Pittsburgh?� Stormsong wasn�t processing the news well.

�Wait? Who exactly are we talking about?� Tinker was confused. �If Pure Radiance was Vision�s daughter, then we�re talking about Stormsong�s grandmother? Your grandmother is in Pittsburgh?�

Esme had said previously that Tooloo had taught her how to control her dreams. They had been in the middle of illegally obtaining elf DNA and bullying a local funeral home into cremating the dead Stone Clan kids, so Tinker had forgotten to follow up. Shortly after that, the oni blew up Tinker�s limo, rebreaking her newly healed arm.

It had been a bad, bad night.

Stormsong looked uncertain as she shook her head. �I�ve never met my grandmother. Vision vanished before the Rebellion ended. The Skin Clan had bound her hand and foot. She was guarded by Vigilance. Like Malice, Vigilance could be considered a dragon but in truth was a spell-worked beast, pieced together from shattered pieces of other creatures. He wasn�t as clever or powerful as the Ryu dragon that the Skin Clan had shattered down to make him, but he was massive in size with golden scales. Despite the shackles and the magical guardian, Vision managed to slip away. The Skin Clan sent Vigilance after her to bring her back. Neither one was ever seen again. It was assumed that Vigilance had killed her and gone wild. She couldn�t possibly be in Pittsburgh.�

�Tooloo has a bed made of dragon bones,� Tinker said.

Stormsong shook her head. �I can�t believe it is her. I know you would not lie about it but she went missing when our people needed her the most. We would have not won the war against the Skin Clan without Pure Radiance and the others to tip the scale.�

�Oh, that reminds me,� Esme said. �I went over to Tooloo�s store earlier for milk and eggs. She gave me your mail.�

�My mail?� Tinker thought the tengu had been collecting that for her.

Esme went to the kitchen counter and hunted through dirty baking pans. �Yeah, it looks like a greeting card. It�s dated back in April. It�s postmarked New York City.�

�New York City?� Tinker took envelope that Esme handed her. �How long did Tooloo have it? Nothing has come from Earth since July!�

Esme shrugged. �She didn�t say.�

Tinker ripped open the envelope. Inside was a birthday card. It had a girl in a dress decorated with pink flowers. It read: To a special sister on your eighteenth birthday. �Oh shit, the twins sent me a birthday card!�

Tinker looked at the envelope again. It had been addressed to the Neville Island hotel but the Pittsburgh post office had forwarded it to her salvage yard. Ink stamps marked its passage from New York City in April to Elfhome days before her eighteenth birthday.

�Wait. Oh, that bitch! I remember Tooloo raiding my mail after the April Startup! She and her stupid chicken. She managed to slip this out from under my nose!�

Tinker headed for the door.

�Domi?� Stormsong followed. �Where are we going?�

�I�m going to get some answers out of Tooloo, one way or another.�

Tommy had forgotten his phone in his new fancy bedroom, so he had to swing past the William Penn Hotel to pick it up. It felt weird walking into the lobby, knowing that he�d slept in the building the night before and would probably do it again until Bingo found them a new place to live. The lobby was a huge room with marble floors, massive crystal chandeliers, and lush seating. Weirder yet, everything was lit up and gleaming as if dozens of half-oni just completed an intensive deep clean to the space.

Trixie had always been one of Tommy�s favorite cousins. She cleaned up decently enough. Like most of the half-oni, she was painfully skinny after years of near starvation. She was, though, also painfully �sharp,� in all ways that the word could be applied to a female.

She was standing behind the counter in the hotel lobby, fiddling with the machine that coded the room keys. Instead of the tank top, capris, and ballerina flats that she normally wore, she had on a dark blazer jacket over a white button-down shirt and black slacks.

�What the hell is going on?� Tommy asked. �Did you guys clean the lobby? Why are the lights all on? Why are you dressed like that?�

Trixie smiled tightly. �Welcome to the William Penn Hotel. How can I help you?�

�We are not running a hotel,� Tommy growled.

Trixie shrugged. �We already have three guests.�

�What?�

�It turns out that Tinker�s fight with Malice took out half of the Wyndham Grand. Since all the hotels in the area were booked solid since the July Startup, the poor souls who had been staying at the Wyndham have been sleeping at their offices. When the ones in the Alcoa building noticed people coming and going from here, they strolled over to see if they could get a room.�

�You gave them rooms?� Tommy could guess the answer but hoped that he was wrong. Surely Trixie was smarter than that.

�I explained we�re not able to accept credit cards at this point in time, that they would need to pay cash up front. They went down to the bank and came back with oodles of cash.�

�You gave them rooms?� he repeated in a growl.

�We need a cash flow,� Trixie said. �I was hoping to make a nest egg at Oktoberfest but the oni crashed that party. I only made forty bucks before all the yelling and screaming started. We got lucky. We would have been in the middle of that mess if the tengu hadn�t suddenly swooped in, yelled for everyone to get out, and grabbed the bunnies.�

�They grabbed what?� Tommy missed something. �Rabbits?�

Trixie laughed. �You look like shit. How much sleep have you gotten lately?�

�Not enough.� Tommy scrubbed at his face, annoyed that the lack of sleep was showing. He�d planned on sleeping the entire day after being up two nights in row. Oilcan�s emergency planning session, however, had awakened him at the crack of dawn.

�Here.� Trixie produced a Red Bull from under the counter and tossed it to him. �I�ve been hoarding that but you need it if you don�t know who Babs Bunny is.�

Tommy groaned as he realized who she was talking about. Babs was part of a commune of women who all had half-elf kids, collectively known as the Bunnies. All the women were illegal immigrants who hoped that their children created a legal loophole for them staying on the planet. No one was sure that they were right, not even the Bunnies. Just in case they were wrong, the women all used the names of famous rabbit cartoon characters instead of their real names. Because Babs couldn�t go to the EIA or the elves without endangering herself, she was the only midwife in town that the half-oni had been able to trust with difficult births.

�Alita knows someone that works as a housekeeper at the Wyndham,� Trixie said. �The story checked out.�

Tommy nodded after he realized that Trixie had circled back to the men who asked for hotel rooms. Alita was one of Trixie�s younger sisters. She was a smart, tough cookie, but then most of Aunt Amy�s kids were. Tommy cracked the Red Bull open � he needed the caffeine.

Trixie continued, passing on her little sister�s information. �Someone was bright enough to evacuate all the guests into the basement before the attack helicopter and dragon sideswiped the Wyndham. All the guests are alive but the rooms are toast. Alita also got some �how to run a normal hotel� tips off of her friend. We found where the housekeeper carts were stored. The teens gave the lobby a quick scrub and went up to the eighth floor to deep-clean the rooms. Alita says that the linens on the beds need to be top notch, so we tracked down the laundry room and where the clean linens are stored. We even found an entire closet of itty-bitty soaps and shampoos. The men wanted to know if we offered room service. That was an interesting conversation. Turns out �room service� is what you call take-out food in a hotel and has nothing to do with sex. I gave some of the cash that the men forked over to Alita and Zippo so they could buy groceries.�

Tommy nodded at the wisdom of the pair going shopping. Zippo was one of Bingo�s little brothers. He was only sixteen but nearly the size of Babe. Plus Zippo was chill enough to listen to the smaller but smarter girl. Alita and Zippo made a good brain-and-brawn team. It was wise to send them out with enough money to buy in bulk while the stores still had food to buy.

It was the whole cleaning thing that bothered Tommy. �Did Bingo not tell you about moving?�

�Look, I know how hard you�ve worked to keep us all safe, but I think you�re making a mistake. We�ve had shitty lives and, for once, we�ve got something nice. We can make this work.�

�We�re at war.�

�Yeah, every day of our freaking lives. What else is new?�

Tommy couldn�t deny the truth of that.

Trixie scanned the lobby. �Where�s Spot?�

�Spot?�

Trixie put her hand down to hip level to measure off how tall Spot was to her. �Bingo said you left with Spot.�

�Oh shit!� He�d forgotten he�d dropped Spot at Oilcan�s. He had planned to see Jewel Tear when he picked the boy back up. �He should be okay. Blue Sky was there and he promised to keep Spot safe. I need to grab my phone.�

Trixie put her cupped hands to her head and wiggled them. �Your ears are showing too.�

Swearing, he felt his head. �Oh, yeah. I didn�t want the elves to think I was pretending to be human. I took off my bandana when I got to Poppymeadows.�

�What did Tinker want?�

�She�s worried about people falling between the cracks like Oilcan�s kids did. I made the mistake of telling her about the girls on Liberty Avenue disappearing. I need to put together a list of missing whores to give to the police.�

�Exactly how the hell did this end up as your responsibility?� Trixie asked.

�Do you really think Oilcan would know where to even look for a whore?�

Trixie burst out laughing. �No. All the girls he�s ever brought to the track were cute but nerdy smart. He�s into smart, strong females.�

Tommy had never noticed who Oilcan dated. Trixie ran the concession booths at the racetrack; she saw who came and went with whom. She also had a thing for smart, strong women. Maybe she was crushing on Oilcan�s girlfriends.

�I need to talk to Mokoto,� Tommy said. �What room is he in?�

�My family is on the seventeenth floor. We put him away from the kids since he sleeps during the day. He�s not going to be happy being woke up after two hours of sleep.�

�At the moment, I don�t care. Are those running yet?� Tommy pointed toward the elevators.

�The closest one is working but only up to the eighth floor. Alita programmed it so our customers can only get to the floor that their rooms are on. Alita said she�ll work on the others later so we can use our room keys to access our floors.�

Tommy sighed. It was better than he expected but it still meant he needed to climb nine floors.

�Whoa, whoa, whoa!� the driver of the Oakland-to-Downtown bus cried as the royal marines bounded up the steps behind Olivia. The puppies were all excited about the bus trip; the only other mechanical transport they�d experienced in their entire lives was the train ride from the East Coast. They bounced around the large interior, testing all the seats and examining every overhead advertisement.

�Are the redcoats with you, miss?� The bus driver watched the antics in his rearview mirror. �Are you one of those poor interns that the EIA hired to translate for the summer?�

Redcoats? Olivia hadn�t heard the nickname before but it was easy to tell why it sprung up. The royal marines were Fire Clan, whose �official color� was scarlet red. The marines� uniforms looked like those of the British soldiers during the Revolutionary War; they wore the same kind of red wool tunics with big brass buttons down the center.

During the last few days, Olivia had been forced into close quarters with the marines and had seen them in every mode of undress possible, including buck naked. (They were very comfortable in their own skin and unabashed in their nakedness.) What was blazed across her brain was the white linen of their underclothes. She only saw them in their coats when they were away from wherever she�d set up camp. Their felt tricorne hats were black, as were their low boots. They also wore white cotton slacks and leather button-up gaiters that went up over their knees. She supposed that to any normal person, the other colors of the marines� uniforms were lost against the brilliance of their coats.

�I am Forest Moss�s domi.� Olivia fed her fare into the box and took the transfer slip that it spit out. Did the driver know what a domi was? She hadn�t until a few days earlier. Olivia added, �I�m like Princess Tinker. I�m married to Forest Moss.� Sort of. At least the general impression in the city was that Tinker had gotten married to Windwolf. �These royal marines are my guard.�

�You�re going to pay for them?� It was a question but the driver said it more like a statement.

Last time she had taken a bus, she�d been shadowed by Wyverns. The sekasha had gotten on without paying. Not surprisingly, no one had tried to make the holy warriors cough up their fare � not with them lopping the heads off people right and left.

Olivia didn�t want to have to pay for the marines. It would be nearly thirty dollars for all of them and then she would need to juggle twenty-one transfer papers to get them back to Oakland. �I�m sure that the Wind Clan made arrangements through the EIA for the royal marines to have use of the public transit system.�

The bus driver blinked in surprise. �I�I�I don�t know.�

�It would stand to reason that the newly arrived elves from the Easternlands would ride for free,� she said. �There�s no other way for them to get around the city easily; they haven�t had time to ship in hundreds of horses and carriages. They don�t have human money, nor could the EIA pass out bus passes to all the incoming marines � not quickly.�

�I�I-I should call in�� the bus driver started but then stopped as his dashboard dinged repeatedly as the marines discovered the button that signaled a desired stop. He sighed and glanced up at his mirror. �Forgiveness!� the bus driver called in fluent Elvish. �Don�t push that, please � not unless you want off.�

�Chi-chi-chi!� Coal cried. �You speak Elvish so well.�

�I was born in Pittsburgh,� the bus driver said.

�He sounds like Wind Clan,� Ox stated bluntly.

�Ya! Fire Clan would be: Stop it, you kids!� Coal did a gesture that was possibly obscene. It was hard to tell, considering how often the marines used it with one another. He added a dozen more words that Olivia didn�t know.

The driver knew. He snickered, shaking his head. He closed the door and the bus trundled forward.

Olivia took it as a victory, the second for the day, maybe the third.

She�d forgotten to follow her father�s advice to see each success as proof of her own strength. It didn�t seem like much. She had no seeds in hand and no idea how she was going to find the missing prostitutes. Certainly what she had accomplished, however, had been more difficult than cleaning her room. She�d gotten in to see Tinker. She�d talked Tinker into using her great powers to help. She�d bullied a bus driver into giving the marines free rides. Yay, me.

Olivia squashed down hard on the negative thought as she herded the marines toward the back of the bus. Her dad always said that big victories were made of countless little wins. The bigger problems of life would seem impossible to overcome if you ignored all the little wins.

I was strong, Olivia reminded herself. I can do this. I�ve done the impossible to get this far.

Louise yipped in surprise and fear when something ran up her bare leg. In theory she loved all things small and furry, but not when they were running loose inside her shorts. She jumped up from the concrete floor.

Jillian yelped in unison. �What is it?�

�There�s something alive in here.� Louise had been sitting cross-legged, wiring together the luggage mules through their maintenance ports. Whatever the small furry thing had been, it had fallen out of her lap and disappeared among the clutter scattered thick around her.

�Alive?� Jillian pulled out her Taser. �Like what? A steel spinner? A strangle vine?�

�I don�t know!� Louise stepped up onto the luggage mule�s platform to get herself off the floor.

Crow Boy had gone to find food and information. He believed that the bunker was safe, hidden as it was in the middle of the secret tengu village. He was thinking �oni invaders� not �deadly vermin.�

Louise looked around for a weapon.

�It�s me!� Nikola�s voice called from inside a boot lying sideways on the floor. A white robotic mouse peeked out cautiously to wave at Louise. It wore Nikola�s blue scarf. �Silly old bear. We were bored so we came to see what you are doing.�

�Nikola!� Jillian squealed with happiness. She tucked away her Taser so she could scoop up the robotic mouse and nuzzle it. �I�ve missed you and the girls so much!�

Louise felt a flash of surprise and dismay. Didn�t Jillian realize that the last thing they needed was bored babies?

On the heels of that impatient thought, she also realized that Jillian had spent most of the summer worried that she�d lose first the babies and then Louise. While Jillian had Louise walking and talking and plotting beside her, the babies had been dormant for a month. Jillian didn�t have Louise�s �sense� that the babies were safe and sound within their seven-pound eggs. The twins had marked the sky blue shells with the name of the baby they held but Louise supposed that wasn�t the same as hearing Nikola�s familiar Christopher Robin/little English boy voice.

�Are the girls here too?� Louise said.

�Of course we are!� Chuck answered as she parkoured across piles of camping gear. Her mouse had lost its pink scarf. Its right ear was torn and its face had dirt streaked across it like war paint.

�Chuck!� Jillian scooped up the battered robot to add to her mouse nuzzling. �You look so fierce!�

�Being in an egg is boring!� Red Jawbreaker stood on Louise�s tablet three mules down. The Jawbreakers sounded nearly identical but Red wore a red gingham scarf. �There�s nothing to do. Nothing to listen to. I want music! Let�s drop the beat!�

Red must have opened up Louise�s music folder as the deep thumping base of Imagine Dragons� �Believer� started to play. Red sang along with the words. �First things first, I�mma say all the words inside my head! I�m fired up and tired of the way that things have been, oh-oohh!�

�We want to race!� Green Jawbreaker scrambled up the next luggage mule down. Her scarf of green velvet was starting to fray at the ends. �We found our mice but we can�t find our mini-bikes. We want to use the luggage mules instead!�

�No, no, no, no!� Louise cried. �Don�t touch the mules! Why can�t it ever be simple?�

When Crow Boy said that he would recharge things, Louise had assumed he would stop at useful things like the luggage mules and their computers. Apparently he�d also charged up the babies� robotic mice. How did he miss the babies� other toys?

Louise carefully picked her way toward the pile of items that were related to magic. After they had sorted everything and come up with a plan, they pulled most of the piles apart, resulting in the floor being covered with everything that might be useful now. Anything unneeded had stayed stacked together, mostly in cardboard boxes labeled with their contents. Back when they had geared up on Earth, they had tried to stay as organized as possible. �I�ll find your�your what? Mini-bikes?�

�Chuck means the mini-hovercarts,� Nikola said.

Did they even bring those? When did the babies start calling them mini-bikes? Back at the Waldorf Astoria, they called them mini-hovercarts because the small square platforms sort of looked like little shopping carts that hovered. The plastic railing kept the robotic mice bodies from falling off. The boxy design controlled by Wi-Fi interface had been easier to build than something that looked and operated like a motorcycle.

The babies had been on tiny hoverbikes in her dream. They�d been wearing racing goggles � something requested but the twins hadn�t had time to create. In the dream, Chuck Norris had her pink scarf, there had been no war-paint-like dirt on her mouse, and its ears had been intact.

Oilcan �saw� the mice but not in a completely literal manner.

�How did you talk to Oilcan?� His real name was Orville but after seeing the world through his eyes, Louise couldn�t bring herself to use it anymore.

�I told you that Lou would see us,� Nikola said to his sisters.

�Dream walking is easy-peasy.� Chuck Norris was unrepentant as always. �It was only a little harder talking to someone who is awake than someone who is asleep. Joy came with us.�

�That explains the candy,� Louise muttered to herself. Joy had been there, literally, while the babies had only projected themselves � somehow. The question became: How did Joy carry said candy back to Haven so quickly? Louise had a hazy notion that Pittsburgh proper was somewhere miles to the southeast, but she wasn�t sure how far. She knew that Joy could phase through any solid wall, but could she teleport too?

�What are you talking about?� Jillian said.

�I told you that the girls didn�t like the names that we picked out for them,� Louise said. �They went to talk to Oilcan to champion their cause.�

�They did what?� Jillian cried. �And how did you �see� them?�

�It�s another weird genetic trick that some of us got from being from two dragon bloodlines,� Louise said. �You can see magic. We both can cast domana spells. I can dream walk.�

�And so can we!� Chuck said. �Charlene is a stupid name! I want to be Chuck Norris Dufae!�

�And I want to race!� Green�s voice this time came from the luggage mule that her mouse had been sitting on. The mule unlocked its wheels.

�No!� the twins both shouted, pointing firmly at the mule just like their mother would have.

�If you try to move that, you�ll rip out the cables and damage both mules� maintenance ports!� Louise said. �And then everyone will die! Just give me a minute! I�ll find your mini-bikes. Just don�t mess with the mules!�

�Everyone will die?� Nikola echoed.

�What is all this?� Chuck scrambled up onto the mule to examine the wiring. �What are you doing?�

�Can we help?� Nikola said.

�Of course we can help!� Chuck said. �Team Mischief! Go!�

Their trying to help would be almost as bad as their trying to race the mules.

�I don�t think you�ll understand what we�re doing,� Louise said truthfully.

Jillian, though, launched into an explanation. �We�re using the neural engines of the luggage mules to build generative adversarial networks. If you look at the data that Dufae has in the Codex, he seemed to be trying to track subatomic particles. It appears that the elves don�t have anything like Feynman diagrams or even calculators beyond a simple abacus, so Dufae was stuck crunching numbers the hard way.�

�We can grind through his data fast with the mules, but only if you don�t damage them,� Louise said.

She hadn�t seen the babies� toys when they sorted through everything but Jillian had dealt with most of the items that used magic to function. They had come to Elfhome loaded for bear, expecting to fight their way through the wilderness. While they had things like the Tasers, the twins� size, age, and the short time that they had to prepare meant that their most powerful weapon was their ability to combine magic and science. Using money that they had stolen from Desmarais, they had bought a hundred times what they could possibly use or carry on them, hence the fleet of luggage mules. The number of mules that they brought with them had been limited only by how many they could get drop-shipped to their Monroeville hotel.

�Can�t you use your tablets?� Green Jawbreaker, thankfully, was back in her mouse again. �Don�t they have neural engines? What about your phones?�

�Yes,� Jillian said with more patience than Louise could have had. �They both have neural engines, but they�re primitive compared to the luggage mules.�

Louise started to shift the cardboard boxes of magical supplies. �Think of what the mules have to do: follow their owner through crowds, avoiding people while balancing any load across any terrain, be it indoor or outdoor, and in any weather condition. Wet grass. Deep snow. Icy stairs. Beach sand.�

�What�s a generative adversarial network?� Nikola said.

�It�s when you set up two neural networks that �play against each other� in a task.� Jillian put down the mice and joined the search. �The concept evolved from game theory. The networks are competing but they�re also learning from each other. We�re pairing up the mules, two each as a team, and then feeding them the data sets that Dufae recorded within the Codex from his experiments with shield magic. Each team is trying to find the best possible spell.�

�It�s basically what Dufae was charting out with pen and paper in the Codex,� Louise said.

�But the mules can work a zillion times faster than any normal person,� Jillian said.

Louise found a box marked �Baby Toys.� She opened it up to find everything related to the hovercarts piled on top of the broken robotic dog.

The flash of a muzzle in the darkness. The flare of pain. Tesla�s deep angry growl.

�Oh.� She whimpered at the memory.

�What is it?� Nikola tried to climb up the smooth side of the cardboard box and failed.

Louise blinked away the sudden tears. She didn�t have time to break down and cry. She steeled herself to lift out the carts. �I found your mini-bikes. They need to be recharged before you can race.�

Chuck parkoured across the luggage mules to land on the edge of the box. �Oh, it�s Tesla. We should fix it.�

�Yeah!� Nikola said. �It was useful to have a big body now and then.�

�The mice are more fun!� Green Jawbreaker called. �Tesla was so crowded when we were all in it.�

Her brother and sisters were not the bodies that she�d grown used to seeing them in, Louise reminded herself. They were four large eggs far above her head � from which God knew what would hatch out. Tesla was a broken machine; he was not Nikola.

�We don�t have time to fix Tesla,� Louise said. �We�re working on a big, big problem. Besides, we don�t have any spare parts for him.�

�Can�t we just print them?� Chuck said.

Louise glanced to Jillian, who shook her head. �Our printers aren�t sophisticated enough. We would need something heavy duty like the ones at Perlman. We could barely do the prototype of the mice on ours. We don�t have time to look for one.�

�I wonder if we can find a printer in Pittsburgh that can do it,� Green continued as if she hadn�t heard Louise. It was hard to tell. She could be just ignoring Louise; the babies were good at ignoring things that they didn�t like or understand.

�I�ll look!� Red Jawbreaker cried. �Me! Me! I can do it!�

�Be careful!� Louise said instead of �No, don�t� because the babies were bored and frustrated and probably scared. Looking for big 3D printers that they could �borrow� was probably safer than doing something like trying to track down oni and evil elves.

�We�ll be like ghosts!� the girls cried. Their robot mice bodies fell silent and still.

�I�ll stay with you.� Nikola climbed up onto her shoulder.

�How are you even controlling the mice?� Louise asked. �When you were in Tesla, it made sense � kind of � because he had a Wi-Fi connection that you could use to link with the robotic mice bodies.�

�I�m not sure.� Nikola cocked his head. �That�s a good question. We were bored. We could hear you talking about our names and the others were really annoyed with you. After you went to sleep, we decided to go talk to Orville. When we came back to Haven, someone had set up an internet connection. Over the last few hours, people have been sending hundreds of emails, coming and going. We skimmed the emails but they were boring. People we didn�t know going off to places we can�t get to. I�ll connect your tablet.�

The tengu were terrified at what the nactka could mean to their future. Jin Wong must have reversed his decision to keep Haven on a blackout in hopes that the improved communication would help in the war effort.

Louise hooked up the mini-hovercarts so that they would recharge and went back to her tablet. Nikola had logged her into a local network named Oneiroi. Being that the Oneiroi were the Greek personification of dreams, it might be a network that the tengu set up for Gracie. Louise resisted the urge to check on all of her favorite Pittsburgh sites that had been available to the twins only during Shutdown. She did stop the Imagine Dragons songlist that Red Jawbreaker had left playing and found the streaming signal from her favorite underground fusion radio station, WESA. �Sky Diving� was finishing up.

�Nicadae Pitsubaug!� the deejay shouted in pidgin Elvish and then switched over to English. �This is WESA and I�m Marti Wulfow, bringing you the best of new elf fusion music. A big shout-out to our sponsor, the Wool Shed, for all your knitting needs. The Wool Shed is a co-op of shepherds both here in Pittsburgh and in the Easternlands. It features indi, merino, and mohair wool. They have dyed yarn skeins and bulk carded wool. I�ve started my wool socks � it�s going to be a cold one this winter! And it�s� I want to say a beautiful day here in Pittsburgh but I can see storm clouds rolling in. We could be in for all sorts of nasty weather out there, so take precautions: take your umbrellas if you�re going out just in case! This is Naekanain with their new hit single, �We Are Pittsburgh�!�

A song she�d never heard before started playing. Naekanain�s lead singer was Carl Moser, who had a rough growling voice. �Blood on the pavement, blood on the blade, blood flows through common veins.�

It was odd knowing that musicians she�d spent a third of her life idolizing were suddenly a few miles south instead of in another universe, some impossible distance away. That she was going to meet the very people she used to make videos of using Barbie doll stand-ins. Windwolf. Wraith Arrow. Stormsong. Stormhorse. Maybe even Queen Soulful Ember. It made her feel a little giddy, mixed with something that could have been fear. All the kids at Perlman knowing about the Lemon-Lime videos had been a surprising revelation with weird, unexpected side effects. Surely the elves had never seen the videos. Hopefully. She wasn�t sure if Queen Soulful Ember had a forgiving side. The queen they portrayed in their videos didn�t. What if Louise�s �future-seeing� ability had picked that up? What a terrifying thought. She pushed the thought from her mind and focused on the problem at hand.

Oilcan wasn�t sure how he ended up taking all the kids at the enclave shopping.

It started out small. He wanted to buy two of everything for a little girl�s bedroom: bed, nightstand, dresser, bookcase, desk, and chair. Tinker would be persuaded by a furnished room faster than by an empty space and vague promises. Oilcan hoped that her sisters would be similarly inclined. There were also things his enclave still needed, especially if it was to seem like a home to children raised on Earth. His pickup wouldn�t be able to handle all the furniture he hoped to buy. He could swing past the salvage yard and pick up the flat bed, but that would leave his pickup on the other side of the city. A second driver would be the easiest way to get everything back to the enclave.

It had seemed simple to grab Blue Sky Montana and take him along. The little half-elf might look ten years old, but he was eighteen and thus legally old enough to drive. What�s more, his sekasha bloodline meant that if they got separated, none of the royal marines who were patrolling the city in droves would give him grief.

Blue Sky had been painting bedrooms on the second floor with a handful of kids. Some of them belonged to Oilcan. Some of them were just visiting.

One thing led to another and before Oilcan knew it, an entire herd of kids and the three dogs were spilling out onto the sidewalk on the South Side from three separate vehicles. All five of his kids came along, even Barley, who was rarely out of the kitchen. His kids had also brought along their elfhound, Repeat, who they thought had been killed in the oni attack. Since Repeat had mysteriously reappeared, the kids had refused to go anywhere without the puppy. Oilcan had also somehow picked up the half-oni Spot, a tengu girl named Rebecca Brotman, a random sekasha, Guy Kryskill, Andy Roach, and two of the Roach family elfhounds, Pete and Bruno.

The mini-circus had gotten started when everyone that wanted to come wouldn�t fit in Oilcan�s truck. Guy had been at Sacred Heart, helping Team Tinker install the new custom-built front gate. Guy volunteered his fiery red Ford pickup with a long bed, but apparently that required his cousin Andy and the dogs to come with him. (The truck was older than the boy, who turned sixteen in the spring. Oilcan and Tinker had spent part of the winter helping Roach refurbish the Ford what now seemed a lifetime ago.)

The other three additions � an elf, a tengu, and a half-oni � were a mystery. Oilcan hadn�t been aware that they�d picked up random spare people somewhere along the way until they unloaded in the South Side.

�Stay.� Andy pointed at the dogs and then sidewalk beside Guy�s Ford. �Guard.�

The bear-sized adult dogs sat down in the shade casted by the pickup. Repeat glanced between Andy and Baby Duck, but the little female was entranced by the flashing neon sign over the door. The puppy decided to obey its former master and join the other dogs. It made Oilcan happy since both pickups had rifles in their gunracks and the sekasha were stashing their bows, arrows, and other backup weapons into the weapons crate strapped to the back of the flatbed.

�Quiee,� Baby Duck quacked at the gaudy display. �What does it say?�

Blue Sky blushed, self-conscious that his Elvish was not as good as one expected for a half-elf. He liked being the voice of authority for the other children, so he fumbled through the translation. He�d spent enough time in Oilcan�s wake to know the reference. �Once More With Feeling. It�s something a�� He paused to consider how to translate �conductor� and settled for ��leader says to his musicians so that they�ll play the same song a second time but less mechanically. It�s because they sell used furniture and music�stuff. Instruments � and the paper with songs written on them�� Blue Sky stumbled to a halt and then switched topics by pointing to the store across the street. �See! That�s the ice cream shop I was talking about. It serves Reinhold�s ice cream and things like whipped cream and hot fudge to put on top.�

�Furniture first,� Oilcan said loudly as all the kids except Merry and Rustle surged toward the curb. He didn�t want the group splitting up. �We�ll get the ice cream afterward.�

The kids swarmed into Once More With Feeling.

The shop was currently the biggest furniture store in Pittsburgh. The title of �biggest� used to be held by its sister store, Once Upon A Mattress. Located in Market Square, with big storefront windows, Once Upon A Mattress had handled only new merchandise, which it leased at insane prices to off-world personnel: UN peacekeeping forces, embassy employees, and private corporation employees. Locals would window-shop the displays of matched furniture sets but never actually buy anything. They knew that off-worlders rarely stayed on Elfhome. After a year or two, most workers would finish their duty and rotate back to Earth. Once Upon A Mattress would collect the leased furniture to sell at Once More With Feeling for pennies on the dollar.

Once Upon A Mattress, though, had gone down in a blaze of glory when someone shot several thousand bullets through it. Six forty-foot-long walking electric catfish, a police car, and the store�s entire inventory had been reduced to Swiss cheese by the gunfire.

Once More With Feeling was a thrift store in theory. It was, however, very expensive compared to the others of its kind due to the quality of its stock. Oilcan hadn�t been able to afford it, not with the amount of furniture that he needed for his enclave. He had avoided the store while he�d scoured the city for tables and chairs for his enclave�s dining room.

He�s picked clean all the nearby abandoned buildings and cheap thrift stores and still needed a lot more furniture for his enclave. It was one of the many reasons Oilcan had decided to become Beholden to the Wind Clan. With backing from Tinker, he could simply do a massive purchase of everything he needed.

The front door of Once More With Feeling opened to a football-field-sized showroom. His kids stood for a full minute staring openmouthed in awe.

Blue Sky broke the silence. �It�s just a furniture store, not the Grand Canyon.�

�Elves custom-make all their furniture to last for centuries.� Guy Kryskill�s brother apprenticed under one the elf furniture makers, so he could speak with authority. �They don�t have stores like this, not even in their big cities.�

�So�� Blue Sky mimed �mind blown� while looking meaningfully at the stunned elves around him.

�Yup.� Guy started toward the back corner of the showroom. �The cooking stuff is all back in the corner. Gas ranges. Grills. Pots and pans. It�s all hit or miss but sometimes you get lucky.�

Guy triggered a sudden scattering of kids, each pursuing their own interest. Barley followed Guy and Andy to the cookware department, deep in a discussion about smoking meat. Merry and Rustle headed to the opposite corner for a wall display of guitars. Cattail Reeds and the tengu girl, Rebecca, beelined upstairs where bridal wear and vintage dresses were sold, talking about Earth fashion trends. Baby Duck started to critique all the overstuffed couches lining the store�s center aisle in a twisted elf version of Goldilocks.

�Too black. Too ugly. Too black.� Baby Duck ticked quickly down the row. �Quiee! This one is beautiful! Let�s get this one!�

Her choice was a small pink French country love seat with wood accents. It was very cute but very small.

�We need lots of seating.� Oilcan pointed at the largest piece on the floor, a huge U-shaped leather sectional. They didn�t have a family-only communal space at the enclave yet. If he could get Jewel Tear moved to the second floor, though, they could use her current room. The American ideal of family was one who gathered in a living room on a couch. The twins might find comfort in that familiar arrangement.

Baby Duck eyed the sectional doubtfully. �It�s too black.�

Again? It took Oilcan a moment to realize that she meant Stone Clan Black. The kids had spent their whole life identifying themselves with the color � only to have their clan betray them. Baby Duck was wearing a man�s chambray work shirt in Wind Clan Blue as a dress with rainbow leggings. Under a very thin veneer of �I�m fine,� the kids were still traumatized.

Blue Sky and Spot closed ranks with Baby Duck to lend their support. The three were the youngest and had become fast friends over the last week.

�Too smelly,� Spot whispered in English. It was the first time Oilcan had ever heard Spot talk; he�d been wondering if the half-oni wasn�t able to speak. The boy looked as if his father had been a Labrador retriever instead of an oni. Spot had big amber eyes, long floppy ears, dark fur, and a wedge-shaped black nose. According to Tommy Chang, the boy had spent his entire life hidden away because of his appearance. It might have made him too shy to talk, or maybe he didn�t follow Elvish, since the other half-oni kids seemed to know only English, Chinese, and Oni.

Spot wrinkled his black nose and whispered, �Cat peed on it.�

Oilcan smelled nothing but a lavender-based cleaning product that the store apparently used by the gallon. �Are you sure?�

Spot cringed back behind Blue Sky, nodding.

�You don�t want an ugly, black, peed-on couch.� Blue Sky championed both Baby Duck and Spot.

�This one is big!� Baby Duck dashed over to a long white couch that looked like stitched-together clouds. She flopped down and the massive puffy pillows swallowed her. �Quiee! Too soft! Too soft!�

Spot and Blue Sky rescued her from the couch.

�What about this one?� Oilcan moved to a half-moon sectional behind the first row of couches. It wasn�t his style. The tufted cushions and curved sections seemed too pretentiousness to him, but it was a misty blue color in a soft micro-suede fabric.

�Oh, that one is just right!� Baby Duck cried. She and Spot tumbled onto the couch to test it out.

Blue Sky went into alert mode as the other sekasha drifted closer. Oilcan recognized the hard look on the boy�s face; they were seconds away from Blue Sky launching himself at the interloper.

�We�re getting this couch!� Oilcan announced, catching Blue by the shoulder. He turned the boy around and pushed him toward the distant service counter. �You three go find an employee. I want to start the process of getting this stuff loaded.�

Blue resisted enough for Oilcan to know that he wasn�t going willingly. �He�s looking at Spot weird. No one invited him. He just added himself. He doesn�t have any right to be here. He�s not one of us.�

Not one of us?

Oilcan had been aware that they�d picked up a second armed guard just as everyone piled out of the vehicles outside of the store. Oilcan had assumed it was one of Forge�s people; they�d provided backup to Thorne on previous shopping trips. Who exactly had they picked up? Oilcan glanced at the male sekasha drifting toward them.

�Shit,� Oilcan breathed in English. The sekasha was a complete stranger. �I�ll deal with it.� Oilcan gave Blue Sky another nudge. �Trust me.�

Blue Sky was a good kid. He�d spent most his life trusting Oilcan and Tinker. He gave Oilcan an unhappy look but he obeyed. The boy caught Baby Duck and Spot by the hand and dragged them off.

It was hard to tell with elves, but the sekasha seemed �teenage� young. The male was shorter than the warriors in Tinker�s Hand, but so were all of Forge�s. His armor and tattoos were Stone Clan Black but the ribbon in his braid was an emerald green. He was watching the children, just as Blue Sky claimed. He had his face set in the emotionally neutral �warrior�s mask� that the sekasha had perfected; there was no way to tell what the male was thinking.

Whatever his interest in the kids was, it was derailed by a La-Z-Boy recliner with its footrest raised. The warrior squatted to closely eye the mechanical pieces of the chair.

�Who is that?� Oilcan whispered to Thorne Scratch, pointing discretely at the sekasha.

He didn�t understand any of the words that she used as a reply. He really wasn�t as fluent in Elvish as he thought.

�I don�t know what those words mean,� he whispered.

�I�ll try to break his name down to more common words,� Thorne said, then paused to think it through. �On certain nights, when the moon is bright, there appears to be two smaller lights that bracket it. It�s been determined that they�re reflections of the moonlight off of thin wispy clouds. I�m not sure if you can see them in Pittsburgh; the conditions must be right for them to appear. I have yet to see them here in the Westernlands.�

�Paraselene.� Oilcan gave the scientific name, which meant �beside the moon.� The elves had determined the true nature of the optical illusion, although he wasn�t sure how. It was a very specific refraction of moonlight through ice crystals found in cirrus clouds that were shaped like hexagonal plates.

Thorne Scratch gave an uncertain nod, probably because she didn�t know Latin. �His full name means �the ghost white gleams to either side of a full moon when it is nearest to Elfhome in its elliptic orbit, and thus its brightest, in the middle of winter over foreign mountains.��

Her original phrase had been much shorter. Oilcan didn�t know the Elvish for �supermoon� or �paraselene� or whatever �foreign mountains� denoted. They needed an idiom that they both easily understood.

�We sometimes call the illusion �moon dog� instead of paraselene,� Oilcan said.

Thorne looked slightly surprised. �We use that phrase too. In old legends, the moon dog was thought to be the greyhound of Huunou. It is believed that it was rare to catch sight of the dog in the sky because Huunou often gifts it to those who have his favor.�

Oilcan had heard of Huunou�s greyhound. The dog was a weirdly seasonal mythological creature, like Santa�s reindeer, if his reindeer tortured anyone who didn�t put out cookies. The elves made a big production of �feeding sky�s greyhound� around Winter Solstice by putting out brightly decorated suet, much to the delight of the local bird population.

Moon Dog�s name, however, really didn�t explain who he was, and more specifically, what he was doing with Oilcan�s little group of shoppers. Thorne Scratch sounded like she knew the young male, but he hadn�t been part of Earth Son�s or Jewel Tear�s households. �Where did he come from?�

Thorne shook her head to indicate that she didn�t know. �He was not on the list that Little Horse gave to me, yet the last time I saw him was at Cold Mountain Temple. It is possible that he is not here officially, much the way he was not at Cold Mountain Temple formally. Most of his life has been shaped by his dangerously odd name. Perhaps, once again, he�s let it take him on a wild hunt.�

Huunou was the god of a weird collection of things, starting with everything in the sky and working down to laundry. The moon was often referred to his palace where he slept and the sun was his blazing red horse. He was the �Santa� of the winter solstice celebration. The weeklong festival was like Christmas for the elves, but with little weird hints of Halloween thrown in. It made for a bright, joyous, but a little creepy celebration. All the elves he knew looked forward to it. None of what Oilcan knew would indicate �dangerously odd.�

He had to be missing something in the translation. �What is so odd about his name?�

Thorne gave him a strange look, as if he�d asked, �What�s odd about the sky being polka dot?�

�Until this summer, I was friends with only a handful of elves.� Oilcan ticked them off on his fingers as he gave their full Elvish names. Briar Rose. Snapdragon. Windchime. Misty. Owl. Raindrop. Their real names were long and complicated; it was one of the reasons that humans gave their elf friends English nicknames.

�Ah, I see.� Thorne pursed her lips together. �How to explain? When a child is born, it�s taken to a priestess to be named. She will see the shape of its future and give the child a name to guide it on that path. For example, I was given the name of Thorne Scratch, which suggests that I will bring harm to anyone that gets too close to me. Some would point at Earth Son�s death as proof that the priestess was correct with her warning. I would argue, though, that I did not have many choices as to who I could become Beholden to, since most heeded the warning of my name. One�s name is a double-edged sword, especially if it is filled with bad omens. It gives you direction but at the same time, it can hamper you at every step.�

�Moon Dog in winter over foreign mountains is a bad-omen name?� Oilcan guessed.

�It is filled with portents. It is believed the earthquakes and volcano eruptions happen most often when the moon is large in the night sky. The phrase �foreign mountains� is an ancient term for a mountainous area that is unmapped and unknown and home to a powerful enemy. Lastly, winter is when Huunou decides if the souls he�s gathered are fit to be reborn into our world again. He is the god of death. That is why we burn our dead, so their souls are free to join Huunou in the sky. His hounds are said to escort souls to his palace for judgement.�

That would explain the �Halloween� part of the midwinter festival.

�His dogs are said to be divine and noble but ruthless,� Thorne Scratch continued. �They will ignore all pleas of the dying to carry out their mission. In the past, they were given to heroes to help them fight demonic beasts, change the course of rivers, throw down mountains, and slay evil gods. To be given such a name is to say that the course of your life will be legendary. You will be given an impossible task and will be expected to succeed. He has worked hard to live up to it. At the age of seventy, he decided to leave the temple he was born in and walk completely across the South Plateau and the Hill Region � three full mei�to study under Tempered Steel.�

Cold Mountain Temple was rumored to be in the same region as the Himalayan Plateau, which made a three-thousand-mile trek even more impressive.

�You will have to talk to him alone,� Thorne said. �To offer and accept � that is a very private thing that no one should come between. Not even as your First can I interfere.�

Oilcan stared at her, trying to understand what she meant until the light went on. �You think he came with us because he�s thinking of offering to me?�

Thorne�s mouth quirked into a frown that was instantly smoothed away. She was too on-edge to be natural; she was hiding behind a warrior mask. �I don�t know him well; he arrived at Cold Mountain Temple after I won my sword and left. He was there when I returned to the temple a few years ago; I was too wrapped up in my own concerns with Earth Son to give him proper notice. People like to talk, though, of the odd and mysterious. From what they told me, I thought nothing could pry him away from Tempered Steel�s side. He was driven to learn all that Tempered Steel could teach.�

In other words: I doubt he will offer to you, but I can�t think of any other reason for him to be here.

The holy warrior in question was sitting in a burgundy La-Z-Boy recliner, raising and lowering the leg rest.

After such a monumental effort to get to Cold Mountain Temple, why would Moon Dog leave? Why travel halfway around the world? It was possible that if Thorne had difficulty finding someone to take her because of her name, Moon Dog might be having the same problem. Did he hope to become Beholden to Oilcan?

The Harbingers had arrived while Tinker was playing hide-and-seek with Chloe Polanski, just hours after Forge transformed Oilcan into a full domana elf. Last week, Oilcan had been human with some residual domana powers. Last month, no one knew that the Dufaes had been originally elves. Last spring, only a handful of Wind Clan elves even knew that Oilcan existed.

The young warrior hadn�t traveled to Pittsburgh to seek out Oilcan.

Moon Dog could have possibly planned to offer to the three domana initially sent by the Stone Clan. He would have arrived a day or two ago to find Earth Son dead, Forest Moss clinically insane, and Jewel Tear captured by the oni. He probably didn�t know that Forest Moss had recovered enough to rejoin the war effort. He might not have heard that Jewel Tear had been rescued, depending on how long he�d been at Sacred Heart before joining the shopping trip. It was possible that Moon Dog didn�t realize that Oilcan had joined forces with the Wind Clan. It only happened yesterday. There had been no formal declaration beyond Oilcan painting his door blue.

The young warrior might not have gotten as far as Sacred Heart�s front door, considering everything that was going on outside.

That was a lot of �maybe� and �possibly� and �probably.� It made Oilcan uneasy. There was no clear, logical chain of events that would lead Moon Dog to the thrift store. Oilcan took a deep breath and flexed his hands. If it came to a fight, he should be ready. Still, his stomach was roiling as he moved toward Mood Dog.

The warrior seemed fixated on the chair, but as Oilcan closed on him, he said, �Kau, I was ikudae confused by this place. I thought it was a garorou but where is the chaviyau? And I always thought that a chair was a chair unless it was boudu or daeni. I never imagined that you could make chairs in so many assorted ways. These baviali move! Is that not waya?�

Moon Dog had an accent thicker than any elf Oilcan had ever met. He had heard echoes of it in Forge and at times Thorne and the kids, but nothing like this. Oilcan wasn�t totally sure what the warrior had said.

�This is a furniture store,� Oilcan said cautiously. �We�re here to purchase chairs and beds and such for my enclave. These children � most of these children � are part of my household.� He was careful to be exact because it could be considered lying if he made a mistake. He made a motion to indicate the kids scattered throughout the building. �Those that are not my Beholden are my domi�s Beholden and some of my close friends. Why did you come with us?�

Moon Dog paused, obviously thinking hard, before saying in what might have been English, �Size king?�

�What?�

�The frozen milk with sweets and fruit.� Moon Dog pointed toward the ice cream store.

�Ice cream?� That still didn�t explain why he was half a world away from his home, or what he was doing in the furniture store.

�Sebeyou made it sound very good. I wanted to try it. I have coin.�

�Sebeyou?� Oilcan echoed.

Thorne must have decided that Oilcan was in over his head. She drifted in to the conversation. �Sebeyou is what we call the warriors at the temple who have not yet earned their sword. He means Blue Sky.�

�Boo sky.� Moon Dog mangled the English. �What does it mean? No one could tell me.�

Oilcan translated it into Elvish, not bothering with Blue Sky�s last name of Montana as it would be too difficult to explain.

�That�s it? Nothing else? No indication of time of day? The color of the morning sky is not the same as the late afternoon. Morning is full of bright expectations while the evening is somber with failure. Did the priestess not say?�

�I believe he was named by his mother; she is a human.� Oilcan had never met the woman; she�d gotten sick and left for Earth before Oilcan came to Elfhome. John Montana wasn�t the type to pick fancy names � his pets were called Stray Mama Cat, Gray Kitten, and Guppy Fish.

�Waya!� Moon Dog said. �It is an inios name. �The color of the sky without clouds.� There are no omens there. It is a name that is at peace with itself.�

Blue Sky was returning with an extremely old man. The store manager was bent with age. His white puff of thin hair looked like the head of a dandelion about to go to seed.

The manager glanced briefly at Oilcan and the seated Moon Dog before focusing on Thorne in the more reassuring Wind Clan Blue. Judging by the widening of his eyes and his step backward, the man recognized that Thorne Scratch was a sekasha. �I don�t speak Elvish,� he said to Blue Sky. �Do they know that I don�t take elf coins? Our books aren�t set up to deal with it. Up one day. Down the next. You never know the real value of the gold coins.�

�I�m�� Oilcan caught himself before he claimed that he was really a human, at least in his own head. He needed to stop feeling the need to explain to others about the complications in his life. What was, was. Others didn�t need to understand or sympathize. �I�m the one buying the furniture. I speak English and I have American currency.�

Oilcan took out the bills that he�d gotten yesterday after Tinker bankrolled him. �I want this blue sectional and the pink French country love seat to start.� Baby Duck only had a mattress in her room. The twins probably could use a love seat as they might want their room to be a refuge from all the strangers. He scanned the couches selection for a second small piece. �And that other tufted white settee.�

The old man blew out his breath. �I don�t have anyone right now to load these pieces. My stock boys are off playing spy or hero or something. It�s all hush-hush and code words stupidity. All I know is their �cell leader� called them about an hour ago about a �recon mission� and they took off.�

�We�ll handle it,� Oilcan said. They�d come with enough people to move anything. �How much for the three?�

�Hold on, let me tally it.� The store manager took out a paper waiter�s pad that looked nearly as old as the man. He flipped a grubby cover over, took a stub of pencil out, and started to scratch out numbers. �Three and five and three is eleven. Carry the one.�

Oilcan glanced at Blue Sky to find the boy glaring at Moon Dog. Luckily the young warrior was fixated on the store manager.

�What�s wrong with him?� Moon Dog asked in Elvish.

Wrong? Oilcan eyed the man again. Then it dawned on him. �Oh, he�s just very old.�

�Old?� Moon Dog echoed. He clearly had never seen any living being that could classify as �old� before. Even the elfhounds lived ten times longer than an Earth dog.

�Yes,� Oilcan said.

�Waya!� Moon Dog breathed softly.

Oilcan still didn�t know why Moon Dog was in Pittsburgh, but it was obvious that everything in the city was new and amazing to the young sekasha. Hopefully it would mean that the holy warrior wouldn�t be dangerous to anyone. Still, the faster that they got done, the sooner they could gracefully scrape off the male.

Oilcan switched to English to tell the manager, �We need a bunch of beds too. The whole package: headboards, mattresses, sheets, and such.�

The manager paused to wave toward the far wall. �Bed frames, headboards, linens, and the rest are over there. None of our mattresses are new, but they�re cleaned and verified that they don�t have bedbugs or lice or whatnot. We�re not allowed to sell them during Shutdown, but that hasn�t been an issue for a month or so.�

�Go find a bed that you like,� Oilcan said in Elvish. He pointed at Baby Duck but included Spot and Blue Sky with a wiggle of his finger. He switched back to English for Spot�s sake. �Explain to her �twin-size.� We really can�t handle a lot of big beds for everyone.�

�Yes, sama!� Baby Duck skipped off, the picture of sunshine and happiness. Of all the kids, she was rebounding the best, but it could be because she had literally wiped the memories of everything from her mind � who she was, where she was from, why she had come to Pittsburgh, along with all the torture that the oni had inflicted on her.

Blue Sky nodded like a commando given orders and followed Baby Duck. Spot looked puzzled but trailed after them. Perhaps the half-oni boy was too young to know the difference in bed sizes, or maybe the half-oni living situation didn�t afford the children separate beds. Oilcan really should find out since the half-oni were now his responsibility in name. It begged the question as to how he could fix any problems they had without stepping on Tommy Chang�s toes.

The manager eyed the cash in Oilcan�s hand. �I�ll tag these as sold and keep a running tally of what you want.�

Tagging the pieces apparently involved getting supplies from somewhere else in the store, as the old man headed off at a slow shuffle.

Oilcan considered the overstuffed chairs. Should he get more for his other kids? The oni had taken everything that the kids had brought with them to Pittsburgh. Other than their mattresses, the kids� bedrooms were empty.

They�d painted the rooms in cheerful colors that the kids had picked out. Cattail Reeds was making bright curtains for the tall windows. Oilcan had provided paintings to scatter through the building; each kid had chosen a favorite from his collection to hang in their room. It seemed too little, especially since Oilcan planned to fill up the twins� bedroom with furniture.

He should check to see if the others wanted a chair.

�Even if I wanted to join Usagi�s household, I couldn�t,� Bare Snow whispered in Law�s ear. �Do you think that�s Kajo?�

Law felt like she�d spent the morning crawling through a minefield. Usagi had asked them to join her commune. The discussion with Bare Snow on whether or not they would accept the offer had been filled with a lot of abrupt starts and stops as Law tried to detect and disarm emotional bombs. This one stopped her cold: why couldn�t Bare Snow do it?

Law knew all the reasons she herself wasn�t in love with the idea, but she thought that Bare Snow was overjoyed at the offer. Perhaps the weird hiccups in the conversation weren�t Law�s reservations fighting the logic of it all. They were speaking Elvish, so it wasn�t Bare Snow making a mistake with English. Was Law�s understanding of Elvish at fault? Law considered the statement. No, the word that Bare Snow used definitely meant �couldn�t.�

If Bare Snow was agreeing with her, could Law tell Usagi �thanks, but no thanks�? Should she ignore all the good reasons just because Bare Snow gave her a quick out? Certainly the proposal was a mixed bag of good and bad.

It was easier to focus on Bare Snow�s question about the small masked figure in the valley below.

Law clicked her tongue softly in an elf version of a shrug. �If Yumiko was right about the mask: maybe.�

The woods east of Pittsburgh were crawling with oni. In theory there should be elves too, hunting said oni, but the two obviously weren�t colliding in the virgin ironwood forest.

�Should I kill him?� Bare Snow stripped off her camouflage T-shirt without waiting for an answer. In the dim light, her pale spell tattoo was too faint to pick out against her creamy white skin. The female didn�t seem to own a bra. Did elves not have such things? It always made Law question what she had been told about undergarments.

�It�s not worth the risk,� Law whispered. Focus, woman, focus! Law studied the valley encampment. The oni were breaking camp, taking down a dozen large green Coleman tents. �There�s a hundred or more warriors down there and we don�t even know for sure if that�s him.�

Yumiko only had a drawing of a mask and a vague description of the secret overlord of the oni forces. The person in charge of the encampment in the valley below seemed to fit the bill. He looked like he was only five and a half feet tall. His fearsome mask was lacquered red with black accents. The long fangs, scowling eyes, and sharp horns were gilded with gold leaf. A flowing mane of white horsehair hid even his natural hair color. It looked exactly like the drawing that Yumiko had shown Law.

There was one small problem.

A second oni wearing a nearly identical mask came out of the last tent. It was slightly shorter than the first one but only by two or three inches. They wore matching outfits of elaborate black silk robes with red highlights. Law couldn�t tell which of them was �in charge� even though it was clear that they were the ranking officers of the encampment. Both gestured and pointed and were obeyed by the lesser blood oni.

�Oh, great.� Law scanned the camp. Even if there was only one possible Kajo, she and Bare Snow wouldn�t have survived taking on all the oni in the valley. The warriors were armed with assault rifles and rocket launchers. There were a dozen wargs, muzzled and chained. They were outnumbered and outgunned.

Bare Snow might be able to evade the warriors but not the wargs. Worse, Law wasn�t sure where they were exactly. She normally hunted in the South Hills, near where she�d grown up. East of Pittsburgh, she needed a compass and map to stay on track. The tengu�s holy spaceship in Turtle Creek changed that somewhat. It was a mile-high exclamation point covered with magical dragon runes. It was impossible to miss, even at three miles away.

She believed that they were near Churchill. She would need to take out her map to check but she didn�t want to take her eyes off the oni or Bare Snow.

�It�s possible that neither one of them are Kajo,� Law said to make sure Bare Snow didn�t try a suicide run. She repeated it in Elvish to be sure that the female understood. �Yumiko said that all the tengu familiar with Kajo were killed. She�s working off secondhand reports. It�s possible that Kajo was playing some kind of shell game with the tengu.�

�Shell game?�

Law winced. She�d used the Elvish word for walnut shell as that was what her grandfather used when he taught the game to Law. She�d seen variations of it using bent playing cards. Did elves have playing cards? Law was fairly sure playing three-card monte with the elves was a good way to get killed. Elves hated liars. �It�s a trick to fool people. You pretend to hide something under a walnut shell � like a pea � but secretly you put the pea someplace else. It�s like the game of hide-and-seek that you play with the Bunny children, but instead of actually hiding, the kids left the house while you were counting to one hundred.�

�Why would the children do that?�

�I�m explaining this badly.� Law considered while she watched the tents being packed away. �Kajo always wore a mask when dealing with the tengu. He was hiding something. It might have been that the person under the mask changed; there could have been several fake �Kajos� to serve as decoys. The tengu might have never met the real Kajo.�

�Ah, yes, to foil assassination attempts by the tengu since he didn�t trust them.�

�Something like that.� Law ducked down to think.

Kajo wasn�t the target; the magical genetic bombs were. So far, she hadn�t seen the eleven bowling-ball-sized eggs but there were many pieces of luggage large enough to fit one. The oni seemed as if they planned to head west after leaving the clearing. That would take them in the direction of Oakland. If the real Kajo was playing a true shell game, it was possible he was hiding within the city, passing as human.

�If these two aren�t Kajo,� Law said, �then they might be going to meet up with him.�

�We should follow them!� Bare Snow bounced in a very distracting way.

�Put your shirt on,� Law said. �They look like they�re gearing up for a hike.�

Law considered the hunt before them. Staying ahead of the oni would be dangerous as they could walk into any hidden war camp that the two �Kajos� were heading to. Trailing behind, though, would mean they might lose the oni if Kajo had vehicles waiting someplace.

Should she call Alton?

No, not yet. It would get the tengu involved. Yumiko implied Kajo had some magical ability that let him dance around the elves, but it might be simply an old-fashioned, well-placed mole. Sparrow had been the second highest Wind Clan leader and a Skin Clan lackey. Any one of the tengu might be a turncoat. Kajo hadn�t been that hard to find. There were twenty thousand tengu in Pittsburgh; why hadn�t one of them spotted him?

Law had stolen a rail car from the Charleroi train depot to give chase after the oni-filled train. She�d crashed the vehicle at Station Square, leaving her with no way to get back to her Dodge Power Wagon, still parked at the depot. It seemed logical to ask Usagi to give her and Bare Snow a lift to Charleroi so they could get back the Dodge and her pet Elfhome porcupine, Brisbane.

Usagi had used the child-free drive to propose the merger of households. She�d been very compelling. Bare Snow was technically still a child at ninety-four years old; she would be approximately seventeen if she were human. The half-elf children were maturing slowly; they might not be adults for decades to come. Law and all the Bunnies were human, which meant that they could vanish out of the lives of the children before they were full grown, especially with the war raging around them. It forced Law to realize that if she got herself killed, Bare Snow would be totally alone. The children already called Bare Snow �Big Sister.� Law loved all the Bunnies dearly � but she wasn�t sure if she could stand living with them.

After Usagi drove away, Law scouted around for Brisbane. She found him tucked up in a big spruce tree near the river, happily eating bark.

He was �her pet� in that he normally cooperated in her ownership of him. There was no forcing something that was a third her size and came loaded with thirty thousand foot-long barbed spikes.

Law was trying to talk him out of a tree when she spotted a herd of elk on the opposite bank of the Monongahela River. The big animals rarely came that near to the jumpfish-infested waters. They would only venture that close to a bank if they were trying to avoid something even more dangerous. Law guessed that it meant that a large number of oni might be pushing the elk in front of them.

�Okay, just stay up there,� Law said to Brisbane, who seemed to be ignoring her. �I�ll be back later.� (Being that porcupines lived most of their life in trees, she was fairly sure he wouldn�t move until she produced apples or something to lure him down.)

Law drove across the river via the Rankin Bridge, hid her Dodge in an empty warehouse, and then on foot, backtracked the herd to this ridge. Three hours after her meeting with Alton, she had eyes on Kajo.

Why hadn�t anyone else found him?

Was it because Kajo guessed that none of the tengu would expect him so close to the city? Yumiko had refused to give Law any more guidance than the drawing. She seemed to think that any suggestion from her would unduly influence Law. Certainly, Law hadn�t even seriously considered where Kajo might be hiding; she was just trying to retrieve her Dodge.

Law decided that they�d follow the oni to see where they were going. If they reached the city, she would call for backup.

There was nothing to do but wait for the oni to move.

It left her time to think. All she could think about, though, was Usagi�s proposal.

�Why can�t you?� Law whispered to Bare Snow. �Why can�t you be part of Usagi Sensei�s household?�

Bare Snow looked at her with surprise in her eyes. �My family has a death sentence on it. After Howling�s assassination, the sekasha hunted down everyone in my grandfather�s household and killed all that they could find.�

�But they�re all dead now,� Law said.

�I�m still alive.�

�You weren�t even alive when Howling was killed. Your mother lived on a deserted island for years in hiding before she even met your father.�

�It does not matter. We were wrong. We were Beholden to Howling; we betrayed him and our clan when we believed the worse of him. We nearly destroyed all hope of peace. If the Clan War was still waging when the oni first attacked, we would have fallen to the Skin Clan. My family deserved the punishment that the sekasha dealt out.�

�You had nothing to do with it.�

�My mother trained me; she wanted me to seek revenge on those that wronged my family.�

�That�s the Skin Clan!�

�As far as the sekasha know, we acted alone. To them, the domana would be my natural target.�

Law sputtered in the face of Bare Snow�s calm acceptance. �No one knows who you are. You were born after your mother went into hiding. There are no Water Clan in Pittsburgh; they don�t have Spell Stones for their domana to tap. How would anyone even know?�

�If someone asked me the name of my mother, I would have to tell them the truth. It is much too dangerous for the Bunnies.�

Law wanted to argue the point but she wasn�t even sure that she could stand being a permanent part of the Bunny household. She enjoyed the controlled chaos of the commune but only because she could escape the moment she got overwhelmed.

�The oni are moving,� Bare Snow whispered, ending the discussion.

Jane Kryskill hated black willows. Hated them with a passion. They scared the piss out of her because she couldn�t hurt them with anything short of dynamite. That they scared her made her angry at the world, which meant she was tempted to shoot anything that crossed her path. Thus she nearly killed Corg Durrack � again � when he suddenly appeared beside her.

�Hey, hey, hey! It�s just me!� Corg had taken hard cover just in case she took another shot at him.

�Didn�t you learn not to do that after the last time?� Jane lowered her pistol. They were near the Rim in an abandoned part of Squirrel Hill. She had Chesty locked in the Chased by Monsters production truck to keep him safe; she knew that meant her back was unprotected. The man should know that between the two facts, Jane would be even more prone to shoot first, ask questions later.

�I thought I was being obvious.� Durrack stuck out his hand to show that he was unarmed.

Jane snorted. It was Durrack�s left hand, not his right. Durrack acted like a Boy Scout, but he looked like a muscle-bound superhero and fought like a Navy SEAL. If he had been anyone else, Jane�s first instinct would have been shoot him anyhow. The mere fact that he�d shown up at their remote location was suspicious. Everyone from Maynard to Yumiko to Taggart, though, had vouched for the man. Besides, his partner, Hannah Briggs, was probably hidden somewhere nearby.

Jane wasn�t sure which government branch the two agents originally worked for. Taggart had said that the pair had saved him and some other journalists in Syria shortly before he quit being a war correspondent. Jane had managed to learn that the two had come to Elfhome on loan to the NSA. They�d been ordered to find, protect, and extract the one technical genius who could build a world gate before the oni could kidnap the person. It was an operation that a typical NSA agent wasn�t prepared for. Durrack and Briggs ham-handed the extraction so badly that they�d been arrested by the EIA and nearly executed by the elves. (To be fair, they hadn�t known that they were after a young girl, let alone that Tinker domi was the Viceroy�s new bride. Bad intelligence can kill a good operative.) By the time the agents had gotten out of that mess, they were stranded on Elfhome with the rest of Pittsburgh. This hadn�t stopped Durrack and Briggs from pursuing truth, justice, and the American way. Time and time again they had thrown themselves into the thick of the heaviest fighting to protect Pittsburgh.

Their paths had crisscrossed all summer. Jane�s team would help the pair deal with Elfhome flora and fauna while trading intelligence on the oni. It was a mutually useful friendship.

Durrack shook his outstretched left hand while still hidden behind his hard cover. �Are we good?�

�Yes, we�re good.� Jane tucked away her pistol.

Interacting with Durrack meant she�d taken her eyes off Hal and Nigel. Hal had taken advantage of the distraction to move closer to the black willow. Grinning hugely, Nigel was scurrying to join Hal. It forced Taggart to shift closer too. The men should be safe as long as they kept out of range of its writhing tentacle-like branches.

It wasn�t the first black willow that the Chased by Monsters crew had encountered. For some insane reason, Tinker had had one on ice at Reinhold�s. It had been before the tengu became her Beholden, so they could only guess at her logic, or lack of it. The tree had broken out and gone on a rampage through the North Side. Jane and her crew had arrived seconds ahead of Prince True Flame. It meant that they got no establishing shots, and had lousy framing, bad lighting, and no direct interaction with the tree. They could only stand back and film the prince reducing the monster to a charred stump. It was safe footage: none of their secrets made it to video. It just hadn�t seemed good enough for their show. Jane had dumped what they had to WQED to use on the evening news and moved on.

If they combined it with what they filmed today, however, there might be enough for a full episode. They just needed to be sure to get enough footage without anyone getting hurt. By �anyone� Jane meant Hal. He knew to keep out of range of its branches, but Hal had the self-preservation instincts of a toddler.

�What are you doing here?� Jane asked without taking her eyes off Hal.

�Maynard sent us to check on this area,� Durrack said. �There were reports of multiple black willows moving thru this neighborhood.�

�Multiple?� Jane cursed softly. She had called Duff and had him deploy some of the scouts within the militia to find something Jane could film. He�d gotten back to her at noon, saying Alton had forwarded a report that a black willow had been spotted in Squirrel Hill. (Jane wasn�t sure how Alton got involved. With the additional load of the Harbingers and their households, the enclaves had all the foragers in Pittsburgh scrambling for fish and game. Jane thought that Alton had gone hunting with Boo in tow.) Somewhere along the lines of communication, the fact that there was more than one tree had been lost.

She scanned the neighborhood around her for more black willows. The Rim cut an arcing path through this area. It ran from the Allegheny River in the Northwest to the Monongahela River in the Southeast. To the south was the collection of neighborhoods now known as Oakland, and the downtown triangle. A few blocks west from her current location was the back end of the enclaves. Virgin forest lay just a few blocks north.

In theory, the tree could have come from anywhere beyond the Rim. A walking tree, though, left a wide trail of torn dirt, shattered sidewalk, and downed (and hopefully not live) power lines. As she studied the area, it was clear that the tree had come through the cemetery at Jane�s back. A trail of overturned granite tombstones and statues made it easy to plot the tree�s course. It had smashed its way in a straight line through the graveyard, hit the stone wall at the cemetery edge, and followed the fence out to the street.

In the distance, Jane could see the bobbing foliage of a second black willow. The incoming tree seemed to be on the same course but it either had found something large to eat or had gotten caught up on some obstacle in its path. She had an unknown amount of time before her team would be dealing with two trees at once. Clearly both black willows were from Frick Park. The flesh-eating plants thrived in the marshy ground around Nine Mile Run. Normally black willows avoided the paved city streets and other rocky outcroppings. Why had they left the marsh?

�How many?� Jane asked. �And are they all heading toward Oakland?�

�That�s what we�re trying to determine,� Durrack said. �We have the small problem that on Earth trees don�t walk. We�re kind of out of our element here.�

It was becoming Durrack�s catch phrase as the Earth-raised agents tried to deal with the dangerous Elfhome flora and fauna.

When Jane glanced back at Durrack, he was standing beside her with Hannah Briggs.

Durrack was in blue jeans and a Team Tinker T-shirt stretched tight across his muscled chest; he could have passed as a local. Briggs wore something that resembled a superhero outfit, made from a matte-black fabric that looked sprayed onto her highly toned body. Both had on blue Hal�s Heroes boonie hats.

�Stop doing that!� Jane lowered the pistol that she had raised out of habit.

�I hate that I have to keep asking this question, but how do you kill that?� Durrack had asked the question every time Maynard sent them to check on their filming. (Apparently Maynard didn�t like them blowing up local landmarks, regardless of what the elves said.) Briggs said that the vespers gave Durrack nightmares afterward.

�Dynamite and chickens,� Jane said. She waved toward the crate of large white leghorns that they had managed to buy on short notice. �Unless you have a grenade launcher handy.�

She kind of hoped Durrack did have access to a grenade launcher or something similar. Nigel had made unhappy noises at the idea of using the chickens. She�d ignored him, thinking that there was only one tree to bait. She was clenching down on her own unhappy noises at the idea of having to deal with multiple trees.

Durrack didn�t volunteer a grenade launcher. �Chickens?�

�They�re bait. You kill the chicken, tie on a stick of dynamite, light it up, and throw it into the path of the black willow.�

It was horrible delivery system with a hundred things that could go wrong with it. They couldn�t possibly survive doing it multiple times. Perhaps they should fall back and find another weapon.

�I suppose that�s humane,� Durrack said. �Since you kill the chicken first.�

�You don�t want a frightened chicken with a lit stick of dynamite tied to it running around.� Jane decided not to explain how they had learned this. (Yes, it had been Hal�s idea but she�d been desperate enough to try it. At least it hadn�t been an entire flock of chickens like Hal had first suggested.)

�Why a chicken?� Briggs said.

�They�re easy to get. Rabbits work too,� Jane said. �Anything small and recently dead. It�s either body heat or smell of blood or something. The black willow will eat it, dynamite and all.�

�Fresh out of chickens and rabbits.� Durrack dodged being volunteered for the duty. �I take it that the dynamite doesn�t work all by itself?�

�We�re usually called in when a black willow has hunkered down in someone�s backyard. It gives us a lot less room to move around in.� Jane didn�t mention that there was also structural damage to buildings to consider. �The tree can sense the vibration in the ground from any movement, so it�s usually moving toward you as you try to get into position to hit it. It�s slow moving, but it usually can walk past anything you throw with a long enough fuse to let you stay out of range of its branches. The tree has a reach of nearly a hundred and fifty feet. It can reach over, around, and into anything you try to use as cover.�

Durrack whistled softly. �Getting close enough to toss a stick of dynamite where it will actually damage the tree must be nearly impossible without getting yourself killed.�

�That�s our experience.� It had been a difficult learning curve. �We need to get footage for both Monsters in Our Midst and Chased by Monsters and then we�ll start in on the chickens.�

�Can�t you use the same footage?�

�Two different hosts. We�re still filming Nigel�s show for when Pittsburgh is reconnected with Earth.� While replacing the �lost� footage was their first priority, Jane didn�t want to lose momentum on Chased by Monsters. It was still shy of a full season. The oni couldn�t have known that Tinker was going to crash the orbital gate. Some were still on Earth, telling the humans only God knew what. Sooner or later, Pittsburgh would be reconnected to Earth. Nigel�s show could be important propaganda to counter the oni influence in United States.

Durrack grunted and tugged on the brim of his boonie hat. �Good thinking.�

Hal had awarded the two NSA agents their Hal�s Heroes hats last week, off-camera, as they didn�t want to be filmed. Jane hadn�t expected Durrack and Briggs to actually wear them.

�Are you really that short on hats?� Jane asked.

Durrack looked confused by the question.

�You guys do good work,� Briggs said quietly. �We�re fans.�

The woman turned away before Jane could be sure if the color on her cheeks was a blush or not.

Briggs had the silent-bitch routine perfected but Jane had caught glimpses of a naturally quiet and shy woman underneath the tough exterior. Jane imagined that she would be a lot like Briggs if she�d waded through the war zones that the two agents had worked in.

�Thanks,� Jane said. �Let me check with my sources and see if I can get a lead on the other black willows. We�re almost ready to fire up this tree. If you stick around, we can team up on the rest.�

Durrack and Briggs nodded their agreement to the plan.

�It�s me,� Jane said when Duff answered his phone. �We�ve got a problem. EIA is saying that there�s more than � oh shit! Hal! Hal!�

Hal had produced a sling made out of paracord. She thought she had confiscated and burned it long ago. The idiot must have made a new one. As she shouted at him, he lit the fuse on a piece of dynamite tucked into the sling�s pouch.

�Don�t you dare!� she shouted.

�What�s he doing?� Duff asked.

Hal helicoptered the sling over his head, the fuse leaving a smoke contrail.

This was why she hated black willows. They were dangerous to kill before you added dynamite and Hal into the equation.

�Get back!� she yelled at Taggart and Nigel. �Fire in the hole!�

Hal flung the dynamite. It went wide, smashed thru the front window of a house beside the black willow, and exploded.

�Jesus Christ, Mary, Joseph, and all the carpenters!� Jane swore.

�Did Hal just blow himself up?� Duff asked. �Should I send an ambulance to your location?�

�No!� Jane snapped as she pointed at Hal. �Search him! Make sure he doesn�t have any more dynamite!�

Durrack glanced behind him as if he thought she was talking to someone else. Realizing that she did mean him, he dashed across the street. Jane scanned the now-windowless house with smoke leaking out of it. Did anyone live there? It looked abandoned. The yard hadn�t been mowed in years. The door was a peeling green. There didn�t seem to be any obvious takens. Maybe they got lucky. It was a big, brick house with a driveway on either side of it. Even if it went up in flames, they weren�t going to set the entire neighborhood on fire.

Probably.

Jane eyed the smoke, trying to decide whether they should call their favorite accidentally reoccurring guest star, the fire marshal. This was one of the many reasons she hated black willows.

Duff took the delegation of tasks to mean that Jane was free to talk. �Hey, I just got off the phone with Mom. She wanted to know if I have a girlfriend.�

�What?� Jane�s mind was on the house � possibly not abandoned � possibly about to burn down. The smoke had gotten thicker.

�She says you need two more girls for the party,� Duff clarified only slightly.

Party? Shit, the wedding party! Jane had totally forgotten about the bridesmaids.

Hal�s yelp of pain dragged her attention back. Durrack had him professionally pinned to the ground. The tree had shifted to the house, lured by the vibration of the explosion. Its branches explored the fa�ade, looking for food.

�Watch the tree! Don�t mess up his face, Durrack! We still have close-ups to shoot!� Jane shouted as she waved her team away from the house. If it did catch fire, hopefully the tree would go up with it. �Well? Do you have a girlfriend?�

�Not currently,� Duff said. �You know that most of the people where I work are either related to us or are � you know � pregnant.� He meant the Bunny household members. �There�s one girl � kind of � but we haven�t actually even hung out, let alone dated. I told Mom to call Marc � he�s the person that gets out and about and talks to people. Well � not talk-talk � the Stone being stonelike.�

Marc�s nickname was �Stone� because he rarely spoke. That and because he was built like a stone wall.

Durrack dragged Hal back to Jane. The tree was still exploring the smoking house; maybe it was picking up a panicked squirrel or raccoon trapped inside. Jane waved to Taggart and Nigel and indicated that they all should follow her back to the production truck to get a chicken and more dynamite. (She wasn�t sure why Hal hadn�t used a chicken but it could be because Nigel didn�t like killing things. Unfortunately, most of their summer had involved killing things. Dangerous things.)

The thought reminded her why she called Duff in the first place.

�EIA is here and says there might be more than one tree. Can you confirm?�

�Yes. Bam-Bam called Alton and said that the oni sicced an unknown number of monsters on Oakland. BW have been deployed.�

BW � or black wing � was this week�s code word for tengu. Who was Bam-Bam? It took Jane a moment to remember Bam-Bam was what the kids at school used to call Lawrie Munroe. Law was legendary for saving girls in trouble, usually using baseball bats and random pieces of lumber instead of something sane, like a handgun. It had earned her the nickname based on the old Flintstones cartoon character. Law wasn�t part of their scout network but she could be trusted to pass on accurate information.

Jane glanced toward the distant, oncoming black willow. It hadn�t gotten any closer but she could see a third tree had appeared behind it.

Black willows reproduced via seeds that found root in swampy areas. In marshes, there would be swarms of saplings that fed in packs like piranha, finding safety in numbers. Once the saplings grew as tall as a man, though, they would spread out, seeking less crowded hunting grounds. All the black willows that she and Hal had ever dealt with had been individual trees that had drifted into yards near streams or swampy areas. It was unheard-of for them to march so far from water in one day.

�I�ve got a bad feeling about this, especially with the blackout in Oakland,� Jane said. �Activate all our scouts to do a full city sweep. Let�s check all the backwaters for a buildup of oni forces. The entire eastern front might be a ghost army to keep the elves tied up while the main attack comes from another direction.�

�Will do,� Duff said. �Anything else?�

�Not now,� Jane said. �I�ll let you know how this goes.�

�Yo!� Briggs called to someone.

Jane realized that Yumiko had joined them. The tengu yamabushi wore skinny jeans and a Team Tinker tank top. Was that how the good guys were telling one another apart from the bad guys now � Team Tinker T-shirts? Yumiko folded her massive black wings, panting slightly from her flight.

Briggs greeted Yumiko with a fist bump.

�My people are spread thin, so I called in the guardians of the Dahe Hao.� Yumiko pointed eastward.

The tall, slender spaceship was five miles away as the crow flew. It was a giant black stroke against the gray overcast sky. The tengu considered it holy since it had delivered their leader, Jin Wong, from space via dragon intervention. Said dragon had covered it with spell runes to keep it from collapsing under its own weight.

�It leaves the Dahe Hao unguarded, but only someone with wings could access the interior.� Yumiko sounded like someone who had made a decision that they hated. �The ship should be fine until I can get backup. It gave me four yamabushi to cover Frick Park.�

�Where�s Alton?� Jane figured from Duff�s various comments that Alton and Yumiko had been together all morning. The entire family had members of the tengu elite keeping an eye on them at all times. By accident or design, Yumiko usually paired up with Alton.

Yumiko gestured toward the south. �He�s in Schenley Park with Xiao Chen, making sure there are no black willows in Panther Hollow.�

Jane didn�t like the idea of Alton out hunting black willows, but as a forager he was well versed in Elfhome�s deadly flora and fauna. Nor was he alone. Xiao Chen was one of the returning tengu astronauts and part of Jin Wong�s most trusted inner circle.

�There are a score of trees moving in our direction,� Yumiko said. �One of our operatives said that a person fitting Kajo�s description used a whistle that started the black willows heading west.�

The name �Kajo� spiked anger and fear through Jane. The oni leader had been the one who kidnapped Boo and kept her alive as his personal plaything. In the end, he�d transformed her into a tengu, changing her down to the DNA level. It would explain why Yumiko and the other yamabushi were handling the search. He was a clever and powerful enemy.

�Jane?� Hal whined. Durrack had him pinned to the side of the production truck. �We really should kill the tree before it gets bored with the house.�

Jane sighed. Hal was right but that would mean letting him play with dynamite again. When PB&G first experimented with killing black willows, they�d determined that Hal was better at throwing than Jane. He�d played lacrosse in college, developing the hand-eye coordination that Jane had never honed. Nigel had demonstrated that he was woefully out of his element. Not that he wasn�t athletic, but cricket �pitching� was more like bowling than baseball, rugby players rarely threw the ball more than a few yards, and Nigel had never played goalie in soccer.

�You have a way of killing trees?� Yumiko asked.

�Dynamite.� Jane glanced at the cage. She had two chickens, giving her the excuse to bring only two sticks of dynamite with them. (She had left the nearly full crate with her cousin, Roach, for safekeeping.) Hal had just used up one.

�I can get more dynamite,� she told Yumiko. �It�s the delivery system that�s a problem. I only have two chickens. I�m not sure where to get more on short notice.�

And she didn�t relish the idea of trying to fling explosive dead chickens at a horde of black willows. There were so many things that could go wrong.

�If you have the dynamite, my people can drop it from above the black willows,� Yumiko said.

It was one of the few times in Jane�s life where the phrase �Praise God� seemed appropriate. The last thing she wanted to do was dodge a swarm of man-eating trees while Hal juggled dynamite.

One of those �only in Pittsburgh� discussions followed as to whether or not they needed to attach chickens to the dynamite being dropped on the mobile trees. (At least, Jane assumed it was a �never on Earth� conversation based by the number of times that Durrack, Briggs, Taggart, or Nigel shook their heads to denote ignorance of the subject.)

Briggs suggested that Yumiko do some test runs. �It�s not like the tree will be shooting at you. As long as you stay out of its reach, you can drop rocks on it until you feel ready for the real thing.�

�What�s your ceiling height?� Taggart asked while keeping the camera trained on the tree.

�I can keep out of its reach,� Yumiko said. �Getting too high would make targeting harder.�

The black willow had found something small and furry inside the house. It dragged out the squealing animal and dropped it into its maw.

Durrack muttered an impressively inventive string of profanities.

Jane shook her head. They weren�t going to be able to use any of the audio after Durrack�s arrival. At least it was easier to edit out audio than white wings in a reflection. �Let�s give it a try with just the dynamite. If it doesn�t work, I�ll track down more chickens.�

Jane confiscated their lighter from Hal and gave it to Yumiko, along with their remaining stick of dynamite. She moved her team behind the truck so they wouldn�t be in blast range if the stick bounced or got swatted in their direction.

As Yumiko made test drops with small rocks, Jane called her cousin.

�How did it go?� Roach said when he answered his phone.

�Fire in the hole!� Hal yelled as Yumiko dropped the lit stick.

It was a perfect hit. The stick landed inside the tree�s open maw. There was a deep thud, like a big bass drum being hit. With a long splintering crack, the black willow�s trunk split open and gravity took over, tearing the smoking pieces apart.

Jane took a deep breath, feeling like a massive load had been lifted off her. Clearly the tengu could safely deal with the black willows, freeing her team from the task.

�One down,� Jane reported. �I need the rest of the dynamite.�

�The entire crate?� Roach said with clear reservation in his voice.

�There�s a wave of black willows coming toward Oakland. We�re going to need a lot of dynamite to stop them.�

�I�ll be right there.� Roach hung up after getting her location.

Yumiko landed beside Jane.

�Great job,� Briggs said.

Yumiko and Briggs fist bumped.

Jane realized that she had two women she trusted right under her nose. Yes, she had had reservations about them when she first met them, but they had risked their lives to protect her family more than once in the last two months. �Could the two of you be in my wedding? Please?�

�Yes!� Briggs eyes lit up with joy that was quickly hidden away. �Sure. I�m free.�

�Me?� Yumiko said. �I thought the police officer was your maid of honor.�

�We�re making it bigger.� Jane winced as she realized that she should have talked with Taggart but he�d seemed fine with whatever her mother decided. He only wanted to get married. �My brothers are going to be part of the wedding party. I need more women to balance out the numbers.�

�So, Alton and the others?� Yumiko asked. �All cleaned up? In a tux?�

Jane nodded.

�Okay,� Yumiko said. �It might be fun.�

Like a circus, Jane almost said, but she didn�t want to scare off her volunteers.

�The dynamite is on its way.� Jane took out her phone to call her mother with the �good� news. �Until then, I�m going to need your dress sizes.�

The Mexican War Streets was a housing development that had been built a century ago on the North Side. The brick town houses weren�t cookie-cutter copies of one another but were all of a similar style, so that every building was slightly different from its neighbor. What all of the houses did have in common was a narrow window over the front door with the house number painted in gold leaf. The district had only a handful of streets running parallel to one another, starting at 1200 and going up.

In the photo that Knickknack had given Mokoto, the house number of 1225 was clearly painted over his head. It took Tommy only a few minutes on a hoverbike to find the right building.

There was a dusty boot print by the doorknob of the red painted door. The century-old jam had splintered under the force.

Tommy glanced about as he dismounted his hoverbike.

The North Side used to be one of the more heavily populated neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. It was nicknamed Chinatown because of the number of �Chinese� who lived in the area. Most of the population, though, hadn�t been human. The gutters had run with blood as the elves had gone door to door, killing any nonhuman that they found. Tommy had managed to get most of the half-oni to safety, but the true bloods disguised as humans had been wiped out.

It meant that the area had been nearly deserted for weeks. It was unlikely that anyone had seen or heard the front door of Number 1225 being kicked in.

The foyer had been painted white. Someone had been hit hard enough to spray the wall with small droplets of blood. Stairs led up to a second floor. A bloody handprint marked the wall at the top of the steps, as if someone going up had steadied themselves.

Tommy shook his head. Why run up the stairs? That would trap you in the building with whoever kicked down the front door. Someone had gotten wise � the back door was hanging open at the end of the long hallway.

He pulled the bandana off his ears. They twitched back and forth as he listened closely. The house seemed empty. He could only pick up the distant rumble of traffic. He pulled his knife and cautiously went through the front door.

Tommy had never been in the home of a pure human. He hadn�t been sure what to expect.

Not this.

The room to the left of the foyer had been painted brilliant red. �Toad Hall� had been spelled out on the far wall in big mismatched letters stolen from store signs, mostly from closed McDonalds. The archway into the room was half blocked off with wood from shipping pallets, and the entire space had been filled with colorful three-inch-diameter plastic balls. The connecting windowless room had been painted with a big gleaming mural of a starscape of planets, stars, and rimfire done in ultraviolet paint on black. Every inch of floor was covered with couches or mattresses, like a big sleeping pit, except there were no real sheets or blankets. Tommy couldn�t think of any reason for the dark bed-like area except for sex, but it seemed too public.

He paused in the foyer, listening, as he puzzled over all the scents washing over him. Did human houses always stink this bad? The smell of garbage was the strongest, coming from the kitchen. From where he was standing, he could see that every counter was covered with unwashed dishes and several big overflowing black trash bags sat on the floor. This was nearly as bad as a whelping pen. Did true humans actually live this way? His aunts would beat these people with a wooden spoon for not keeping the kitchen clean.

Under the stench of standing dishwater and garbage, he could pick out the smell of death. It wasn�t strong enough for a full dead body to be rotting in the heat, but definitely something had died in the building. Then there was another, faintly sweet flowery smell that he couldn�t place.

The stairs were as old as the house and would probably creak and groan as he climbed them. Was anyone hiding upstairs? All his senses said no. He climbed the steps as quietly as he could but they still seemed dangerously loud to his sensitive ears.

At some point in the past, the second floor had been made into one big room. He couldn�t imagine why. The space had been divided down into �rooms� via clotheslines strung above eyelevel and draped with old blankets, American flags, and sheets. It seemed as if the girls had claimed this area. Each fabric-defined cubby was stuffed to the brim with the most unlikely items. A massive stuffed giraffe. Photo collages. A sex blowup doll. A stunning number of shoes. Frilly clothing. A small shrine to something called �Lemon-Lime� with posters proclaiming �Blast it all� and �Prince Yardstick Rules� and bobble-head elves. Mismatched chairs. Road signs. Street signs. Stop signs. It seemed as if the girls would loot anything that they could carry away, even if they had to pry it up.

In the corner farthest from the stairs, there was an oddly placed door. Someone had run to the doorway but had been killed before they reached it. The body was missing but the blood spray on the wall beside the door indicated that an artery had been hit. The person had collapsed onto a mattress and bled out. The stench of death was coming from the blood soaked into the bedding.

Where were they running to?

Tommy opened the door. Someone had knocked a hole into the neighboring townhouse via the shared wall. The connecting building had been gutted and set up as a giant three-story trampoline pit. The front door and first-floor windows were boarded over so that the door between the houses was the only way in and out. It was unlikely that the work had been done this summer, not with the war going into full swing. Toad had expanded into the second building long ago, before Knickknack and the other Undefended moved in with him.

More and more Toad seemed like a giant child instead of an adult male.

The flowery scent was even stronger in the second building, despite all the second- and third-story windows being wide open. Tommy followed the smell down to the basement door. There were respirators hanging by the door.

What in the world did Toad have in the basement?

Tommy fitted one of the respirators over his face and opened the door.

The basement was filled with glowing plants in long raised wooden planters. Tommy recognized the gleaming gold flowers from running medical supplies for his father. Saijin was used by both the elves and the oni as an anesthetic.

How the hell did Toad figure out how to grow saijin?

The oni had long complained that the drug needed to be smuggled in from Onihida as they hadn�t been able to get it to grow in Pittsburgh. They had tried everything. What had Toad done differently? Tommy went down the steps to investigate closer.

Big industrial-sized grow lights, like the ones marijuana farmers used, hung from the rafters. The oni had tried those and failed. There were containers of various fertilizers set under planters, but the oni had used those too. There was a homemade computer-controlled watering system, but it seemed only to turn the faucet on and off with a timer. The water flowed through plastic tubing with tiny holes drilled in the bottom.

The only thing different from the failed farms that Tommy had seen in the past was that Toad had affixed ceramic tiles onto the wooden planters. The tiles were etched with a spell that gleamed faintly as a sign that the magic was active.

Tommy had seen something like the tile before. Lord Tomtom had dozens of oni true bloods disguised as humans working on Tinker�s gate. Most of them were carpenters who knew how to work ironwood, but a few had learned the rudiments of electrical wiring. After Tinker melted down Turtle Creek, some had come to Chang�s restaurant in Oakland, carrying what they could quickly salvage before the entire valley turned into a weird, cold blue soup. One had a box of ceramic tiles printed with a spell. Aunt Flo had chased them out, saying that the elves would track them to the restaurant. The tiles had been left behind. At some point the little ones got into them and were playing with them in the backrooms.

Then Malice had leveled the restaurant. His family had taken what survived � clothing, pots and pans, and dishes � and fled. Again, the tiles were left behind in the chaos.

Knickknack was a college student. A smart boy. Had he gone to the restaurant looking for Mokoto and found the tiles instead?

Tommy realized that the edges of his vision were going white. He stumbled upstairs and slammed the door shut. No wonder Toad had set the farm up in a separate house. One flower was safe but not a basement full of them.

Tommy backtracked to the door on the second floor of the first house, taking deep breaths to clear his mind.

Who had attacked Toad Hall?

It didn�t feel like an oni attack. The oni would want the women unharmed and the men rendered harmless fast. They wouldn�t have wounded a woman and a man wouldn�t have left the foyer alive. The time of day was odd too. The oni would have would attacked late with the cover of night, long after even the night owls had gone to sleep. Based on what lights were on in the house, it would have been easy to see that at least one of the Undefended had been on the first floor, awake. Also the oni wouldn�t have ignored the door to the second building, even after capturing the humans. The oni would have searched, found and taken the saijin. It wasn�t hidden and it was worth its weight in gold.

The elves had searched the North Side earlier in the summer, killing any disguised oni that they found. The sidewalks had been stacked with dead. More than one half-oni had been caught up in the search and executed. Tommy hadn�t heard of any new searches. The elves wouldn�t have left the second building unsearched, and they too would have taken the saijin. Ditto for the tengu.

That left a city full of humans as possible attackers.

The streetwalkers had little of value beyond the saijin. Secondhand mattresses. Worn linens. Thrift-store clothes. Theirs was a plastic and cardboard existence.

Tommy climbed the narrow, creaking stairs to the third floor in search of answers. The top floor had three proper bedrooms. By the musky male scent that lingered in all of the rooms, this was where the boys had been sleeping. Unlike the girls, the boys had actual furniture. Dressers. Desks. Beds with headboards and frames to lift the mattresses off the floor. Like the girls, the boys had posters, photographs, and stolen signs covering the walls.

One of the rooms had shelves built out of cinder blocks and wooden boards. Whatever had sat on the shelves was gone. A cork board had been hung over the desk. Push tacks still held down torn corners of paper, evidence that someone had ripped down everything pinned onto the board. The desk was cleared but the dresser still had some clothing.

Tommy knelt down beside the bed. His family hid things under their pillows and mattresses and in among their blankets, as their beds were the only private space in the warren. He was guessing in a houseful of streetwalkers, the lack of privacy would be much the same. A quick search of the bed uncovered a phone and a familiar T-shirt. It was one of Mokoto�s favorite shirts. It had been tucked under the pillow and still held his scent.

This had been Knickknack�s bedroom.

Tommy scanned the room. Everything that a person would need while in hiding hadn�t been taken: the clothes, the bedding, the phone. Someone else had stripped Knickknack�s room. What did a streetwalker have that was so valuable? Why had they taken everything pinned to the bulletin board?

He thought of Tinker�s war room at Poppymeadows. She had lists, maps, and pictures taped to the walls of the dining room. Oilcan had something similar at his enclave, tracking the work on their nightclub. Was that how crazy smart people tracked what they knew?

Someone walked onto the back porch of the house and into the kitchen.

Tommy froze. Knickknack�s bedroom was on the third floor with only one way down to street level. A single person was easy prey for Tommy�s mind-clouding abilities. If he had to deal with more than one attacker while trapped on the third floor, things could get hairy.

He tucked away Knickknack�s cell phone and listened closely.

The person in the kitchen opened the refrigerator and clinked together glass bottles. Tommy�s keen ears caught the unmistakable hiss of a beer being opened. The cap fell to the kitchen floor with a quiet jingle. There were no other footsteps to indicate there was more than one person.

Tommy reached out with his mind. The person was attempting a fearless swagger while filled with nervous fear. Tommy pulled his bandana back on just in case �one� became �many.� Feeding the illusion of the peaceful silence of an empty house into the mind of the person in the kitchen, Tommy started down the creaky stairs.

Toad was standing in the back doorway, drinking a cold beer while eyeing the dim hallway to the foyer. He was an ugly guy even to Tommy�s half-oni standards, his face too wide and his eyes bulging slightly. He wore loose cut-off jeans shorts, a bright yellow Hawaiian shirt, and red flip-flops. Watching Toad trying to psych himself up to go deeper into the house, though, it was easy to see that his �appeal� was his personality.

�I am one with the force and the force is with me. I am one with the force and the force is with me. Deep breath. Ghost in. Ghost out. Ninja style.� He made some karate-like motions with his hand, nearly dropping his beer. Despite his brave words, he continued to hover in the doorway. �Oh, Joyboy, if you got yourself killed being a drama queen, please don�t haunt me for this. I told you to run, not stand and be a mega bitch.�

Toad tried to press his hands together into a prayer but the attempt was ruined by his beer. He muttered a couple of curse words as he tried to decide what to do with the half-full bottle. In the end, he chugged the contents and then put the glass bottle on the floor with a loud clink. He pressed his hands together, whispered a prayer, and bowed. He wobbled while bowing; apparently it hadn�t been his first beer of the day.

Tommy wanted Toad away from a quick exit before he braced the man. He was guessing that Toad had come back because of the saijin-filled basement. It meant that the man probably would head upstairs to the connecting door on the second floor.

It took several minutes for Toad to gather his courage; he mostly jogged in place while huffing and puffing. His flip-flops squeaked loudly with each step. Tommy shook his head; it was a crime scene, not a prizefight.

Toad eyed the refrigerator as if considering another beer to boost his courage and then � finally � slowly headed upstairs. Tommy erased himself from the other man�s awareness even as Toad passed inches away from him. Tommy followed Toad up the steps. The man headed straight for the saijin but staggered to a stop at the pool of blood.

Tommy dropped his illusion and grabbed Toad. He slammed the smaller man against the wall.

�Tommy!� Toad cried in surprise and slight relief. �Shit! Where the hell did you come from? What are you doing here?�

Tommy ignored the questions and asked his own. �What happened here?�

Toad worked his mouth while his eyes flicked right and left, trying to come up with a reasonable lie. �I�I-I don�t know. I wasn�t here.�

Tommy bounced Toad off the wall. �Yes, you were! You ran! You told the others to run! What happened?�

�S-s-s-some guys broke the door,� Toad stuttered. �I don�t know who they were. Jonnie sold me out. That�s all I know.�

�Jonnie?�

�Jonnie Be Good. He�s an ambulance driver. If he knows that you�re cool, he�ll sell you drugs on the side.�

Tommy knew the slimewad in question. The man was local born and raised. His real name was Jurek Beiger. He was slightly older than Tommy. When he was younger, people called him Jerk Booger. Jurek remade himself after going off-world for college and washing out. He came back with his ears surgically pointed and enough medical training to be an EMT. He grew his hair long, dressed in elf hand-me-downs, and told people that his name was Jonnie Be Good. Since most of the kids Jonnie�s age had left Pittsburgh, the new generation took him at his word. Elves didn�t lie, after all.

Tommy knew that Jonnie sold drugs in Oakland to college students but Jonnie was a cowardly little shit. He�d run back to Pittsburgh because he couldn�t take being a little fish in a big pond.

�He knew about the saijin in the basement?� Tommy guessed.

Toad nodded unhappily. �I needed to get seeds off of Jonnie to grow it. I tried once or twice before I got Knicknack to help me with the planters. I knew the elves would pay dear for it � or the college students trapped on Elfhome who are desperate for any kind of escape. It�s a sweet trip � breathe it in and it�s all good. Jonnie, though, is like duct tape; it�s nearly impossible to peel him off once he gets stuck to you. He�d show up with little bribes to get in the door. Hash brownies. Moonshine. Whippets. If you passed out while partying with him, though, you would wake up royally used. It didn�t matter who you were. He�d poke himself in any unprotected hole. I think the only one of us that he hadn�t screwed was Knickknack. At least Jonnie is superhot, so most of us don�t mind. Much. The whole reason he comes here � a house full of illegal immigrants � is that we can�t do shit if we�re pissed off that he rapes us while we�re passed out.�

They could kill the bastard. Tommy knew it was easy for him to consider killing someone but in truth it wasn�t so simple. His aunts and cousins needed Tommy to secretly kill the worst of Lord Tomtom�s warriors who used them too roughly. Only Tommy could quietly kill an adult male oni and ditch the body without getting caught.

�You�re saying Jonnie was responsible for this?� Tommy pointed to the pool of blood.

Toad nodded for a few seconds, like once he started, he couldn�t stop. �I wasn�t here. I mean, I was here when it started but I got out. I�m not sure what happened after I left. I heard gunshots and I just kept running.�

�Who was here when you ran?�

�Everyone. It�s all been so crazy. The Wyverns going house to house, finding hidden oni that they chop up and leave stacked on the sidewalk. Your surly neighbor turns out to be from another planet that you never heard of. Giant dragons fighting wooden attack helicopters. Where the hell did the elves get those? Then one night none of your people showed up to work Liberty Avenue. It was like your entire stable dropped off the face of the planet. It was just us with no idea what happened to Motoko and Babe and all your girls. We freaked out. We packed up for the night and went home, scared shitless. If something took out your stable, what was going to happen to us? Knickknack was out all night, asking around, trying to find out what happened to you. No one knew anything.�

Mokoto and Babe had been busy alongside Bingo, shifting their people to the William Penn Hotel after the Wyverns raided their old warren. They had sat tight, waiting to find out if Tommy could clear their name by finding Jewel Tear. That had taken him days and he returned just hours before the train derailment. His family had stayed hidden until he�d managed to rescue Oilcan and help kill Iron Mace and Chloe Polanski. Sometime during that time, the Undefended had been attacked. September had been hotter than normal but based on the smell, the blood pool had been festering at least a day.

�How long ago were you attacked?� Tommy said.

�Night before last,� Toad said. �It was getting to be the time that we normally head to Liberty Avenue. None of us had made any money since your stable disappeared. We were trying to decide if it was safe. Me and Knickknack didn�t think it was a good idea but the girls have us outnumbered and they�re all into elves like you can�t believe. They act like the royal marines are a candy shop on feet. Personally I�m not into heavily armed redheads.

�While we were hashing it out, Jonnie suddenly showed up. He rang the doorbell and was yelling for us to let him in. There was something weird about it; he was being too loud and too pushy. Usually he�s all careful to be nice until he�s in the door and we�re all high as a kite. What�s more, Jonnie kept going, �Hey, Knickknack, are you in there?� like they were best friends or something. There�s a good reason why Knickknack is the only one of us that Jonnie hasn�t screwed over: He really hates the man. What Jonnie didn�t know was that Knickknack had put a camera up on the roof so we could see the entire street. Jonnie had a bunch of guys with him. Big guys. I was like, �Run! Hide!� and I took off. Before I could even get out the back door, I heard Joyboy shouting insults at Jonnie. The stupid little boi bitch! The front door got kicked in. Everyone was screaming. Then there were gunshots. I just ran.�

The invaders had taken the dead body, everyone who witnessed the murder, and everything in Knickknack�s room � but not the drugs. It had to mean that Knickknack had been the target of the raid.

Downstairs, the front door creaked open and several people entered the house, their bootsteps echoing up the stairwell.

Tommy whispered a curse. In cornering Toad on the second floor, he�d cornered himself. The stairs were the only exit but the newcomers were already in the foyer at the bottom of the steps. Tommy�s father could have clouded the mind of a full army, but Tommy could only control one person completely. With each added person, his ability frayed.

�No! No!� a female cried out in Elvish from the street. Her voice got louder as she neared the front door. Her Elvish was really bad, marking her as possibly a human, possibly someone from off-world. �You just can�t walk into someone�s house.�

�The door has been broken down,� a male with a Fire Clan accent replied in fluent Elvish. �There might be hostiles inside � stay back.�

All the Wyverns had gone east with Prince True Flame. The only Fire Clan elves in the city were royal marines. Judging by the number of heavy bootsteps downstairs, an entire squad had just flooded into the house. Were they searching the North Side for hidden oni again? All they were going to find was Tommy.

None of the windows on the second floor were open, despite the oppressive heat of the last month. It probably meant they were all painted shut. Had there been windows open on the third floor? Could Tommy get to the third floor unseen? Maybe, if he shoved Toad down the steps as a distraction.

�Why is this room filled with balls?� a male voice asked. By the sound, the elf had stepped into the thigh-deep sea of balls that took up the front room.

�Eeewww, so much garbage!� a third female voice from deep in the kitchen called out in Elvish. �Look at all the dirty dishes! Are we sure this is a human�s house? This looks like that oni whelping pen!�

Someone open and closed the refrigerator several times before a male voice called out, �Does the light in the cold box stay on all the time?�

�Wait! Just wait!� the woman said. �We can�t just dance into people�s homes. Someone might still be home! Hello? Peanut? Chardonnay? Hello?�

�Who is that?� Toad whispered as if Tommy should know.

�Dance?� A male echoed the woman in a puzzled tone. �We are not dancing. Are you sure that you�re saying that right?�

�Is that Red?� Toad whispered and then called out before Tommy could stop him, �Red? Is that you?�

Mokoto had showed Tommy a picture of Red. She had been the tall, busty redhead who showed up at Poppymeadows during his meeting with Oilcan, surprisingly pretty and young to be a streetwalker. What was the name that she used? Olive Branch? It wasn�t her real name but it was probably safer to call her Olive Branch than use the nickname that she used as a whore.

Tommy had watched Tinker and Oilcan grow up at the racetrack. He�d known them enough to trust them. He didn�t know Olive Branch. He didn�t even know her real name. He didn�t trust her. With twenty marines at her beck and call, though, he couldn�t hide. He made sure his catlike ears were covered before the first marine reached the top of the stairs.

He was glad to see that Olive Branch was close behind the royal marine leader. She was in the same blue gingham sundress that she had worn at Poppymeadows. The only addition was a rifle slung across her back.

Olive Branch spotted Tommy and her eyes went to his bandana, then to the red-coated elf beside her. �This is one of Tinker domi�s people.� She pointed at Tommy. �He can be trusted.�

She said nothing about Toad as she scanned the room around them.

Tommy felt surprise and then relief go through him like a bolt of electricity. He hadn�t dared to hope that she was a clever girl but she had no doubt realized that as a half-oni, Tommy was in immediate danger from the marines. He wasn�t about to correct her about Tinker vs. Oilcan. The marines nodded and focused their attention on Toad.

Mokoto said that Toad could talk his way out of anything. Toad grinned and blushed and scratched his head in a way that seemed natural and endearing, but Tommy could smell the nervous sweat pouring off the man.

�Hey, Red!� Toad said in passable Elvish, focusing not on the girl but the tall marine beside her. �We�ve been worried sick about you! You just disappeared off the streets and no one knew where you lived.�

�Yeah, well, shit happened,� Olive Branch said in English.

Downstairs, the royal marines seemed to be thoroughly exploring the room filled with balls. A female voice explained that it was a play space for human children, often found at restaurants geared toward families on Earth. The information suggested that the female had been raised off-planet and could be human. Her Elvish sounded like Wind Clan with an odd foreign lilt to it. There was another person moving around downstairs other than the female who was also explaining the ball pit; they carried a radio playing the local elf fusion music station. Who had Olive Branch added to her marine escort?

Olive Branch pointed at the congealed blood pool. �Who was killed here?�

Toad puffed up his cheeks as he shrugged, looking even more toad-like. �I think Joyboy was shot. He was being Joyboy like usual � drama queen on overdrive. I don�t know if he was killed. Maybe he was only winged.�

Olive Branch shook her head. �No. Too much blood. Whoever was shot bled out like a stuck pig. Joyboy is dead; I just identified his body at the morgue. He had been shot, so this was probably where he died. What happened to Peanut Butter and the others?�

Tommy would have thought she had nerves of steel the way that she moved on past the murder, but there were tears shimmering in her eyes.

�Oh, God, Joyboy is dead?� Toad looked shell-shocked. �I was sure he was but I didn�t want it to be true.�

�Toad,� Olive Branch said with cold steel in her voice. �What happened to Peanut Butter and the others?�

The man seemed close to breaking down. He repeated what he�d told Tommy but slower, stumbling in places.

Olive Branch held up her hand, stopping Toad when he got to the information about the camera that Knickknack had installed. �A camera? Was it recording?�

�Shit! The camera!� Toad patted his pockets to find his phone. �Yeah. Hold on. Let me find it.�

Tommy stood mystified as Toad fiddled with his phone. He knew that off-world phones had more functions than those normally found in Pittsburgh, but he didn�t realize that you could link them to security cameras.

Toad found the recording and rolled it back to the night before last. �Yeah, yeah, see? There�s Jonnie pulling up and then the guys are in the van behind � Hey!�

This was because Tommy had snatched the phone out of Toad�s hands. Olive Branch leaned in close to watch the video with Tommy.

The camera had been positioned so that it could see the street for fifty feet on either side of the front door. Jonnie arrived in a pickup with a lift kit that raised the vehicle to stupid heights. The paramedic waved to a van that parked behind him as if it had followed him to Toad Hall. Six men got out of the van and glanced around as if looking for possible witnesses to what was about to unfold.

The camera had a microphone and it picked up Jonnie shouting to the Undefended as he rang the doorbell and then banged on the door. The men from the van kept tight against the wall, flanking the front entrance, so they were hidden from anyone within the house using the spyhole mounted on the door.

No wonder Toad ran once he saw what was outside his front door.

The camera picked up Toad�s shouted warning and then someone cursing out Jonnie. One of the hidden men lost his patience, took a running start, and kicked open the door. Jonnie drifted backward, seemingly startled by the violence. After the men poured into the building, there was screaming and gunshots. Jonnie ran to his pickup and drove away. The house filled with frightened screaming as a man shouted, �Shut up!� over and over again. Minutes later Knickknack and six women were herded out of the building. Their hands were tied and they were gagged. A body wrapped in a blanket and stacks of books followed.

�They�re still alive,� Olive Branch murmured. She shook her head as the van drove away. �You can�t see the license plate.� She backed the video up to where the six men had flanked the door and paused it. She showed the image to Toad. �Do you know any of these men?�

�Just Jonnie Be Good.� Toad pointed at the paramedic.

�Jonnie Be Good?� a woman echoed from downstairs. �That gobshite? May the Lamb of God stir his hoof through the roof of heaven and kick him in the arse down to hell. That one is all hands and won�t take no as an answer.�

�That�s Jonnie, alright,� Toad said.

�Where can I can find him?� Tommy intended to flee whatever circus Olive Branch had following along behind her.

Toad blew his breath out and spread his hand. �He always comes here. I don�t know where he squats.�

�I can find out where the little gobshite lives,� the woman downstairs called. �He works for the city. Anyone who works for them needs to provide a real address within the city limits; it�s some old rule from before the first Startup. I know an old geezer who works over in their HR that owes me a favor. I�ll give him a ring and see if he can give me Jonnie�s home address.�

Whoever Olive Branch had picked up, they had better access to information than Tommy and perhaps even Oilcan. Tommy couldn�t cloud the mind of six men during a fight. Perhaps it would be better to stick with Olive Branch and her marine escort.

Having seen Tommy Chang�s cat ears at Poppymeadows, Olivia could not erase the image from her mind. At the Ranch, there had been a big black feral barn cat that always stood aloof from everyone and everything. The other cats would seek out humans, rub against ankles and beg for milk. The black would find a safe perch to watch Olivia at her chores and glare at her when she tried to approach him.

Now that Olivia had seen Tommy�s ears, even though he�d hidden them away under his signature bandana, he seemed very much like the black barn cat. He had said little while she talked to Toad and even less as she gathered up her marines and herded them outside. He tucked himself into corners and watched intently with his golden eyes. Where the other girls who worked Liberty Avenue called him dangerous and unfriendly, Olivia sensed only that he was leery of strangers.

She worked for years to win the barn cat over. The first thing she�d learned was to be patient and give the black tom space. Trying to catch him and hold onto him only made him more feral. She half-expected Tommy to leave immediately but he stayed, watching.

She wanted him to stay. The royal marines had some combat experience but they knew nothing about Pittsburgh. Aiofe knew modern technology but not the city or the darker side of human nature. Olivia had no real reason to trust Gaddy. Toad was a charismatic idiot who could sway people into stupid things. Olivia didn�t want this rescue mission to depend on her skills alone.

Tommy cultivated a dangerous bad-boy image: the black bandana, the tank top that showed off his muscled arms, a corded leather bracelet, knobby jungle boots, and a cigarette dangling from his lips. Even the way he lit the cigarette seemed menacing and cool. How did he do that? Did he practice when he was young or was it somehow just ingrained?

And did he have a tail?

Olivia fought her curiosity to keep her eyes off his butt. The jeans he wore weren�t tight enough to make it obvious, although the front suggested that the man was well endowed.

�Jonnie Be Good,� Aiofe was saying into her phone. �Tall. Blond ponytail. He had some kind of crop job done to his ears so they�re pointed.�

�His real name is Jurek Beiger,� Tommy said.

�You got to be kidding,� Toad said.

A dark look from Tommy sent Toad climbing into the back of the cargo truck with the marines for protection. The marines greeted Toad with enthusiasm, pelting him with questions about his loud Hawaiian shirt and plastic flip-flop sandals. (She hadn�t noticed Toad�s footwear but based on the marines� exclamations, apparently the sandals looked like red lobsters.)

Aiofe repeated the name. �2208 East Street, Pittsburgh, 15212? Okay, thanks!�

�Is there more than one East Street?� Gaddy murmured as she checked her map. �No. Okay. That�s odd.� She pointed down the street that they were standing in. �Well, at the end of this street turn left onto North Avenue, go over I-279 and turn left onto Madison Avenue. Madison becomes East Street.�

�We�re that close?� Olivia asked as she climbed up into the truck�s driver�s seat.

�Maybe,� Gaddy continued to frown at her map. �I�ll go ahead on my hoverbike and check house numbers � if I can find any.�

Tommy pointed at another hoverbike tucked into a narrow alley between two row houses. �I�ll follow you.�

The barn cat was coming too? That surprised Olivia and made her happy.

Olivia nodded, trying not to look pleased. Tommy might find her joy alarming; it would be like rushing the barn cat before it was actually willing to trust her.

Tinker vividly remembered the day that Tooloo stole her mail. It was in April. It was a few days before she turned eighteen and no longer had to be afraid of being deported as an underaged orphan. It was roughly eight weeks before she saved Windwolf�s life or met Pony. It was three months before she knew about the oni army hidden in and around the city.

Pittsburgh used to travel back and forth between Elfhome and Earth. While Pittsburgh was on Elfhome, all the mail on Earth addressed to the city was collected in a warehouse in Cranberry just on the other side of the Rim. The massive collection of letters and packages was shuffled across the border during Shutdown. Home delivery within Pittsburgh was suspended for forty-eight hours while the post office workers sorted through the monthly flood of mail. Two days after Startup, the mail carriers would stuff her mailbox with magazines, catalogs, junk mail, and a variety of small boxes that represented items impossible to find in Pittsburgh ordered over the internet during the last Shutdown. Thus she knew exactly what day it was when she caught Tooloo cleaning out her mailbox. April 25, six days before her eighteenth birthday.

It meant the birthday card would have been terrifyingly timely. How had the twins known what day she was born when she knew nothing about them?

The morning Tooloo had stolen her mail, Tinker had hiked down to her salvage yard, caught between annoyance and giggling madly. She had woken up insanely early from a weird and crazy dream. It started as a nightmare where she�d built a teleporting device that had gone haywire, spitting out duplicates of herself like something out of The Fly. Some of her copies were half-size. Some had black crow wings. Others were tiny as mice. She was hip-deep in weirdness before she�d gotten the machine turned off. In the dream she�d been frustrated that the copies had decided to throw a weird combination of birthday party and circus with everything from giant wingless birds to a large talking dog that spoke only in Japanese.

As if that wasn�t enough, the copies had decided to put up posters everywhere advertising that Tinker was still only seventeen and an orphan living alone. Shadowy men had taken notice and were coming with cages for the entire crazy mass. It was a stupid unsettling dream with bits of silliness that made her laugh all the while checking over her shoulder.

It had been a day designed to annoy her. April in Pittsburgh was normally a fragile, warm month as the city crept out of the hold of winter. The crab apple trees that hugged the river�s banks were all beginning to bloom, filling the air with their sweetness. This morning, though, had decided to turn bitter cold and damp. It wasn�t quite raining but dampness hung in the air like mist. To top it off, Tooloo had been at the mailbox of Pittsburgh Salvage, going through her mail.

�Tooloo!� Tinker shouted as she closed on the old half-elf.

The tall female was dressed in a threadbare fairy silk gown that came down to her ankles. The ragged hem showed off her worn red high-top sneakers. Her white hair was braided into a thick cord that hung down the middle of her back. Tooloo had her huge rooster, Box, hooked up to his little cart � that she was filling with Tinker�s mail.

�That�s mine!� Tinker tried to snatch a box out of the cart. Box pecked the back of her hand. �Ow! Tooloo! What do you think you�re doing?�

�I�m keeping a certain little monkey from chasing its own tail.� Tooloo dropped a handful of packages and magazines into Box�s cart. �It only leads to trouble.�

�No! Stop that!� Tinker tried to grab a small Amazon box � probably the replacement motherboard she ordered � out of the wagon.

Box puffed up, readying himself for battle. He was a huge buff Orpington rooster, fifteen pounds of pure golden orange fury. She had seen him take on cats, dogs, foxes, and coyotes. He was a fearless and vicious warrior. He was, though, also fairly stupid � being a chicken and all.

Tinker had bought a loaf of raisin bread from the Jenny Lind bakery before Shutdown and then forgotten it. It was rock hard and possibly moldy (the raisins making it impossible to be sure). She�d brought it with her, thinking there was an off chance she would see Roach with his elfhounds. She pulled the loaf out, tore it into large chunks, and flung them onto the ground in front of Box. While the rooster was busy pecking at the bread, Tinker snatched up her packages.

�You can�t steal people�s mail!� Tinker said. �It�s against the law!�

�Pft! Moral obligations outweigh laws,� Tooloo said. �If you see a bomb in someone�s mailbox, you take it out.�

�Bomb? What bomb?� Tinker eyed the packages in her arms. She�d ordered a lot of odd things, some of which could be used for bomb making, but she hadn�t ordered anything explosive. At least, she was fairly sure she hadn�t. It had been a month or more since she ordered most of the items in the boxes.

�One can never be sure with off-world surprises. They arrive without warning to blow up in your face. That�s always been the problem.�

�There�s no bomb in my mail,� Tinker decided. �You just want some weird excuse to take it. If you need something, like packing material, just tell me.�

�You don�t explain a fire to a blind woman using colors. You just tell her that she�s going to get burned. The problem with monkeys is that they never listen. Give them to me.�

�Wait until I open them!� Tinker danced out of Tooloo�s reach. Thankfully the old elf didn�t follow. �I�ll bring them to you tonight.�

�Whatever.� Tooloo turned and walked away.

Box pecked up the last of the bread and strutted after Tooloo.

Tinker thought she had gotten everything off of Tooloo. Certainly everything she expected to find in her mail was there. She hadn�t been expecting a birthday card from her baby sisters, so she hadn�t realized that it was missing from her mailbox. Tooloo must have secreted it away while Tinker fought with Box. Tooloo had come armed to take everything but settled for the only �bomb� in Tinker�s mail.

The shopping trip had been a mistake. Oilcan was beginning to realize that he�d committed a cascade of blunders. He probably should have waited until the domana were back in the city. He could have asked someone to buy the furniture for him; half of Team Tinker had been at Sacred Heart. He should have started small � just beds for the twins. He shouldn�t have brought all the kids. He should have left Once More With Feeling the moment he found out that the ancient manager was the only employee in the store. He felt like he was stuck in resin that was slowly turning to amber.

They�d been there for hours as he bought out full sections of the store. Seven beds. Seven mattresses. All the linens. (Cattail Reeds added �fabric� to her list when she saw what the store had in stock for sheets and blankets.) Four dining room tables and dozens of chairs. Two dress racks. Two student desks. Every lamp that they could find. Even with three trucks, it was going to take more than one trip to ferry everything back to Sacred Heart.

The manager moved frustratingly slow. He wanted to tag their purchases as �sold,� do math by hand, twice, then fill out stock inventory sheets. The last step Oilcan was certain should have been done at the end of the day when customers weren�t standing and waiting. Bored, the kids investigated other parts of the store and started to bring him impulse buys. A garden gnome statue. An old leather suitcase. A singing fish. A giant German beer stein. A Raggedy Ann doll. A picture of Jeff Goldbloom in a delicate metal rose frame. (The last mystified Oilcan as he wasn�t sure if Cattail realized that the photograph could be swapped out of the beautiful frame.)

Oilcan didn�t mind the kids buying the random odd things except he wanted to be done with the �buying� and move on to �loading.� Each new purchase jumped the process backward as the manager would stop everything to find the �sold� tags. It was already well past noon and they were going to need to make two round trips to get all the furniture to Sacred Heart. Everything would need to be loaded and unloaded and dragged up three flights of stairs. It was quite possible that after going through the grueling process once, Andy, Guy, Rebecca, and possibly Blue Sky would bail. Postponing the second load might be a wise decision but it meant picking what went on the first load became all important. He wanted to make sure each of his kids got something today that they truly wanted.

�Can we start loading the big pieces?� Oilcan asked. It would keep the kids from finding new things.

The manager shook his head. �I need to supervise loading to make sure you only take what you�re paying for. Store policy. That�s why we normally have employees load up purchases.�

Oilcan realized that he was clenching his hands into fists out of frustration.

�We could go get ice cream,� Blue Sky said.

There were cheers and more than one �I�m hungry� made Oilcan realize that they�d missed lunch.

�You will be back?� the old man said in a voice full of suspicion.

�Yes.� Oilcan peeled off bills from his roll of cash to cover all that the manager had totaled up so far. It was an alarming amount but Tinker had promised to cover his expenses for a year. �You could hold onto this as good-faith money.�

The manager sighed deeply. �I�ll get you a receipt.�

Tommy started cautiously around the old racetrack on Neville. He�d studied it closely while building his own course but it had been years since he had taken its insane jumps and sharp, unexpected turns. Everything was in better shape than he expected. The banks were clear of weeds and the jumps had been recently reinforced.

Someone had to be using it for practice. Was it workers from the shipyard? If they were rabid hoverbike fans, they would recognize Tommy. They would know that he kept a stable of prostitutes who worked Liberty Avenue.

The track went under the interstate and split. The main branch looped back but a small section followed an older go-kart track through the maze of side streets. On the turn�s inside wall, someone had painted a black crow on a bloodred field.

Tommy hugged the inside curve to get a better look at it. It was definitely Team Providence�s tag. They must have fixed up the old course in order to secretly train their rider. It meant that the off-worlders at the shipyard probably wouldn�t recognize Tommy.

As he came looping back, he saw Gaddy had faked a breakdown just before the shipyard�s driveway. He pulled to a stop beside her, careful to place an electric pole between him and the armed guards inside the fence.

�I hit a ley line!� Gaddy called to Tommy, louder than necessary. �It made my spell chain slip. I�m just adjusting it.�

Like that would ever happen, but it sounded feasible to anyone who didn�t know real bike mechanics. The guards didn�t seem to be paying much attention. They were gathering in groups, pointing toward the tall windowless building and shaking their heads.

Tommy scanned the shipyard looking for ways into the compound and signs of the kidnapped Undefended. Most of the vehicles in the parking lot had some version of the crowned lion logo on them. Some had the word �Midas� under the logo or �Midas Exploration,� while others had the German word Erobern. It was hard to tell if there were multiple companies represented or just one with a branding problem. The unmarked van that the attackers had used at Toad Hall sat near the gate. In the mud, just behind the back tire, was a black flannel stuffed cat. It looked like a typical Mokoto handmade special: big derpy eyes, a green heart stitched onto its flank, and a body filled with lavender that Tommy could smell from the street.

Knickknack definitely had been brought to the shipyard.

�You good?� he asked Gaddy.

�Yeah, I�m good.� She started her bike back up.

They headed back toward the cargo truck.

Tommy had very limited experience with average human teenage girls. His cousins didn�t qualify because their half-oni status made their lives anything but normal.

Makoto had said, �Something nasty happened to Red on Earth. She kept walls up around her. Massive stone fortress walls. Nobody got in.�

The EIA intern, Aiofe, kept a constant flow of information going between her and the elves. So far Tommy had learned indirectly most of her life story including the fact she had three older sisters, went to an all-girls school in Ireland, and was far from comfortable with the male side of any species.

All that Tommy had learned from �Olive Branch� herself was that her human name was Olivia. No last name. No clue to why a teenage girl had been walking the streets as a prostitute last month and was now acting like a drill sergeant to a herd of juvenile elves. Nothing about her made sense. While tall and curvy with beautiful long flame-colored hair, she was modestly dressed in a sundress and sensible shoes. Her hips and ample bust said she could be as old as sixteen but, now and then, her face could be as doe-eyed innocent as a twelve-year old�s. Her baby bump said that she was close to three months pregnant by someone other than Forest Moss, who had arrived in Pittsburgh a month ago. Given that Mokoto hadn�t seen Olivia on Liberty Avenue prior to a month ago, the pregnancy might be why she was on Elfhome, running from whoever preyed on innocent children.

Tommy could understand running from something like that.

It was becoming obvious that Olivia was clever and cautious but in over her head. She was smart enough to know that they needed to recon the shipyard before using the strength that the royal marines gave them, but she wasn�t sure how to do that. She didn�t have Tinker�s knowledge and control of magic nor her knowledge of the Pittsburgh area and its people. She didn�t know about Tommy�s powers. Sooner or later she would probably turn to the EIA, which would mean that all the Undefended would probably be detained and deported once Tinker did get her gate up and running.

There was no one on the planet that Tommy trusted more than Mokoto. His little cousin might not be a brute force like Bingo, but he was fearless, clever, and ruthless. More importantly, Mokoto could pass as human. At any point, he could have walked away and left it all to Tommy and Bingo to protect the family. He could have even escaped to Earth and vanished completely. But he hadn�t. He�d stayed, backing Tommy at every step, always putting family first, always taking whatever shit life threw at them.

Knickknack was an off-worlder stranger but Mokoto loved him. Tommy knew how shitty it was to fall in love with the wrong person. Annoying as it was to have to sneak around to be with Jewel Tear, at least he had the comfort of knowing that she was safe and sound.

Olivia waved as he and Gaddy roared up to the cargo truck.

�The kids were taken to the shipyard,� Tommy said. �We still don�t know if they�re actually alive or not. The place is heavily guarded.�

�From what I overheard, a machine that isn�t supposed to be running got turned on and no one seems to know how to turn it off,� Gaddy said. �They�re not even sure if they should attempt it. They�re distracted. Now would be a good time to move.�

�How many guards?� Olivia asked.

�I saw at least two dozen different men,� Gaddy said. �Not all of them were armed. It seemed to be a mix of workers and guards. Technically we outnumber them.�

�Barely,� Olivia murmured, still studying the distant building. �Violence will beget violence. It could escalate out of our control quickly. They have the home advantage and solid cover. We would need to breach first the wall and then the buildings. There could be booby traps. They could kill the hostages before we found them. This is like hide-and-seek but in reverse. You can�t pull the trigger until you�re sure you have the person hiding trapped or you have to race every player to home.�

It was an odd way of putting it, but she was right. If the kidnappers wanted Knickknack to build a gate and he was cooperating to keep the girls safe, then it was unlikely that the boy was being held with the others. While Tommy�s focus was Knickknack, Olivia had made it clear that saving Peanut Butter Pie was her priority.

Tommy didn�t want to walk alone into the armed camp. He didn�t like having the women � young, inexperienced, and complete strangers to him � as backup. He considered calling Bingo or Babe but they looked too much like their oni fathers. He couldn�t be sure that the royal marines wouldn�t kill them. Most of his cousins who could pass as human were still teenagers or younger. Much as he didn�t want to go in alone, he couldn�t see another way to save Knickknack where the boy wasn�t immediately locked up by the EIA. �I noticed a ramp down that dirt side road. I can use it to get over the fence behind the building. If you create a distraction at the front, I can go over the fence and scout for the kids.�

Olivia considered and then nodded in agreement.

�I�ll move out first,� Olivia said as she waved to the marines to get into the back of the truck. �Gaddy, keep pace with him until he slows down to stop, then keep going around the track. Anyone not paying attention to me will probably keep an eye on the moving bike over the one that has stopped.�

�Sounds good,� Gaddy said.

�Godspeed.� Olivia said it like a blessing.

They moved out with the truck in the lead.

This wasn�t as insane as taking on a pack of oni warriors by himself in the middle of the forest. It was his experience that humans normally didn�t react instantly or fight to the death. They didn�t come from a kill-or-be-killed culture. Among the more beast-like lesser oni, the winner often ate the loser. It meant that humans at the shipyard probably wouldn�t shoot to kill if they saw him. Probably. He never liked the word �probably.� Too often it really meant �you thought wrong.�

The big truck trundled the mile to the shipyard, occasionally jumping the curb and riding on the sidewalk. Olivia wasn�t the best of drivers although she hadn�t stalled the big truck once. The shipyard had two driveways. The first was a dirt road that led back to the small jump Tommy had spotted earlier. Rusty signs stated NO PARKING OR TURNING AROUND. Judging by the weeds, it was last used when Neville Island was still on Earth. Three hundred feet farther on, the shipyard�s gate stood guard on a wide paved driveway.

Tommy veered onto the dirt road. Gaddy roared on, passing the big cargo truck as it put on its turn-right signal and slowed to awkwardly make the turn into the driveway. Olivia either misjudged the stopping distance or intentionally didn�t stop in time, bending the front gate with her reinforced front bumper. She beeped once, quickly, perhaps hitting the horn by mistake.

By mistake or on purpose, she got what she wanted: everyone in the compound focused on Olivia as she leaned out of the truck�s window. Aiofe wasn�t in the front cab with her; the translator must have gotten in the back with the marines.

�Sorry!� Olivia called and waved at the guards. �Hello? I�m sorry about your gate! I�m not used to driving something this big through a city.�

Olivia was going with a hapless female ploy. With her modest sundress and often childlike face, she was going to throw the men for a loop. She didn�t look like someone who had shot a man just minutes ago.

Tommy popped up and over the fence. He slid across the compound where tarps covered pallets loaded with spools of structured fiber filament and five-gallon buckets of gloss white marine paint. He tucked his hoverbike between pallets of paint and pulled the tarp over it. No one seemed to notice his arrival but it could be because Olivia had just put the truck the rest of way through the front gate � slowly � while claiming that she was attempting to back up. She was doing a great job of grinding gears, making it seem like she had no idea what she was doing. Certainly Tommy would buy it if he hadn�t just followed her around the city for over an hour. Her steering had been rough but her shifting was fine.

�Whoa, whoa, whoa!� a man was shouting in a tone that was annoyed but not furious.

A squawk of a radio warned Tommy that someone was coming around the far corner of the building. He reached out with his mind and erased himself from the compound. A man carrying a rifle rounded the corner and walked past Tommy without checking his stride. The man swore softly as he saw the truck parked on the remains of the gate with Olivia picking her way down out of the cab going, �Sorry, sorry, sorry.�

The rifleman hadn�t been in the back lot as Tommy popped over the fence so he must have come out of the building. Unless the door locked behind the man, there was a way in.

Tommy slipped around the corner. There was an unremarkable steel door on the windowless wall. He tried the handle. The latch clicked. The guard hadn�t locked it behind him.

He opened the door.

The inside surprised him. He hadn�t considered what might be within the building but he would have never imagined what he found.

It was a huge pure white space. The walls and ceiling were all a smooth, slick whiteness. It was like being inside a massive, very clean bathtub. Lights blasted the area. A huge complicated machine was running, humming and whirling and buzzing. It had robotic arms that were placing and removing items. He couldn�t guess what it was making. The unfinished item didn�t look very boat-like.

There was a path painted on the floor, indicating where it was safe to walk and not be hit by moving machinery.

A man was talking loudly on the far side of the massive room. �I can�t tell what�s it doing. You know how complicated it is. Some of the pieces in the assembly bins were quite small; it might have been processing for hours before anyone noticed.� The man paused as if listening to someone. Tommy�s sensitive ears didn�t pick up the other person. The man continued as if in response. �No, the kid doesn�t have access to anything that can connect with it. I�ve tried that. And that. And that too.�

Moving machine parts obscured the person as Tommy threaded his way through the room. He reached out with his mind. He encountered two different knots of emotions. One person was irritated and considering violence. The other was filled with fear.

The speaker sounded angry. Was the terrified person an Undefended? Tommy�s gut feeling was that he�d found one of the missing whores. Tommy focused on locking his mind-clouding ability on the angry person.

After he dodged three massive rolling robotic arms trailing wires, he spotted his target on the opposite side of the building. A big man paced back and forth while talking on a smart phone. Knickknack sat at a table with a laptop, trying to ignore the angry man behind him. The boy was shackled to the floor by a ten-foot chain. The girls were nowhere in sight.

Tommy could cut the big man�s throat before the brute realized he was there but there was the problem of whoever was on the other end of the phone. Was the person someone close by or on the other side of town? With Knickknack chained to the floor and the girls possibly chained elsewhere, Tommy didn�t want to be dealing with reinforcements.

Tommy erased himself from the man�s mind as he stalked toward the table. The shackle on Knickknack�s ankle was jury-rigged from a heavy chain bolted to the floor and a padlock. As Tommy neared the two, he noticed that Knickknack�s eyes kept going to the key ring at the big man�s side. Did it have the key needed to free the boy?

The boy noticed Tommy. �What the��

Tommy put a hand over Knickknack�s mouth. Tommy shook his head. He could cloud the mind of the man beside him but not the person on the other end of the telephone conversation. He reached over and plucked the key ring from the man�s side. He handed the keys to Knickknack and pointed down at the padlock.

The boy�s brows knitted together in annoyed confusion. Knickknack glanced at the man, who was clearly unconcerned by Tommy�s presence � not realizing that it was because the man was unaware of him.

Was Tommy going to have to beat the boy into unlocking himself?

Tommy�s irritation must have shown on his face. Knickknack�s eyes went wide and the boy knelt quickly to fumble with the padlock.

There was a crash in the direction of the front gate. What was that Olivia doing now?

�What the hell was that?� The big man glanced toward the table but Tommy made sure that all he saw was Knickknack still typing on the laptop. �I need to go. I�ll call you later.�

The man strode off as Knickknack carefully placed the unlocked padlock quietly on the floor.

The boy had a black eye but otherwise seemed fine. He was a hair taller than Tommy, dressed in shorts and T-shirt that read YOU MATTER, UNLESS YOU MULTIPLY YOURSELF BY THE SPEED OF LIGHT�THEN YOU ENERGY. Tommy wasn�t sure what it meant; was it supposed to be funny? Knickknack had on bright yellow tennis shoes that had Japanese lettering written on them. He smelled like he hadn�t showered or changed his clothes for days.

�Where�s the girls?� Tommy whispered.

�What are you doing here?� Knickknack whispered fiercely. �Are you working with these assholes?�

�This is a rescue, idiot. Where are the girls?�

�A rescue? Is Mokoto here?�

Tommy bounced the boy against the nearest wall. �Where are the girls?�

�They�re in the female employee locker room.� Knickknack fumbled through the key ring. �I think this key unlocks the door.�

The keys jingled softly, betraying the fact that the kid was shaking in fear. It made Tommy angry.

�We�re here to save you,� Tommy snarled as he took the keys.

�Mokoto is here?� Knickknack repeated.

Tommy bounced him again. �Take me to the locker room where the girls are.�

Knickknack indicated the door that the big man had taken. �There�s a guard on the girls.�

�I�ll take care of him,� Tommy said.

�Wait.� Knickknack started to gather up stuff on the table. �I tried to talk sense into these assholes but it was like talking to a brick wall. They don�t understand the danger. There�s multiple worlds out there. I have no idea how you key to the right world. I could have been opening a doorway to literally anywhere. There could be massive colonies of man-eating ants, or AI-driven death machines, or diseases that make the Ebola seem like the common cold, or a literal black hole that will use the doorway to tear Pittsburgh into little pieces of matter.�

�Just leave it,� Tommy said.

�No, I can�t. They set up a backdoor to all of Tinker�s files. I want to be able to block them after we get out of here � or they�ll just do this with someone else.�

�We need to hurry,� Tommy said.

�Got it!� Knickknack took off running.

A fireproof door led to a maze of hallways and offices.

Knickknack paused at one turn to whisper and point. �The guard is around the corner.�

Tommy reached out with his mind. There were lots of minds around the corner. He couldn�t tell the girls from their guard. They were too close together and they were all bored.

He signaled Knickknack to get closer to him.

�What are you going to do?� Knickknack whispered. �Shoot him? Everyone will hear the��

Tommy shoved Knickknack out into the hallway.

Knickknack yelped in surprise, nearly falling on his face before he recovered his balance.

One mind stopped being bored. �What are you doing here, kid?�

�Hey, Zhukov! I need to use a real toilet, not just a piss jar.� Knickknack pointed back behind him. �Mulligan said I could come down here and go proper-like.�

Tommy locked his thoughts onto the guard and erased Knickknack from his vision.

�What the hell?� Zhukov said as Tommy stepped around the corner. He was a beefy man with a full beard. �Where did you go, kid?�

Knickknack looked at Tommy walking toward him, back at Zhukov who was turning in circles, and then back at Tommy. He spread his hands with a silent �What?�

Zhukov had a radio and sidearm and probably combat training. Tommy couldn�t just whisk the girls away and not count on the man summoning help.

�Take the keys.� Tommy handed the keyring to Knickknack. �Free the girls, get them headed back to where you were chained.�

�What are you going to do?� Knickknack whispered.

�Focus on the girls.� Tommy checked the door to the men�s locker room. He wanted to keep the Undefended females out of the fight. They were like alley cats when it came to fighting: painted claws out and scratching while howling curses. It might be effective against other girls on street corners, but not against men armed with guns.

The door swung inward. Zhukov was bigger than Tommy but not braced for an attack from the rear. Tommy caught the man by the collar and dragged him fast through the door.

The locker room was an assault on Tommy�s nose, of piss and damp and mold. Nor was it empty; two men stood by the wash sinks on the far back wall, looking surprised. Zhukov spun out of Tommy�s hold and pulled his gun.

Tommy stepped back. He fed into Zhukov�s mind the image of two lesser blood oni warriors standing in place of the men: the ones that were over six feet tall with a pig-snout nose and tusks. Their sharp nasal grunting. Their musky reek. Zhukov shouted with surprise and emptied his gun into his coworkers.

�Blyat!� Zhukov shouted the word like a curse. The gun shook as he kept it aimed at the dead bodies. �What the hell are those? How did they get in here?�

There was a sudden barrage of gunfire outside the building. The cargo truck�s loud horn sounded long and urgent. Tommy had never heard a more clear �come now� signal.

The door opened behind Zhukov. Knickknack stood in the doorway, looking shocked.

The guard whirled and pulled the trigger on his gun. Luckily, it was empty.

�Stupid fuck!� Tommy cut Zhukov�s throat. �I told you to focus on the girls!�

Knickknack backed out of the door, mouth open, eyes wide. �I�I-I thought you might need help.�

Tommy wiped his knife on Zhukov�s clothes and sheathed it. The gunfire outside was only increasing in volume. What the hell was happening out there? �Come on.�

The hallway was crowded with frightened girls. They apparently had afforded themselves use of the showers in the woman�s locker room: they smelled of cheap hand soap and clean flesh. Without their heavy streetwalker makeup, they all appeared young and innocent. He might have been wrong about their ages; none of them looked older than eighteen. All the kids were bruised and battered. Knickknack wasn�t the only one with a black eye and the girls all had marks on their arms to show that they had been roughly held by men with large, strong hands.

An alarm started to sound as they headed cautiously through the maze of hallways back toward the big machine room.

�Is that a fire alarm?� Peanut Butter Pie said.

�Maybe,� Knickknack said.

Tommy wanted to get back to his hoverbike without running into any more groups of armed guards.

In the machine room, the far wall was slowly lifting. He hadn�t noticed before but it was actually a huge airplane hangar-like door. The entire massive wall was folding up in four separate sections. Beyond the gleaming white manufacturing room, rails led down a steep concrete slope to the water. The muddy scent of the river was spilling in through the opening doorway.

The loud alarm might be to warn people that a boat was launching. Certainly the freshly created machine seemed to be preparing to leave � arms and clamps were retracting and the hum of a motor was coming from the thing. There was a weird chiming noise, similar to a hoverbike�s spell chain spinning up.

Bullets pinged off the side wall. Tommy glanced out toward the river. There was a tugboat maneuvering a river barge filled with oni warriors toward the boat ramp.

�Shit,� Tommy hissed. �Run!�

Loud elf fusion music started to play on a loudspeaker and a squeaky girly voice announced in English, �We are Pittsburgh! We are Team Tinker! Hooyah! Launching Tesla Mark Two Point Oh! Team Mischief, Go!�

The large newly fabricated machine lifted up and roared sideways out the opening. It had been a spell chain spinning up that he had been hearing.

�What the hell is happening?� one of the girls shouted.

That was what Tommy wanted to know. He wasn�t sure what the giant mongrel hoverbike thing was but it seemed to be on their side.

Olivia was desperately honking the cargo truck�s horn again as Tommy led the Undefended out of the big building and around the corner to where he had left his bike. He was glad to see she�d shifted the big vehicle so that it was protected by the building. The marines were behind heavy cover, returning fire at the oni. There was no sign of the Midas Erobern people; the rats had piled into their cars and fled. At some point Gaddy had slipped through the trashed gate and now sat on her hoverbike beside the truck.

The Undefended skittered in circles, not wanting to get closer to the gunfight.

Olivia spotted them and scrambled out of the cab to wave the Undefended toward her. �Come on! Get in the truck!�

�Go!� Tommy ordered, shoving them. He stopped at his hoverbike. All the Undefended except Knickknack ran to the truck.

The boy paused to look around. �Is Mokoto here? It�s all my fault that Joyboy is dead. I don�t want Mokoto hurt because I was stupid. None of this would have happened if I didn�t let Toad talk me into growing those drugs. If I hadn�t started to work Liberty. Hell, I should have just gone home for the summer! Mokoto didn�t come, did he? He�s not getting shot at?�

�He�s not here!� Tommy roared. �He sent me, okay?�

Knickknack looked relieved and pleased. �Oh! Good! Okay. Right. I�ll get in the truck, then.�

�They�re setting up a heavy machine gun!� Dagger shouted. �We cannot hold this position!�

�Pull back!� Olivia ordered. �Get in the truck! We�re leaving!�

The marines dashed back, covering one another as they retreated. The machine gun opened fire, chewing through the pallets that the marines had been hiding behind. The truck had heavy cover behind the building but they needed to pull into the oni firing range to clear the gate.

�Hold on!� Tommy called as he pulled his hoverbike up beside the cargo truck. �We need to take out the machine gun before driving through its line of fire!�

�I can try ramming the fence,� Olivia said.

Tommy scanned the fence line. Yes, the truck could probably easily ram through the chain-link fence but the jumps for Tinker�s racetrack blocked the sidewalk beyond.

The large flying vehicle suddenly swooped down to hover beside Tommy. Up close and without all the fabricating machines attached to it, the thing looked more like a tank, with a long tube barrel sticking out in front. �We are Pittsburgh!�

�We are Team Tinker?� Gaddy said even though she wasn�t on Tinker�s hoverbike racing team.

�Hooyah!� the hovertank said in its little girl voice. �Leave that barge to us!�

�Okay,� Tommy said when it became obvious that everyone else was speechless.

The hovertank swooped around the corner of the building with the speed of a hummingbird. There was a quiet poof and a small white ball went sailing out of the cannon. A foot or two from the muzzle, the ball transformed into a massive ray of white-hot energy that flashed forward. The beam hit the machine gun and sliced through the deck of the barge.

�Chi-chi-chi!� one of the marines cried. �Spell arrow!�

Tommy had never seen a spell arrow do that kind of damage. How did anyone get it ramped up to do that? Why was the hovertank using something akin to a spitball? How?

The hovertank ducked back behind cover as the oni used rifles to shoot at it. The barge was already listing as it took on water. The oni warriors rushed toward the smaller tugboat as the water became thick with feeding river sharks. A true blood was trying to detach the barge before it dragged the tug down with it.

�There,� the little-girl voice said from hovertank. �No more problem! You should go someplace safer. The oni are launching an attack on Oakland. Okay, got to go, bye!�

The tank soared off.

�We should go,� Olivia said after a moment of stunned silence. �Somewhere. Someplace safe.�

Tommy doubted that anywhere in Pittsburgh was safe. He needed to get back to his family. Motoko and Babe would still be asleep. Bingo and the others were distracted by the hotel; they might not notice the incoming oni until it was too late. At least with the human businessmen coming and going, no one who couldn�t pass for human should be in the lobby. They could discuss tactics after he warned his family.

He revved the engine on his hoverbike, adding power to the lift engines so he drifted upward to cruising height. �Follow me.�

Jane�s little brother Marc had lucked into an insanely beautiful modern house on Grandview Avenue near the Monongahela Incline. Perched on the edge of Mount Washington, it had an unobstructed view for ten or twenty miles. The house was a blocky, white-walled, space-age-looking thing with multiple terraces and giant windows to make the most of the vista.

Jane had called Duff to let him know where she was headed and to double-check that Boo was actually with Marc. Duff had put her on hold, checked on Marc�s location, and let her know that Marc had just gotten home. The call had forewarned Marc; he opened up his garage doors as Jane pulled into the driveway. His repaired Hummer sat in the right bay, leaving the left bay empty for Jane�s SUV. Before Marc could close his garage doors, though, Nigel and Taggart and Hal walked out of the garage, heading across the street to the far sidewalk at the cliff�s edge. Chesty stoically stood beside Jane despite the fact that he�d spent most of the day so far penned up. The elfhound glanced up hopefully at Jane.

�Hal!� Jane snapped even though all three of men were guilty. It was probably Hal�s idea.

�It�s the first time Taggart has seen Pittsburgh like this!� Hal gestured to the vista even as he continued to walk toward the iron fence that lined the far sidewalk.

It was a stunning view. The cliffs of Mount Washington dropped off beyond the sidewalk, leaving nothing to obstruct the vista. In a single glance, one could see from Point State Park � where the Allegheny River met the Monongahela River to form the Ohio � all the way to the Cathedral of Learning rising over Oakland. At the foot of the cliff was Station Square, currently littered with train cars after the Oktoberfest derailment. Across the Monongahela River rose all the skyscrapers of Downtown. On the hilltops beyond the Allegheny River was the solid wall of green that was the virgin ironwood forest. Rainclouds blanketed the sky, threatening, dimming the entire vista.

Much to Chesty�s delight, Jane walked across to view it with the men. The big elfhound trotted in a wide circle around her, burning energy, tail wagging.

�We can see it even better from Marc�s,� Jane said, aware that Marc was following them across the street as if Hal had the gravity of a black hole. �It�s going to rain soon.�

Hal looked pained. �I wanted Taggart to get shots of the tower. From the street. It�s more impressive that way.�

�The tower?� Jane echoed in confusion. The only tower in the area was a block down the street from Marc�s house. It was tall, anemic, Eiffel-Tower-looking thing painted white and red. There was a little flat building tucked under it, housing WESA, which used to be the Pittsburgh NPR station. The public radio station had lost its US government funding, just like WQED. Whereas private investors had stepped in to take control of the public television station, the radio station had been abandoned. What was operating in its place was a pirate station, run by locals as young as twelve and as old as thirty.

Jane pointed just to be sure they were talking about the same thing. �The radio tower?�

Hal nodded and grinned in the way he had when he was trying to keep a secret.

�Why?� Jane let her voice to drop to a threatening level. All of the kids running the pirate station had joined the militia. Since the militia was using the spy cell model, Hal hadn�t been told that it was one of their communications hubs. Although it was possible that he�d guessed; he wasn�t a total idiot and the coded broadcasts were accessible by any radio.

Hal grinned tighter. �WESA appeals to a younger audience.�

Jane glared at him and he lost the grin.

Hal lowered his voice to a whisper. �Jane, I�ve been doing lots of research on successful rebellions. Historically, communication is key to any successful resistance. Radios have always played an important part in organizing coordinated action. KDKA is nice but it�s very public and very vulnerable and very�cowardly. Really. I haven�t been able to get in to see any of KDKA�s staff beyond your cousin. They�re afraid I�ll set the place on fire. Again.�

She was wrong. He hadn�t realized that they�d already taken over WESA. She shook her head. �I don�t want you drawing attention to the station.�

Nigel shifted to stand shoulder to shoulder with Hal.

�No, no, no, don�t evil dead twins on me,� Jane growled.

Nigel gave her an apologetic look for siding against her. �Elf fusion music is blowing up on Earth. It�s part of what is fueling people�s interest in Elfhome. If Tinker domi does manage to open up a path back to Earth, an episode on a pirate radio station devoted to the music would be huge.�

Jane hadn�t considered that the radio station could be anything more than a communication hub for the militia. This was the problem of having two hosts. Hal alone was easy to ignore; his way normally led to madness, fueled by his overconfident ego. Nigel, on the other hand, was so reasonable that it was hard to counter him.

�We�re here to talk to Boo,� Jane said.

�We could split up,� Taggart said. �It�s probably better that only you deal with this.�

�This� being �find out exactly what Kajo did to Boo.� Yes, it would be better if Boo had privacy for this.

�I can cover your crew.� Marc wore his kidney holster under his tank top. He held out his keys to show that he wouldn�t be locked out if she closed the garage doors.

�We can take Chesty with us.� Taggart gave her a smile that did warm fluttery things to her heart. �He would enjoy the walk.�

�Okay. Fine.� She was trying to get Chesty used to the idea that Taggart was part of the family now. She pointed at Taggart. �Chesty. Obey.�

Taggart patted his leg. Chesty went without hesitation, which was an improvement since they had first started working on it two months ago.

�Good boy!� Taggart rewarded Chesty with affection.

Jane walked back to the garage and hit the wall switch to close the big doors.

It was a good thing that Marc�s place was all windows and outside views because it was minimalist bare. He had no art on the wall or rugs on the polished hardwood floors. The only furniture on the first floor was an ironwood coffee table made by Geoffrey and a leather recliner bought at the thrift store Once More With Feeling.

Jane grabbed a cold beer out of the kitchen�s refrigerator; she needed something to focus on other than her feelings. She didn�t want to have this talk with Boo. She didn�t want to drag Boo through the emotional minefield of her kidnapping. Jane didn�t trust herself not to react yet; Boo didn�t need her anger and revulsion. After a moment�s thought, she took a beer for Boo too. Her baby sister wasn�t a baby anymore. All the Kryskills started to drink alcohol when they were ten or eleven, probably on the theory that if it wasn�t forbidden, it wasn�t as enticing.

Boo wasn�t on the first-floor terrace off the living room, nor the second-floor one off the spartan master bedroom. She was up on the roof terrace, under the protection of the lattice roof, her new wings flaring from her back in snow-white perfection. Her spill of curls was just as white, to the point where it was hard to tell where her hair stopped and her feathers started.

Boo had her eyes closed as she folded and extended her wings. While she had resisted the offer of getting her wings immediately after being rescued in July, she had decided to agree in August, when little Joey Shoji got his. The tengu created the spell tattoo with magic, impregnating the skin with ink, in what Boo described as �instant sunburn.� While the spell gave her wings, it didn�t instantly give her the muscle memory or the strength to use them efficiently. The tengu explained that flying was like learning any endurance sport; practice would be what made flight effortless, not magic.

�Fold,� Boo whispered as her wings closed. �Extend.�

In a rustle of white features, her massive wings spread.

She looked like a battered angel, dressed in a backless tank top and cut off shorts, and sporting vivid bruises on her alabaster skin after countless bad landings.

�Hey.� Jane held out one of the bottles. �Do you want a beer?�

�Sure!� Boo cried, opening her eyes.

Jane had just grabbed what was in the refrigerator. She hadn�t really looked at the label until she cracked hers open. It was a Church Brew Works Blue Valentine. It was a stout beer with chocolate and fudge undertones. It was a good beer, but strong. From experience Jane knew that kids rarely liked the more robust beers right out of the gate. But then, maybe the oni had been giving Boo beer to drink since she was little. Boo seemed excited by the prospect of drinking it.

Boo was sniffing her opened beer. �Wow, it smells like some kind of dessert.�

�Beer takes a little time to get used to,� Jane said to warn her.

It was nearly comical to watch Boo soldier through the first few sips. No, the oni hadn�t weaned her on beer.

�I normally have things like hard cider,� Boo said when she realized that Jane was watching her. �Or wine coolers.�

�You don�t have to drink it.�

�I want to,� Boo said. �He liked sweet drinks. Girly drinks. You guys all drink beer.�

�Kajo?� Jane said.

Boo nodded.

Jane took a long chug on her beer to give herself courage to dive into the conversation that she didn�t want to bring up. The one that she�d unconsciously avoided for over a month. �Boo, if we�re going to stop Kajo, we need to know everything about him. What does he look like? Where is his main camp? What you think the oni might be doing? Anything you can give us will help.�

Boo hesitated for a moment before saying, �Kajo�s a little taller than me. Just enough that I need to tilt my head up a little to look him in the eye.�

That made him damn short, as Boo hadn�t shot up like most Kryskills. She was only about five foot two.

�His hair is long and blond,� Boo continued, frowning in concentration. �Not white blond like mine but still very pale. He normally wears it in a ponytail but sometimes he braids it or he wears it in a man-bun. He doesn�t like having his hair so long but he was told to let it grow. His eyes are very green � they almost don�t seem real. You know in movies, when the actors use contacts to make their eyes really vivid? They�re like that. When I was little I used to dream that he had little emeralds instead of real eyes.�

Boo fell silent for a minute. She took another sip of the beer and cringed. �Oh, this tastes like a chocolate tart that�s gone bad.�

�Being a tengu might have changed how things taste to you,� Jane said.

Boo visibly braced herself to take another sip. �Kajo actually looks like a Disney prince. The chin. The cheeks. The nose. He�s beautiful. So beautiful I could never understand why he kept me. He could have anyone.�

Jane finished her beer as she struggled to keep her anger in check. The �beautiful� bastard who �could have anyone� had stolen a first grader who weighed less than fifty pounds. What kind of pervert wanted a girl that young?

�Five and a half feet tall, roughly. Long blond hair. Green eyes.� Jane focused on the important details. The hair could be changed but not the eyes or height. �Looks human?�

Boo nodded. �Yes, he looks like a normal person. He could walk down the street and no one would think, �Oh, there�s an oni.� That�s why he wears the mask. No one would be scared of him otherwise, at least on first meeting him. Once you got to know him, you realized that he could be so ruthless. Sometimes it seemed like he had no heart � but then he would look at me so sad and say he loved me. Sometimes I believed him.�

It wasn�t much but at least it was more than they had before. She wondered if Marc knew a police sketch artist that he could trust.

Jane moved on. They needed to find the two possible Kajos before they could identify the real one. �Do you have any idea why Kajo would be moving around black willows? Did he put the trees in Frick Park so he could use them in some master plan?�

Boo shook her head. �The trees were here before everything. Before the oni reached Pittsburgh. Before Pittsburgh came to Elfhome. The elves surveyed this area extensively and monitored it for decades before the first Startup. Pure Radiance knew that something big was going to show up here. The Viceroy mapped out the ley lines, the springs, and all the wetlands that were infested with black willow. The seeds of the black willow are like those of a dandelion: real fluffy. Based on their DNA and the genetic drift, Kajo thought that some seeds got blown up into the jet stream during the Rebellion and came down somewhere in the Westernlands. He sees them as a mixed blessing. They�ve made moving around the virgin forest more difficult for the oni but they deterred the humans and elves from exploring extensively.�

Jane took out her phone and started to take notes. There was a lot to unpack from the statement, perhaps more than Boo realized. Her baby sister had been on the inside so long that she didn�t know what was common knowledge and what wasn�t.

Nigel and Hal theorized that the monster-call whistle took advantage of instincts encoded into creatures at a genetic level. For it to work, the beast had to have been doctored at some point with magic to reinforce those instincts into a behavior that could be quickly and readily commanded. Nigel and Hal had experimented with the whistle � carefully � to discover that while most wild creatures � songbirds, small mammals like squirrels, and most fish � didn�t respond, bioengineered animals like elfhounds did. (Chesty was not amused by the experiment but he would obey the monster call.)

Sparrow had betrayed her kind by working with the oni. Kajo must have received all his information about the black willows and the local area from her.

�Kajo is taking advantage of the fact that the trees are in the area but they�re not part of his plans,� Jane said to confirm she correctly understood what Boo reported.

�Kajo said that during the Rebellion they found that the black willows were too vulnerable to the Fire Clan and Stone Clan, especially if the two clans joined forces,� Boo said. �Nor are the trees really an urban warfare weapon � they�re slow moving and have trouble navigating around houses.�

Jane had to agree that if she and Hal had been able to deal with lone black willows in the past, then no, the trees weren�t really ideal weapons. Jane frowned at what she had just written. The Stone Clan hadn�t arrived until after Sparrow was dead; the female elf�s intelligence reports must have been extensive.

�Kajo had creatures he called horrors,� Boo said with uncertainty.

�Horrors?� Jane echoed.

�We were watching a movie one time. I didn�t like it. It was this little girl who was taken by a monster and her family was trying to save her. Danni came in and asked what we were watching. Kajo said, �A movie about a kaiju� and Danni didn�t know what a kaiju was, so Kajo said, �It�s a horror � a river horror.� Danni saw how much the movie upset me and made me watch it to the end. She had figured out that the little girl in the movie would die.�

The more Jane learned about this bitch Danni, the more she wanted to kill her.

Boo continued. �The oni had been developing monsters on Onihida. They couldn�t get them from their world to Elfhome � not with half the Earth between their two access points. That�s why they kidnapped Tinker domi. If they had managed to keep her gate to Onihida open, they could have brought all their monsters and troops through the gate. Before they came up with the idea for the gate, they focused on smuggling in genetic material to build monsters with.�

�Were the namazu the only horrors Kajo has here in Pittsburgh?�

Boo gave her a look that said that she didn�t know for sure. She whispered, �Kajo never trusted me. He said he couldn�t tell me because the Eyes would kill me if I knew too much.�

Jane wanted to be sure that Danni died slowly. She tried to coax out a little more information. �You think there are more horrors than just the namazu?�

�They would let things slip.� Boo said. �Little things. By themselves, it meant nothing, but after a while, you could piece things together. Every Shutdown, the oni would ship a vast amount of goods to Pittsburgh. A lot of it was legal to import like food, blankets, clothing, and building materials. Kajo had underlings that handled those shipments. He was never involved unless it was some luxury item that he thought his underlings would keep for themselves. Caviar. Kobe steak. European chocolate. Cashmere sweaters. Silk sheets. If was something illegal, like guns, Lord Tomtom handled the deliveries on the theory that if something went wrong, only his people would take the fall. Now and then, though, the oni would bring something in that required everyone to work together to make sure it crossed safely.�

Boo reached out and gripped Jane�s hand tightly. �That�s what Kajo was doing in the Strip District the day I saw him with Danni. The day he took me. He was supervising the delivery of something too important to trust to Lord Tomtom. It was in this big shadowy warehouse. After I�d been tied up and gagged, they gathered across the room where there was a large animal in a wooden crate. It was hurt. I could smell blood and hear it making sounds of pain. They were talking in Oni and I didn�t know the language yet. There�s a lot of words, though, that Oni doesn�t have. Truck. Gun. Highway. Computer. Internet. When you�re talking in Oni and you hit one of those words, sometimes the rest of the sentence comes out in English. Kajo and Lord Tomtom flowed in and out of English as they talked about what to do with what was in the crate. The conversation made no sense to me, but helpless as I was, it is forever etched into my mind.

�They smuggle genetic material for horrors onto Elfhome inside large pregnant animals, like cows or horses. They decided to kill whatever was in the crate because it was making so much noise. I think it was a cow. I didn�t see whatever came out of it. Lord Tomtom was unimpressed by it. �It�s just a building block,� Kajo said. �A tiny piece for something bigger.� That made Lord Tomtom laugh and say, �Tiny? Yes! Everything you�ve made is far too small to be a horror.� Kajo dismissed his complaint with, �We can make them bigger anytime. Temperament is more important than size.� Danni took possession of whatever it was to get it safely out of the city; I don�t know what she did with it. I know that Kajo went several times down to the Strip District during Shutdown to handle something that he didn�t trust Lord Tomtom with, but I never went with him and he would never talk about it later.�

Jane took deep breaths, not wanting to rage in front of Boo. Her baby sister didn�t need her anger. She couldn�t imagine the terror that Boo had gone through that day, unsure if the oni would slaughter her as casually as they killed the animal in the crate.

�I�m sorry I�m so useless.� Boo�s voice broke with emotion. �I knew that in the end everyone in Pittsburgh would be in danger. They would talk casually about how they would deal with the police and the EIA. I should have worked harder to learn what they were doing but I was too scared. Anytime I tried to learn more, one of the Eyes would say, �I know what you�re doing,� and then tell me exactly what I had planned. It was if they crawled into my head and listened to my thoughts. They always knew. I couldn�t do anything.�

�Oh, baby!� Jane gathered Boo into her arms and held her tight. �You stayed alive! That�s all that matters! That�s all we wanted! We just wanted you back, safe and sound.�

Boo tried not to cry but slowly her defenses crumbled until she was wailing ugly tears. �I�m so useless! Useless!�

Jane rocked her, trying to figure out how to make this right. Boo was a deep well of knowledge, but it was so fragmented and every �I don�t know� would cut deep. Worse, Boo would feel responsible for every death and disaster that happened in the upcoming conflict. She would feel like she could have prevented it. This was Jane�s fault for letting the fear of what she might learn keep her from trying to pump Boo for information. She should have just opened the taps, let everything pour out. It would have let Boo feel useful.

�You�re not useless,� Jane said. �We should have been asking you more questions. You have no idea what we need to know, so how can you know what to tell us? Let�s see what we can figure out about what is happening now with the trees.�

Boo nodded, sniffing loudly, but at least she stopped crying.

�Let�s start simply,� Jane said. �It�s okay if you can�t answer me. I need to know where the holes are before we can try to fill them. Okay? Now, where did you live when you were with Kajo?�

Boo sniffed again and wiped at her nose with the back of her hand. �We moved around a lot � usually during Shutdown. I think it was so that Pure Radiance couldn�t �see� what we were doing. The Eyes were blind to what was happening on Earth when they were on Elfhome and vice versa. During the winter we lived someplace in the city, usually somewhere fairly deserted. The nicest place was a cul-de-sac in Mount Lebanon; Kajo and I lived in a big stone house with fairy-tale-sized fireplaces and lattice windows. I felt like Rapunzel or Belle � a girl who wasn�t a princess being held captive in a castle by a monster. The worst place was a hotel downtown. It should have been the nicest; it was deluxe three-bedroom suite. I could see all of Downtown from the windows. They put bars on the inside of the windows and doors, though, making it one big prison cell. I wasn�t allowed out all winter. There was a television but it didn�t work. All I could do during the day was sleep or read or do homework.�

�Homework?� Jane echoed in surprise.

Boo puffed up her cheeks in embarrassed anger. �Kajo made me do schoolwork. He got these workbooks from Earth: one hundred and eighty days of boring stuff that I�d never get to use because I was never going to get away from him. I had to do six pages every day. I was up to eighth grade before he transformed me into a tengu and abandoned me at Sandcastle. In the evenings, if he didn�t have to go out and oversee something, we would play shogi.�

�What�s shogi?�

�It�s a stupidly complicated game. You�ve got eight different types of pieces that all move differently. Most of the pieces can get promoted and that changes how they can be played. I always lost. I was getting better. Kajo said he didn�t like playing against the Eyes because he always had to lose. While we played, we�d talk about his favorite books.�

Jane had been avoiding this talk because she hadn�t wanted to hear how Kajo sexually assaulted her baby sister. Their daily routine sounded fairly innocuous. There were so many questions she pushed down. She didn�t want Boo to relive the bad. She didn�t really want to hear the answer and not be able to immediately kill Kajo.

What was a safe question? One that Boo could answer? Had to lose. Did that mean he lost on purpose? Boo probably didn�t know the answer to that either.

�What kind of books?� Jane asked to keep the flow going.

�Where the Wild Things Are. Treasure Island. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Phantom Tollbooth. Redwall.�

�Those were his favorite books?� They were all children�s books written in English. It was a weird choice for an oni.

�Kajo grew up on Earth. His people had been trapped there for thousands of years. They knew from the beginning that they needed to move slowly when they invaded Elfhome. Stay hidden. They couldn�t take on all the elves; not with how powerful the domana are. Windwolf proved that during the first Startup when he kicked the Americans� asses. Every time we moved, it would be dark enough to cloak us but not so late to make people wonder why we were out in the streets. Any house we used was emptied of everything, scrubbed clean, and then burned to the ground. We only stayed in the city when tracks in the snow would betray our movements. For most of the year, we lived deep in the forest.�

Jane nodded, her mind racing. She could see why Boo thought her information was useless. Kajo had been good at covering his movements. Boo had been transformed into a tengu in the spring and given into the care of an underling at Sandcastle. Kajo probably changed camps immediately afterward, nullifying any secrets that Boo had about his current location.

The important fact was that Kajo didn�t stay with the main oni force. He and Boo always lived in a small separate encampment. A couple floors of a hotel. A house. It meant that if the larger camps were found, Kajo remained hidden. It also meant that he probably wasn�t at the camps that Prince True Flame, Windwolf, and the Harbingers were attacking. Law most likely had spotted Kajo, possibly with Boo�s replacement.

It was autumn. If Kajo kept to his pattern, his camp was still hidden deep in the forest. He probably wouldn�t be able to move back into the city for winter. Things had changed. Humans were now aware that the oni existed. Jane�s family had spent the last two months organizing Pittsburghers into a secret militia scattered throughout the city. The oni couldn�t move about as easily as when Pittsburgh was routinely flooded with off-worlders. The humans who had been previously unaware of the danger would be alarmed if strangers suddenly moved into or even through their neighborhood. There would be dangerous questions raised.

�Tell me about the forest camps,� Jane said.

�What about them?�

�Were they north, south, east, or west of Pittsburgh? How far from the Rim were they? How many oni were there? Anything you can tell me is useful.�

Boo looked doubtful. �I know that the main camps were in the east so that they could use the train or the Monongahela River to transport bulk goods beyond the Rim. We normally camped in the west or the south. Our camps would almost always have these stones with spells chiseled into them that were anchored into a strong ley line or a magical spring. They created illusions of an empty forest. People could walk into our camp and not see the buildings or tents or even our guards. It made it a little wonky, though, trying to find the outhouse. There was one time we drove all the way down I-79 to I-70 and then across to the Rim to outside where Wheeling used to be � or at least still is, kind of. Anyhow, we took barges downriver from there to where a small river they called the Muskingum joined the Ohio. It was my favorite camp. They didn�t set up a cloaking spell because we were so far away from Pittsburgh. They could tuck the barges up the Muskingum, out of view of anyone using the Ohio. The ironwoods screened the camp. Kajo had them make us this really big compound that had a stream, and a garden, and a swing and even a treehouse. I felt sad when we left because they always dismantled any camp we set up. I liked the treehouse.�

�How many oni were at that compound?� Jane asked.

Boo cringed, shrugging. �I was never allowed out of our private area.�

�I�m guessing about a hundred,� Jane said to test a theory. �Just to ballpark it.�

Boo made a face. �I suppose it would have been around a hundred warriors when we were in the forest. Kajo always had a full guard while we were out where a pack of saurus might be. They�re not spell-worked, so there�s no controlling them with a monster call. When we were in the city, we would have little more than a dozen people, counting me. Most of them were greater bloods like Kajo. There would always be one of the Eyes with us, usually Danni, but sometimes Adele or Felicie. Kajo did most of his work while we were in the forest, so we would make camp in March and strike it in late October.�

�So the only time that the tengu came to where you might have seen them was in the forest?� Jane said.

Boo nodded. �I don�t think they ever saw me but I�d catch glimpses of them as they flew in and took off.�

Pieces were fitting together; Jane didn�t like the picture that was forming. Kajo kept separate from the main force, sometimes putting as much as a hundred miles between them and himself. He kept hidden at all times, leaving his camp only to oversee something that couldn�t be trusted to an underling. Law had reported seeing Kajo with about a hundred oni breaking camp and heading toward the river. Yumiko said that the male used smoke and mirror tactics. Combining the two, the black willows had to be a distraction. But for whom? Most of the elves were in the east, fighting what they saw as the main oni force. The only human who spotted Kajo was Law. The female forager had been outnumbered a hundred to one. If Kajo had been aware of Law, he could have killed her easily. Jane wouldn�t have been called in if the black willows hadn�t been roaming where they shouldn�t be. The same for the EIA. That left just the tengu.

�My people are spread thin,� Yumiko had said. �So I called in the guardians of the Dahe Hao.�

Was that Kajo�s real goal? To distract the tengu from the Dahe Hao? What would Kajo want with a spaceship? Or was it something other than the ship that he was after? Jane and her team had filmed in Turtle Creek shortly after Tinker escaped from the oni camp that been located inside the old Westinghouse Air Brake factory. It had been a careful tightrope walk of explaining the inexplicable condition of the valley to their viewers without letting out any of the information that the tengu had told Jane. Yumiko had mentioned a cloaking spell, saying it might be the source of the odd freezing blue haze filling the area. It wasn�t until Boo talked about not being able to find the outhouse because of an illusion cast on Kajo�s camps that Jane fully realized the implications. To keep the illusion constantly running and covering the entire mile length of the old Westinghouse Air Brake building would have required a great deal of power.

To cast a spell that was able to transform an entire species of people into another would also need a great deal of power.

Was Kajo looking for a place to use the contents of the box?

�Shit!� Jane breathed out the curse, her mind racing. She pulled out her phone, dialing Duff, even as she charged downstairs.

Boo followed behind her. �Jane? Jane? What is Kajo going to do?�

Duff answered his phone with, �You know, I got to thinking, I could ask her � the girl I kind of like. It would be a weird first date but then she would know what she was getting into � although she probably knew that after the entire namazu thing��

�Duff, activate all our troops!� Jane ordered.

�What?� Duff and Boo both cried.

�Kajo works in layers. The black willows were to distract the tengu out of Turtle Creek, but the trees would have walked right into the back of the enclaves. He wanted the black willows to soften up the elves� defenses prior to his push into Oakland.�

�Putting out the blast,� Duff said. �Activating all troops. What�s happening?�

�Kajo is looking for a large source of magic,� Jane said. �He was heading to Turtle Creek first. I think he plans to target the spell at the elves. Once he triggers the spell, he�s probably going to unleash an attack on Oakland to take out the enclaves.�

�You don�t think he�s going to target humans?� Duff said. �We�re heavily armed and outnumber almost everything on this continent.�

�It�s a genetically keyed bomb. The humans in Pittsburgh range from Chinese to African to Vikings with even some Neanderthal randomly mixed in. If he�s smart � and he is � he�ll use the first bomb to take out the elves� heavy hitters: the domana.�

Duff cursed. �Windwolf is deep in the forest surrounded by the entire oni army.�

�Not all of it.� Jane paused in Marc�s living room. Through the massive windows, she could see down the Ohio River to Brunot Island and up the Monongahela to Panther Hollow. The only movement on the water was from schools of jump fish. The skies were heavily overcast with rain clouds creating a thick blanket of gray. �Kajo probably has a platoon or a full company that has come upriver from somewhere around Wheeling. He�s got barges, so he has at least one tugboat.�

�They would have to get past�I don�t know � a half dozen lock and dams?� Duff said. �A dozen?�

Jane closed her eyes and thought hard. She�d spent an entire week in July looking for the namazu nests. She�d gotten to know the three rivers intimately. There was a lock and dam on the Ohio at Neville Island. The Allegheny�s lock-and-dam system had remained on Earth. Monongahela�s first dam was near Turtle Creek. Law had spotted Kajo in the forest north of Turtle Creek, heading south. It wouldn�t make sense for him to boat up to the first dam and then hike in a huge circle. It would make sense if he�d cut through the forest north of Oakland, heading west to east.

Where would she put a large attack force in the west, where it wouldn�t be easily stumbled over by humans or spotted by tengu who would have been flying up the Allegheny to reach Haven?

�Did any of our scouts go out to Herr Island?� Jane said.

�Where�s that?� Duff said, which meant that the answer was probably �No.�

�It�s on the Allegheny River, under the Thirty-First Street Bridge,� Jane said. �The Rim cuts right across it. Half of it is a bunch of abandoned office buildings and other half is virgin forest.�

�If it�s that�s close to the city, then it might still be connected to the traffic cameras,� Duff said. �Hold on!�

�Wait!� But the line had gone quiet as Duff put her on hold. Duff was using the phone system at the bakery that had multiple landlines with the ability to have several lines connected at once. He was probably calling his computer guru bunny.

Jane pulled out her ancient pocket radio and turned it on. Marti Wulfow was spilling out coded orders for all militia troops to assemble in Oakland. Duff had gotten the blast out before checking the cameras. �Good boy!�

�Boo, the others went to the radio station.� Jane trotted down to the garage stairs. Boo followed her, wings fluttering nervously. �I�m going to pick them up. Stay here, wait for Marc.�

Jane hit the power button on the garage door. It rattled upward. �I won�t have time to fill Marc in completely. I need you to��

�Hello?� Roach ducked down to look under the rising garage door. His hair was still damp from a shower and he was holding a stuffed bear and a box of candy. He stared at Boo�s wings with stunned surprise. �Oh. Um. Hi.�

Oh, shit, she had forgotten Roach was meeting her at Marc�s.

�Billy!� Boo cried and leapt at him.

Roach�s dismay vanished to a huge grin. �Baby Boo!� He dropped the presents to swing her around in a circle. �Baby Boo, you�re found! You�re found!�

�We have incoming!� Duff suddenly came back on the line. �Incoming on Liberty Avenue heading east toward��

The line went dead.

�Duff? Duff?� She checked her signal. No bars. The cell phone network was down. Jane realized that her pocket radio had gone to static. �Shit, shit, shit.�

The automatic light on the garage door had gone off too. Jane flipped the light switch beside the power button. The big shop lights stayed dark. The power had gone out. WQED might have a backup generator but the underground pirate station of WESA probably didn�t.

�Damn, damn, damn, damn,� Jane swore as she scrambled into her SUV. In the glove box were the radio headsets that they�d pulled together just for this type of emergency. �This is Beater One, are we good?�

�Oh, thank God!� Duff said over the headset. �Power is out here. I don�t know what to do.�

They had had to return the headsets that they�d borrowed from Team Tinker in July but had spent the last two months finding replacements. Only a handful of their team leaders had one and they wouldn�t be able to contact their squad members if the phones were out.

�I�ll see what can be done about Bullhorn.� Jane used their code word for WESA. She dug out her map of Pittsburgh. There was a steep ravine between the river and the enclaves. There were only two bridges across it until Liberty Avenue climbed high enough to meet the plateau that Oakland rested on. �Have our teams head for Orphan�s.�

�Roger that,� Duff said.

Her team came jogging up the street, saving her from having to decide what to do with Boo.

�Duff pulled the trigger,� Taggart said. �He didn�t give a rendezvous point past Oakland. What�s up?�

Jane explained the oni attack. �They�ve taken out the cell phone towers and the power system. They�re going to attack the enclaves. I�m having Duff send our people to Sacred Heart.�

�Wait, what?� Roach said. �Oakland is under attack? Andy, Guy, and Geoffrey are at � oh, wait � Andy and Guy were going with Oilcan to move something heavy. They said something about ice cream. I think they�re on the South Side. Maybe. Depends on how long the trip took. Geoff wanted to watch the elves build the wall.�

Jane cursed. �I�m going to Oakland.�

�I�m coming with you,� Taggart said. Her dismay must have shown on her face. �Surprise attacks by insurgents used to be my morning wake-up call.�

Jane nodded and turned to Marc. She wanted to head off her little brother from trying to come with her. If he did, Boo would want to come too. �Find a generator and get it hooked up to Bullhorn. We need them back on the air.�

�I can help,� Roach said.

As Jane made sure that her little brother nodded in compliance, she realized that Hal had detoured to the back of her SUV. He was getting something out of his backup bag. �Hal, what are you doing?�

�I realized long ago that our technical prowess was also our greatest weakness. I decided to rely on a more primitive and thus more robust method to spread the news of attack.�

�Hal, what did you do?� Jane said.

�Sheer genius is what I�ve done!� Hal pulled out a flare gun, pointed it skyward, and pulled the trigger. �Light the signal fires!�

The flare shot up into the sky and flashed to orange against the gray storm clouds.

�Damn it, Hal, all you did was tell the enemy our position!�

�Wait for it,� he murmured.

There was a flare of color in the skies over Oakland as fireworks exploded against the clouds. A moment later another went up over Hill District. Even as the two sites fired their second rounds, a rocket lifted off from the Steel Building.

�See!� Hal shouted. �The beacons of Oakland are alight, calling for aid. War is kindled. See, there are the fireworks on the Cathedral and the Hill District, and flame on the Steel Building, and there they go speeding south: Mount Washington, Beechview, Dormont, and Castle Shannon on the borders of the Rim.�

Behind them, a string of fireworks went up, just a handful from each site but enough to mark a line heading deep into South Hills. Jane had no idea how he�d arranged it.

�It was glorious, wasn�t it?� Hal breathed out as the last firework faded away.

�Brilliant!� Nigel agreed.

Naturalists!

�Come on,� Jane said. �Let�s go.�

The spaceship made Tristan�s older brother laugh and laugh. Lucien sat, laughing, on the roof of the two-story stone piers that once anchored the Washington Bridge over Turtle Creek. He�d perched on the stone�s edge, kicking his feet like a child.

�Oh, you should have seen it,� Lucien said. �Even Danni was blindsided. I tell you, Esme�s changeling daughter is a hoot. Before the spaceship, this entire valley was ice-cold blue soup. The weirdest freaking thing I�ve ever seen. I have no idea how she did it, but that stupid cat was toast. I�m glad Father made the decision to trust him with the changeling because I�d be totally screwed by now.�

While Tristan could pass as a very tall nine-year-old and be enrolled into fifth grade, his brother looked like he could be as old as thirteen or fourteen. Lucien was growing up faster than Tristan; it seemed like his brother had inherited more of their mother�s genes. The irony was that they hadn�t seen each other for over twenty years. It had been a joyful reunion in July. As the days stretched on, though, Tristan realized that Lucien was keeping him at arm�s length and isolated in his deep forest camp. He was starting to worry something was drastically wrong.

What did this mean? Bringing him to the site of a major failure for their side to laugh like the children that they were?

�They said she opened a gate to Onihida,� Tristan said, repeating the rumors around camp. �You could see our troops gathered on the other side � half a million strong � waiting for the chance to cross through it. It would have been an instant victory for us.�

�Danni said it would fail but she wasn�t sure how.� Lucien waved at the spaceship. �Not even the Eyes could see this coming! Danni said it would get that damn cat out of my hair, so I let it run its course.�

�Didn�t we need Lord Tomtom?�

�Father might think we did but Danni said he was getting to be a liability. Certainly it�s his mistakes that we�ve been tripping over all summer, starting with that stupid gunfight on Veterans Bridge. He was sloppy and ambitious. He had no sense of delicacy. It�s because of him we lost all advantage of surprise. It was best to let the stupid cat get burned on the fire that is Esme�s changeling daughter. Oh, she burns so hot.�

Tristan turned back to the spaceship standing tail down in the valley below. There were glyphs of draconic magic scrawled up its side. He guessed that the spell inscribed on the hull was what was keeping the mile-long ship from collapsing under the weight of gravity and wind shear. Written in giant Chinese letters was the name of the spaceship. Dahe Hao. He�d watched it jump out of Earth�s orbit eighteen years ago. He was sure that he�d never see it again. He was sure that his older half sister was dead. �It�s Esme�s ship.�

�Yeah,� Lucien laughed. �It�s so like her, coming out of nowhere to kick Father in the nuts as hard as she can.�

�She�s alive?�

�Yes. She�s at Lain�s. She looks the same as when she left. It�s like she�s half-elf too. Dufae had left a booby trap in his design. All the ships that went through the gate were trapped in time until his daughter ripped it out of the sky.�

�How did she�� Tristan paused, mind boggled to the point that he couldn�t even form a question.

�Make the valley blue soup? Rip the gate out of the sky? Find her mother? Teleport her here?� Lucien laughed and flung himself backward to lie staring up at the gray sky threatening to rain. He�d abandoned his oni robes for this exploration of the bridge and was wearing blue jeans and a dark gray hoodie. For the first time since Tristan arrived, Lucien seemed like the boy that he was. It almost seemed like they were back on Earth again, just normal kids, out exploring the woods around their father�s estate. �Only the gods know! I certainly don�t. I�ve given up trying to guess because even the Eyes can�t see her next weird wiggle. She�s like her mother that way. Who would have guessed that Esme would suddenly want to be a spaceship captain? She was all angst and steampunk when she lived at the mansion.�

Tristan thought of his two nine-year-old nieces now living in their mother�s bedroom. He felt guilty that he�d left them there � unknowing, unprotected. They were far too clever not to realize something was off about everyone at his father�s estate. Would they realize that all the servants were ancient elves, camping on the edge of a pinprick gateway between the worlds?

�They say that Esme made more than this changeling.� His brother said it as fact but it was a question, as if he guessed Tristan�s thoughts. They had some of their mother�s intuition, just not enough to please their father.

Tristan struggled to keep his tone factual. �After the first implantation was successful, Esme had the remaining genetic material frozen. An employee of the lab noticed that the material had been abandoned and stole it. He and his wife had twins.� Tristan felt another guilty twist. He couldn�t be sure if his father had a hand in the death of the girls� parents but it felt too unlikely to be a coincidence. He knew what it was like to be torn away from your mother at a young age. He wouldn�t wish it on anyone � and yet, the twins were now orphans trapped at his father�s estate. �Father seems unsatisfied with them. I think it�s because they remind him of Esme and how hard she fought him. He has our people looking to see if there was more material in storage. Something he can mold into a more useful tool.�

�Twins?� Lucien sounded genuinely surprised. Had Father told Lucien nothing? �Oh, the horror! Two more like this changeling? I�m glad they�re on Earth and not here.�

�With the gate gone, there�s no way Father can have them brought to Elfhome now.� Tristan was glad that they were on Earth with his mother, but still he wasn�t completely sure that they were safe.

Yves had been left on Earth to oversee their efforts there. Their older brother had always made it clear that Lucien and Tristan were beneath his notice. They were half-elves and would only live a few hundred years. Maybe. Or they might live for thousands of years. No one was sure. Yves still saw his younger half brothers as disposable tools. What would Yves do to the twins? Would he see them as a valuable commodity or a dangerous nuisance?

�There�s always a way.� Lucien said that as if he knew something Tristan had never been told. �Yves is long overdue but Father expects big brother any time now.�

With the orbital gate gone, there should be no way for Yves to get to Elfhome. Lucien made it sound like it was only a matter of time.

Tristan wasn�t sure what their father planned for him. He hadn�t seen his father since he�d been sent away from the mansion in the middle of the night. They had crossed during the July Shutdown in separate vehicles. His father hadn�t summoned him during the last two months; it almost seemed like he�d forgotten about Tristan. It did not bode well.

�Don�t worry,� Lucien said. �I�ve made myself indispensable here. I�ll keep you safe until you can establish your own worth. You found the tengu Chosen bloodline. You figured out how to find the box that Unbounded Brilliance stole hundreds of years ago. Even if Father can�t see the value of that, don�t worry, little brother. You�re one of the two things I plan to claim for myself once Pittsburgh has fallen.�

�Two? What�s the other?�

Lucien blushed and sat up. �There�s a girl I want. I found her one day, down in the Strip District. She�s like an angel. I had to put her aside until the fighting was over. Danni said that she was too dangerous to keep. Danni was right, she has a very audacious family � but I want her. If I am the ying � the darkness � then she is my yang. My light. Once we bring the elves to their knees, I want you to help me recapture her.�

Tristan nodded even as he inwardly winced at the word �recapture.� It was not a word one should use regarding a beloved. It was weird to think of his brother even having a lover. Tristan was too young physically to consider taking one. His body wasn�t showing any of the signs of puberty. There was also the problem that as a half-elf, he aged much slower than any of the humans he�d ever known.

�Will you make her an elf?� Tristan said. �So she can stay young as you?�

His brother waved aside the concern. �I made her immortal when I made her a tengu. Transforming her was a way to keep Danni from fiddling with her. The Eyes are tricky to work with. They can see what you�re about to do unless you�re very�indirect. It makes them infuriatingly independent. Chloe would not be dead if she hadn�t been so sure she could dance rings around the changeling. I�d warned her to be careful but she was too confident of her own skills. Danni would have killed my Boo if I hadn�t made Boo irreplaceable as part of the Chosen bloodline.� His brother grinned. �Danni and the others always underestimate me. They forget I�m of Clarity�s bloodline too.�

Lucien had all the tengu in his camp killed shortly after Tristan arrived. He�d known that he was going to lose all leverage with the Flock even before Joey Shoji had been rescued.

�If you made her tengu,� Tristan said, �where is she now?�

Lucien waved lazily as if this wasn�t important. �I�m not sure. I dare not ask the Eyes to fetch her, lest they take it upon themselves to kill her. Joey Shoji is back with his people � he was spotted at Poppymeadows when the tengu summoned their dead guardian spirit. Boo wasn�t with the other Chosen. She might be at the tengu base, wherever they have that hidden. Or she might have gone back to her family. I don�t trust my normal spies. They�re too bloodthirsty to fetch someone you love. I need your skills and finesse.�

Someone you love. That must be nice. Tristan was glad but a little jealous that Lucien wasn�t alone like him. �I�ll find her for you.�

�Good lad!� His brother bounded to his feet.

Somewhere nearby, something exploded. Birds rose up from the forest like a startled cloud.

�So much for our distraction,� Lucien said. �The tengu got their hands on some explosives. The black willows will be sitting ducks for an aerial assault. We need to go before the ship�s guards return.�

�We�re not using this site, then?� Tristan asked.

�It doesn�t suit our needs anymore. There was a strong fiutana in this valley but it is gone. Either the changeling drained it dry when she turned this area into blue soup or the spell that Impatience put on the spaceship is redirecting the magic to the point that this area matches normal levels of magic. Either way, even if our casting circle survived everything that the changeling did to this valley, the spaceship is now sitting on top of it.�

They climbed down the ladder inside the stone pier to the bridge deck. There a host of true blood oni waited. Just before stepping outside, Lucien said �Masks.�

Lucien pulled his on � a scowling red black lacquer demon�s face with horns and fangs. It was a fierce fa�ade that covered his child face. It was a grim reminder that his brother had been fighting on Elfhome for over two decades. Tristan�s mask was a hand-me-down with a deep scratch where some enemy had gotten too close to his brother.

�Lord Kajo.� The true bloods bowed in greeting to Lucien. �What is your will?�

�We�re shifting to the second camp. Bring the weapon. If the fiutana is intact, we�ll set it off there.�

Geoffrey Kryskill�s workshop was in McKees Rocks Bottoms, not far from Tinker�s junkyard. Geoffrey was worried about thieves breaking in and stealing his stockpile of kiln-dried ironwood lumber, his extensive collection of power tools, and his handmade furniture, so he kept a low profile. The old warehouse was a massive block-long structure that at first glance seemed abandoned.

Oilcan�s heart sunk as he pulled into the parking lot. There was no sign of the kids. Where had they gone? Directly to John Montana�s gas station? Or had they been stopped before reaching McKees Rocks?

He sat idling in the muddy parking lot, trying to decide what to do. He hadn�t circled back to the South Side, since Rebecca said that there had been dozens of oni on foot behind the hornet swarm. Oilcan had cut over to the North Side instead and headed up to the McKees Rocks Bridge.

Rebecca looked horrible. The hornet had stung her twice in the left thigh. The entire leg was swelling up and she was having trouble breathing. Should he trust that the kids were safe�someplace and go�somewhere to get Rebecca�s wounds treated? She was tengu � could Mercy Hospital even help her? He couldn�t drive to Haven, there were no roads between Pittsburgh and the tengu village.

�Oilcan!� Blue Sky called from one of the upper windows that overlooked the parking lot. �Hey! We pulled inside. Hold on, we�ll open the door.�

The big doors rattled open, letting out a flood of cooler air heavily scented with sawdust. Oilcan pulled the flatbed into the huge dim warehouse that was Geoffrey�s woodshop. The pickups were parked where stacks of rough-cut and kiln-dried lumber usually sat.

The kids gathered around the truck, all asking questions at once. Guy opened the passenger door and lifted Rebecca out. The three big elfhounds gathered around Andy, snuffling and grumbling about Rebecca�s scent.

�Stop.� Andy waved his hand flat with floor. �Down.�

The dogs grumbled but settled by the flatbed.

�She has been stung twice by a death hornet.� Thorne pointed Guy toward a worktable. �Its venom is brutally painful but not deadly. We need to get her pants and fighting spurs off. The poison makes her limbs swell and tight clothing can restrict her blood flow.�

Guy had been acting very adult. After this announcement, though, he put Rebecca down on the worktable and backed away, hands raised, very much a teenage boy.

Cattail Reeds and Barley leapt to undress the girl in a quick and careful manner. Cattail dressed people for a living, but normally they were healthy and upright. Judging by the murmured instructions from Barley, stripping sick and drunk customers of their clothes was something enclave elves learned young.

Thorne pulled out a small handbound book and flipped through it. �I have a spell that can neutralize the poison. The wound should be washed. Ice would be helpful to reduce the swelling if there is a means to make water frozen. We also need to control the bleeding; put pressure on the wounds.�

�I can do ice!� Andy dashed off to the workshop�s makeshift kitchen, which was a collection of random appliances clumped together next to a big stainless steel bar sink.

�Burn her clothes,� Moon Dog added. �The Skin Clan used to use scent markers to indicate a target for a swarm. It will make any hornet in the area attack.�

Spot nodded solemnly, wrinkling his nose. It explained the elfhounds� reaction.

�I can burn them.� Merry held out her hands for the offending clothing.

Trusting that the kids and the sekasha could care for Rebecca better than he could hope to, Oilcan turned to Blue Sky.

�Blue, can you make sure that the casting circle is clean and ready?�

�We can help,� Baby Duck said for her and Spot.

As they hurried off, Oilcan turned to Guy. �I know Geoffrey has printers for printing out spells. It would be really useful if I can use them.�

�Yeah, sure.� Guy led the way to his older brother�s printing area. Oilcan and Tinker had helped Geoffrey set up his original system since they were the only ones in the city who understood the mix of spellcasting and technology. The computer workstation had shifted locations and expanded greatly since Oilcan last worked with it.

�I might have to hack his system,� Oilcan said when the computer powered on to a login screen.

�Wait.� Guy entered a password. �He�s been swamped since last year. I come down after school to help Geoffrey out, so I have an account that can access the printers.�

Oilcan nodded. Geoffrey had cleared his schedule to make the gates for Sacred Heart. Geoffrey had said that the security of the enclaves trumped all the other projects he had outstanding.

Guy got Oilcan into the computer system and then stood back as he copied the images on his tablet. As the spells printed out, Oilcan glanced around. Andy was carrying a cooking pot full of ice and some clean dishtowels to Rebecca. Thorne and Moon Dog were prepping the tengu girl for a healing spell. All of his kids were accounted for. Someone was missing. It took him a moment to figure out who.

�What happened to the girls from the ice cream shop?� Oilcan said.

Guy pointed up hill toward McKees Rocks proper. �They live over on Church Avenue, across from Saint John�s, so we dropped them off. John Montana wasn�t home or I would have tried talking Blue Sky into staying there with the little kids. I figured they�d be better off with John than with�� He paused to put his hand to his earbud and listened intently. �They�re blasting general quarters. Oakland.�

The printer spat out the spell. Oilcan felt a moment of relief. He and Tinker had the spell. They were out of harm�s way. Then he realized that Forge and Geoffrey were still at Sacred Heart.

�I should make a second copy and see if I can get it to Oakland somehow,� Oilcan said despite not being sure how. He didn�t want Blue Sky taking it despite the fact that the half-elf was the most logical choice.

�I could take it,� Guy volunteered.

Oilcan shook his head. Guy was technically younger than Blue Sky and didn�t have his sekasha immunity with the royal marines. Andy was older than his cousin but lacked all common sense in the face of danger. Thorne wouldn�t leave Oilcan. Moon Dog didn�t know his way around�

The lights went out.

Could he even print a second copy?

The computer was on a UPS that started to complain. Oilcan eyed the battery unit; it looked too small to be able to power the printer. He tried anyhow and the printer powered up. Then a warning message appeared on the computer screen about exceeding the wattage rating and the entire system shut down.

Oilcan silenced the UPS so it wouldn�t continue chirping.

Guy fiddled with his earbud. �The radio station is off the air. The oni must have cut the power.� He checked his cell phone. �They cut the cell phones too.�

�The circle is clean,� Blue called, �but we�re going to need lights to trace the spell.�

�Geoff has elf shines.� Guy scrambled to break out the backup lighting.

The casting circle was under a tall, fifty-foot-square ironwood shelter out the back of the warehouse. Building it had been a massive group effort four or five years ago. Team Tinker along with members of Carl Moser�s enclave and Geoffrey�s friends from his high school woodworking club had helped to clear the area of metal, lay the marble onto the tamped sand, and build the shelter without nails. The simple design and the number of people who had turned out to help meant that the work went fast; they�d finished in one day. Afterward they had an amazing pig roast potluck (Geoffrey�s family apparently were some type of food gods). They ate and played music and danced on the newly constructed casting circle. It had been a good day. Oilcan was afraid that there wouldn�t be days like it in the future if they lost to the oni today.

The �no metal� restriction meant that the shelter had no wires or batteries for lamps. The area was normally lit by sunlight shining through plexiglass skylights. While sunset was hours off, heavy rain clouds blanketed the sky in dark gray. Under the shelter, the casting circle was dark except for the dim purple haze of magic, probably not strong enough for anyone but Oilcan to see.

Guy came out with a wicker cage full of gleaming elf shines and a shimmering bottle of lure. He went around the shelter dabbing the support beams with lure and then released the big shimmering bugs. The elf shines floated overhead, casting dappled light down onto the white marble.

Oilcan inspected the stone, making sure that the kids had actually gotten all traces of old spells scrubbed away. Blue Sky knew the work after a childhood of chasing Tinker�s whims, but Baby Duck and Spot didn�t know the drill. He was glad to see that despite the lack of experience, the stone looked spotless.

�Good job.� Oilcan patted Spot on the head since the boy looked fearful.

There was a deep boom like thunder. It echoed down the river basin, bouncing off the steep hills that flanked the Ohio River. An odd crackling sound followed it.

Spot turned toward the sound and cocked his head. �That�s fireworks.�

�It is?� Guy said.

They all paused to look up through the skylights. A firework bloomed in the cloud-shrouded sky. The rocket had been fired off from somewhere downtown and then another followed from Mount Washington.

�It means fighting has broken out in Oakland,� Guy said.

�We better work fast,� Oilcan said as he knelt in the dappled light of the elf shines. He was keenly aware that he was surrounded by children whose lives depended on what he did in the next few hours.

Between Pittsburgh and the East Coast were ancient mountains, worn down by time and weather into tall ridges separated by long, continuous valleys. A virgin forest of ironwood trees blanketed the land in unending green when viewed from the air and a vast dim cathedral of moss and fern rose from the ground. The rich dark smell of earth seemed overwhelming after the baked asphalt of Pittsburgh, but after hours of hiking up and over the steep ridge, it faded from Wolf�s senses enough that he started to catch the stench of the large oni camp. It was a smell like that of a slaughter yard mixed with an open latrine. As he led his people down the ridge into the valley, he started to hear noises from the fortification. There were command whistles blowing, drums beating out instructions, and deep, rough voices barking out orders. It sounded like the oni were on high alert.

Wolf came to a rocky outcrop covered with moss. Ahead the trees stopped at the edge of a marshy area. The rocks made a good viewing platform. Wolf crouched at the cliff edge to study the valley. His warriors took up positions around him, careful to keep down so as not to be silhouetted on the summit.

The forest stopped a few yards beyond the foot of the cliff where the land leveled. A beaver dam had been built across the stream that cut through the heart of the valley. The brook had been too small and the land too uneven to make one large pond. A dozen small pools were linked together by a maze of meandering channels. The water had killed all the valley�s trees, creating a wide marshy meadow full of denuded stumps and thick clumps of cattail reeds. On the far western side of the marsh, the land sloped up to a stockade wall. The oni had left enough ironwoods standing within the camp so that Wolf couldn�t see into it clearly from his elevated perch. Even with the green leafy screen, the scale of it was intimidating. The oni had built a fort of ironwood, a quarter mile square. Wolf could pick out hundreds of tents and cages that once held wargs. Like a kicked anthill, the camp swarmed with creatures. Oni of all sizes moved with intent, some controlling packs of wargs on leashes.

Wolf scanned the ground his people would need to cover to reach the fort. It made a hellish obstacle course. He considered the dam. Would blasting it make the crossing less dangerous? The weather was right for call-lightning, with heavy clouds hanging overhead. The dam seemed poorly made, suggesting that there been a great deal of engineering � although poorly executed � to turn the valley floor into a swamp. �No beaver would make something that sloppy looking.�

�Marshes like this one were a common Skin Clan defense,� Wraith Arrow murmured. �There will be black willows someplace close. They guard against large predators and keep would-be deserters from fleeing their post.�

Wolf cast a fire scry. He picked out a score of black willows currently standing motionless among scrub trees at the far southern end of the marsh. The lack of cover, the unstable ground, and the black willows made the meadow a death trap. Even if he removed the dam, he couldn�t make the area safe to cross.

He kept his scry active, studying the signatures returned by the spell. While it couldn�t have been seen from where they stood, the oni had dug a narrow trench before the wall, filled with wood spikes coated with something organic that was no doubt poisonous. The seething fort was filled with a confusion of potential magic. There was something huge and covered with active spells trapped within a magically reinforced ironwood cage at the heart of camp. Wolf guessed that it was a horror by the size. Wolf ignored it for now, searching for sign of the nactka. There didn�t seem to be anything like them within the camp. He focused back on the horror.

Even as he considered the signatures of the huge creature, the horror�s presence faded from his scry.

He recast the scry. The giant horror appeared again, easily large as a wyvern with more limbs. Was it some kind of spider? No, it seemed to have some type of wings. He noticed that there were faint echoes of similar creatures in small cages near the western wall.

All the signatures from the horror and smaller versions of it faded away a second time.

What was happening? The fire scry picked up on the combustion potential of everything in an area. Most organics burned at different rates. He should be able to feel the differences as long as he maintained the scry. Were the reinforcement spells on the cages� timbers absorbing the magic?

Wolf switched to a wind scry. The signature was full of confusion as the thousands of shifting bodies echoed back as a chaotic chop of charged particles. While he could determine little of the horror sheltered by the cage, the power of the scry didn�t change as he held it.

�What�s wrong?� Wraith Arrow asked as Wolf changed back to a fire scry.

�I think there�s more than one horror in this camp. There�s a big one but there�re several smaller creatures of a similar type on the west end. They�re all fading from my scry as if�� He hissed as curse as he realized what it could mean. �I think they�re phoenix scorpions.�

�Are you sure?� Wraith Arrow said. �The Fire esva is worse than useless against them. Fire empowers them.�

�It matches with what I�ve been told of them.�

All the Skin Clan�s horrors like the phoenix scorpions had been hunted down and killed long before Wolf�s father was even born. Maybe even before True Flame had been born.

Had his older cousin noticed the results of Wolf�s scry? Would he realize what it meant? Wolf�s scry would be nearly invisible to the Stone Clan domana; they would only be aware that he was casting spells. Not that it mattered much � they were at a point of no return. The oni were arming themselves. If no attack came, they could pursue the elves, vastly outnumbering them.

�How many of the smaller scorpions?� Wraith Arrow asked. �How much smaller?�

�Four about the size of a horse.� Wolf felt True Flame pull from the Spell Stones and cast a scry. He sensed the signatures as if he�d cast the spell himself. He focused on the smaller scorpions covered in the odd runes. There was something disturbingly familiar with them. �Get the laedin away. I�m not going to be able to protect them while fighting. I�m casting call-lightning on the horror.� The spell needed two hands to cast, which meant he couldn�t keep a shield up. He doubted he could kill the horror in a single shot and it was known to be smart enough to rush its attacker. �Have the laedin swing south and join Sunder. They�ll be safer with the Stone Clan with phoenix scorpions on the loose.�

He could feel True Flame recast his scry. The male wasn�t attacking, which probably meant he�d identified the horror.

Darkness�s gossamer came soaring over the ridge. The oni armed with rifles opened fire on the airship in a panic. Cana Lily, though, was holding a Stone Clan shield on the entire craft.

The gossamer dived toward the camp, its machicolations opening to drop war fire down on the oni.

�No, no, no!� Wolf cast wind blast, trying to shift the chemicals away from the phoenix scorpion.

Flames erupted as the chemicals mixed, water igniting the naphtha and quicklime mixture. The sheets of fire roared up and then snuffed out as the energy of the flame was sucked in by the giant phoenix scorpion. The horror started to glow like a landbound sun. It shattered its cage. It was a nightmare taken form with a scorpion-curled stinger tail, large crab-like pinchers, and transparent wasp wings.

The gossamer paused over the eastern edge of the camp. Its gondola hatch opened. Darkness and his people dropped down, in among the oni, shielded by Darkness. The laedin and sekasha were all armed with spell arrows. They landed and released their arrows. The spells printed on the shafts were activated by the whistle of them cutting through the air, changing the bolts into brilliant piercing energy.

�Is he mad?� Wolf cried. �Why would he not abort? How could he miss the phoenix scorpion?�

�He�s dropped into the heart of the enemy a thousand times before,� Wraith Arrow said. �He would not see any reason to not do it again. Here, put this in your ears.�

�What is this?� Wolf asked.

�Beeswax and cotton.� Wraith Arrow held out two plugs that he had made from his medicine kit. �Be quick about it.�

Wolf pushed the wax into his ears. All sound became muffled like he was under water. A moment later, the scorpion began to make a horrific noise. It was like the song of a cicada, only louder than a hundred human sirens combined. Even with the plugs in his ear, the sound seemed to pierce through his head.

�Ready shields!� Wraith Arrow signed using blade talk.

The sekasha gathered close around Wolf.

Wolf called on the winds in order to summon his lightning. Magic thrummed around him, ready to be used. He shifted through his call-lightning spell. His right hand primed the clouds as his left hand readied the ground. Magic flooded over the rocky outcrop on a hot wave. The hairs on his arms rose as the magic shifted into potential. He felt it reach its critical point and brought his hands together, aiming the channel through which the lightning would run. The faint leader flashed downward out of the belly of the clouds, and then the return stroke leapt from on top of the scorpion, up to meet the leader with a deafening clap of thunder. The blinding column of light flared the area around the scorpion to white haze, and the thunder rumbled as the stroke climbed up into the sky.

The horror shrieked in pain. The lightning licked the sky, as leader and return stroke danced back and forth over the open channel. There was a strange magical pulse from the scorpion, something akin to a fire scry, but filled with static. It washed over Wolf, identifying him as holding an active attack spell.

�Here it comes!� Wolf shouted and started another call.

It had been huge at the distance of a quarter mile. It grew in scale as it winged toward them. Its chitin exterior glowed molten gold with stored magic; it set fire to the cattails when it landed in the center of the marsh. Steam rose hissing where each of its eight legs touched the damp earth. The keening noise it made grew louder as it neared. Wolf could feel the vibration of it in his bones and under his feet. It felt like nails were being stabbed into his head through his ears.

Wolf brought his hands together, bringing down another leader at the horror. It was his last chance to hit it. Call-lighting was a wildly inaccurate weapon. He couldn�t risk hitting his own people once the beast closed with them.

The lightning flared again and again. The flash within a few yards from the rocky outcrop was blinding. Thunder followed instantly, loud enough to feel. Wolf cast call-lighting again, rushing through the motions, hoping for one last hit as it visibly staggered.

Wolf could feel Darkness in the heart of the fort, maintaining a shield around his people as he slammed Force Strike after Force Strike through the oni. True Flame had started to blast oni escaping to the north. Where were Sunder and Cana Lily? As if in answer, Cana Lily cast a large inclusive scry that let even non-Stone-Clan domana sense what was going on in a one-mile radius.

The horror rushed forward, its eight long legs propelling it like an arrow released from a bow. It was on them faster than Wolf could even follow. The horror was so massive that it towered over the rocky outcrop. Wolf dropped the call-lightning and started to cast a wind shield as it slammed into his sekasha. Their shields weren�t strong enough to stop the monster, but his people overlapped as they fell back, so the warriors behind them protected those in front even as their spells failed. Even as they slid sideways and back, they slashed at the massive claws that hammered down at them. Wolf had trusted his people to know what to do; still, the tactic surprised him.

The massive barbed tail, the size of an automobile, came slashing forward.

Wolf jumped backward and shouted the activation of his shield. It snapped into existence, buffering the head-splitting noise that the horror was making.

He paused, panting, holding his shield.

The horror was staggering even though there seemed to be no visible damage to it. All the sekasha�s hacking slashes at the claws had done nothing to mar the gleaming gold chitin. The delicate transparent wings weren�t even scorched. The only markings were odd yet familiar spell runes.

�Oh, no!� Wolf whispered as he recognized it.

Wraith Arrow couldn�t have heard Wolf but a glance at his face made Wraith Arrow flash �What is it?� in blade talk.

Wolf signed: �Conference with me.�

Wraith Arrow stepped closer so that his personal shield overlapped Wolf. The howl of the horror reduced enough that they could hear each other shout.

�The runes on the horror! It�s the same spell that the oni used on little dogs to make them bigger than a horse. It�s why your blades aren�t damaging it; the outside is a solid illusion created by magic. The other four small scorpions in camp can be this size instantly; all the oni need to do is trigger the spell.�

Wraith Arrow nodded slowly as he grasped the implications. �Stormhorse said that you needed to kill the beast within the illusion, but that his bullets wouldn�t pass straight through the outer layer. They were deflected from a killing blow within the illusion.�

�The metal of the bullet would be influenced by the spell. A spell arrow would fly straight.�

�If we could see the inner flesh,� Wraith Arrow pointed out. �There�s no guessing where the beast actually is inside that monstrosity.�

The horror in front of them was larger than a building but the creature at its core was only the size of a horse. The sekasha would need to see the vulnerable heart protected within the illusion. Tinker had disrupted the constructs at the junkyard with the powerful magnet that she used to lift automobiles. How could he replicate that effect with his magic without making the scorpion more dangerous? Wait � when he had shot the dogs, the metal within the bullet disrupted the illusion momentarily even as the spell changed the bullet�s path.

�Try shooting it,� Wolf said.

Wraith Arrow nodded his understanding. He flashed instructions in blade talk. His people normally carried custom-made, low-metal assault rifles. The guns still had the possibility of warping the sekasha�s personal shield, so many of the older warriors refused to carry them in active combat. They preferred to rely on spell arrows. With the laedin deployed to the Stone Clan, it meant that only five of his people had rifles. While the rest stood ready with spell arrows, the five opened fire.

The bullets pinged off the glowing chitin.

Wraith Arrow signaled a cease-fire. �We need something bigger to punch through that shell.�

Wolf needed a big piece of metal. Was there something he could use in the oni camp? He focused on the signatures from Cana Lily�s large scry. There was a small knot of oni loading up a mortar launcher. The weapon was a tall tube of metal with an explosive dropped down into it. As the shell soared out, Wolf grabbed hold of the rocket-like round with his wind and jerked it toward him.

�Get ready!� he shouted although he knew that his people probably wouldn�t hear him over the monster�s din. He needed to trust that they would guess what he was doing.

Wraith Arrow must have recognized what spell Wolf cast. His First flashed �Ready arrows!� in blade talk. Those holding rifles swapped quickly to bows.

It was like trying to guide an invisible fish through a raging river. The wind didn�t allow more than violent pushes and pulls. The mortar roared across the distance and slammed into the massive horror. For a moment, the illusion flickered, going transparent to reveal the phoenix scorpion inside like a small gleaming heart. A moment was all the sekasha needed. They released their taut bowstrings. Fifteen shafts of pure light leapt the distance and struck home. The massive form crumpled to the ground, the illusion spell continuing even after the heart was dead.

The sudden quiet was blissful.

�You said that there were four more?� Wraith Arrow asked as he shouldered his bow.

Wolf nodded as he focused again on Cana Lily�s ground scry. Darkness and his people were killing everything inside the oni camp with force strikes and spell arrows. Darkness blocked the eastern gate out of the fort. To the north, columns of fire marked where Prince True Flame fought. With the cages holding the horrors in the west, most of the oni were choosing to flee south toward Sunder. Hir let them come in a massive wave and then cast the spell �liquefy.� The oni foundered in the sudden pool of liquid mud. Hir followed with �condense� and the ground returned to solid, encasing the oni under the rock-hard surface.

The small phoenix scorpions were still in their cages. Wolf started a call-lightning, hoping to kill them before they could be enlarged. Even as he focused on them, someone worked to free them. Like most of the Skin Clan creations, the beasts were untamed monsters, meaning that they would kill even their owners if they came into range. The cages were stout and the oni were having trouble getting close to the already enraged beasts.

Wolf made their life harder by raining lightning down on their heads. The thick ironwood timbers of the magically reinforced cages, though, were protecting the scorpions. The horrors were unharmed even as their handlers were killed. Darkness retreated farther east, his shields flickering as he switched to one that would protect his people from Wolf�s spells.

�Can�t you see that I�m not doing damage?� Wolf growled at the distant domana that had no way of hearing him. �Hit them!�

Forest Moss dropped the shield he�d been holding for Sunder and cast liquefy under the cage furthest from Darkness. The trapped horror sunk into the earth. Once it was entombed, Forest Moss solidified the ground around it.

�Good!� Wolf reported to Wraith Arrow what the Stone Clan domana were doing.

�But will that kill them?� Wraith Arrow asked.

�It will keep the oni from enlarging them. The cages should hold; they�re magically reinforced ironwood.� Wolf cast his shield, waiting to see how the fight within the fort resolved. He couldn�t do much more without endangering Darkness�s people.

Forest Moss carefully entombed two more cages while Darkness attempted to back out of the fort, away from the earth turning to mud. He was hampered by the flood of oni who had realized that the south was a death trap.

Wolf did flame strikes to clear the way for Darkness. Once the Stone Clan moved back, Forest Moss entombed the last cage.

Wolf paused in his attack to take stock of the battlefield. The oni seemed to be moving without plan, attacking whatever lay in front of them instead of acting as units. Were all the oni commanders dead? Or were there never commanders present? Considering the black-willow-infested swamp, the trench of poisoned stakes, and the caged horrors, the camp felt like a huge trap. Wolf couldn�t have taken it alone. He suspected even the Harbingers would have found it difficult. True Flame would have been helpless against the scorpions.

The others might consider it an easy battle, but it could have been very different if they hadn�t worked together. Wolf wouldn�t have wanted to go into this fight with Earth Son or Cana Lily at his back. The Harbingers understood the need to put differences aside.

Did the oni not expect domana from three clans to move against them? Wolf would have been hard-pressed to win by himself. Queen Soulful Ember had been bracing for this battle since before Pittsburgh arrived on Elfhome. The speed at which Prince True Flame had arrived in force meant that his cousin had been standing ready for the call. He could have had his brother Blue Jay here if he�d been wise enough to ask.

Cana Lily cast a wide scry to the east. The oni reinforcements were coming.

There could be no doubt: this was a trap.

Tristan had just finished up piecing together a solid fake identity when he noticed a hush falling over the camp. He had been only vaguely aware of the low murmur of voices as the troops worked around the cabin he occupied. But now the warriors had all gone silent. Tristan lifted his head and listened intently. The high whine of a speeding hoverbike was growing louder as it raced toward them.

�We�re getting company!� Lucien called out in English. �One of the Eyes! Remember, I don�t want them to know about your mission.�

Tristan stuffed the iPad and all the papers back into the messenger bag. With his work hidden away, he pulled on his demon mask and went out to greet the incoming rider.

�I have what I need,� Tristan said, adjusting his mask. He handed back Lucien�s messenger bag. �Are you sure it�s one of our little sisters?�

Lucien took the bag and handed it to one of his trusted underlings. �No one else would ride at that speed.�

True, while they weren�t that far from Pittsburgh, they were in virgin forest. There were nothing more than deer trails through the thick forest bracken and fallen branches.

They had had five little sisters: Adele, Bethany, Chloe, Danni, and Felicie. Chloe was dead. Which of the four was coming? He hadn�t seen any of them since they graduated from college. He hoped it was Bethany. She was his favorite. He was afraid, though, that something horrible had happened to sweet little Bethany.

A few years back, he�d been suddenly forbidden to even mention his younger sisters. He had thought it had been in reaction to his mother having dreams of stolen children. In hindsight, the nightmares had been triggered by the birth of the twins, but he had assumed that his mother�s gift had uncovered the truth about the Eyes.

Since he�d arrived on Elfhome, he had caught guarded references to the girls � no, women, as they were no longer young. All except Bethany. If she�d ever been in Pittsburgh, all traces of her had been wiped out. He suspected now that the sudden silence on Earth hadn�t been about his mother�s dreams but something that his father had done. Something that his father didn�t want to be known by his mother and perhaps the other Eyes, and maybe even Tristan himself.

What had their father done to Bethany?

He pushed the question out of his mind, focusing instead on the sound of the hoverbike. It was most likely to be Danni, who worked closest to Lucien. She had been the one who forced Lucien into transforming Boo. She was also the one most likely to oppose any plan of recapturing Lucien�s lost love.

�Our baby sisters can�t read minds,� Lucien murmured even as the whine of the engine grew louder, �but I�ve found it�s best not to think of things you don�t want them to know about. Thoughts are the precursor of actions. When you create a plan, it�s as if you�ve set up vibrations in the likely outcome to your actions. The Eyes sense those vibrations, just like sharks can detect the trashing of a swimmer.�

In other words, Tristan should clear his head of any plans he had for tracking down Boo.

What was safe to think about? What possibly could have happened to Bethany? Probably not.

The hoverbike roared through camp, ten feet up and going close to a hundred miles per hour. It slammed into an insane turn to spiral upward even as it braked hard. The woman on the bike was wearing camo coveralls, a green helmet, and an assault rifle strapped across her back. Danni wouldn�t be caught dead in camo. It was Adele.

Once her forward momentum was at zero, Adele floated back down to land beside Tristan.

�Oh, look at you!� She killed the hoverbike�s engine. �You�re still so tiny! Have you grown at all since I left New York?�

�I�m bigger.� Tristan resisted the urge to stand up straighter. Humans used to say it to him all the time. He�d forgotten how annoying it was. At least now it didn�t make him cry because he knew that one day he would eventually grow up.

She threw back her head and laughed. She sounded like Lucien when she laughed like that. She picked Tristan up, spun him around, and then gave his head a hard knuckle rub.

�Ow!� Tristan cried.

�You�re hurting him,� Lucien said. �Leave him be. You might be seen.�

�I won�t. You know that I know that I won�t,� Adele said.

Tristan glanced about and saw that she was right. They were screened on all sides by the cabins.

�What are you doing here?� Lucien said.

�Pffft.� She pulled off her helmet, revealing that she had buzzcut her hair to a military crop. Their father wouldn�t be pleased; he had a thing about long hair. Her pale blond hair had started to gray already. Chloe�s picture in the paper had looked so much like their mother that it hurt. Adele never had the same polished style; she looked like she could be a long-lost, chain-smoking biker aunt. �I need to talk to our glorious god-emperor father. It was easier to come here than to head out cross-country for a mei and hope to catch Heaven�s Blessing.�

During his thousands of years exiled on Earth, their father had used many false names. Adele had used his true name, the one he had been known by when he ruled all of Elfhome.

�He�s coming here?� Lucien pointed at the ground at his feet littered with gnawed bones.

Adele posed dramatically, the back of her right hand pressed to her forehead, her eyes closed. �So I have foreseen!� She threw her hands up to spin in a circle. �Oh, my God! Sunshine! It feels so good to get out of that cave! I�ve been stuck there in the dark for forever!�

�Stuck?� Tristan asked. �Why were you stuck in a cave?�

�Because Heaven�s Blessing wanted me to see what was happening on Earth! It was one of those tiny, tiny spyholes between worlds. I�ve been stuffed inside a small cave, waiting for some useful vision to hit me, and praying that a family of raccoons wouldn�t show up wanting to den for the winter. Do you have any candy? I�m dying for chocolate.�

�Who has never grown up?� Lucien rooted through his satchel to pull out a plastic bag filled with individually wrapped chocolate truffles. It surprised Tristan that Lucien had candy with him, considering how light they were traveling. Had his brother �seen� that Adele would show up? Or was the candy just a side product of Lucien�s excessive sweet tooth? Lucien held out the bag but pulled it back just before Adele took any. �What did you see?�

�Oh, don�t be like that.� Adele pouted.

�Once they�re gone, they�re gone.� Lucien rustled the bag. �We won�t see chocolate from Earth until the war is won.�

Adele snorted. �I know you�ve got an entire warehouse of food stocked up with things like that.�

�For me and the people that make me happy,� Lucien said.

�Fine.� Adele promised to share information by reaching out and twiddling her fingers. �I might as well tell you. Heaven�s Blessing won�t give me a private audience, so my news will be common knowledge in about an hour.�

Lucien dipped the bag forward and she grabbed a big handful of the truffles.

�You�re his heir now,� she continued, unwrapping the first truffle. �As much as the immortal god-emperor Heaven�s Blessing needs a heir.�

Lucien�s eyes went wide and then he pulled his mask down over his face. �Yves is dead?�

Adele popped the truffle in her mouth. �Uh-huh.�

�What happened to him?� Tristan asked.

�Hm?� Adele shrugged, eyes closed, focusing on the taste of the chocolate. �So good.�

�Adele,� Lucien said sternly. It seemed even more menacing when coming from behind his demonic-looking mask.

Adele spread her hands to indicate she had no idea, then unwrapped another truffle. �Sometimes the visions are crystal clear and sometimes they�re all weird, dreamy things, like being naked at school or trying to take a final for a class you forgot that you signed up for. I can�t make heads or tail of it � there were these giant birds and a talking dog and lots and lots of mice, but Yves definitely ended up under a ton of rocks. I think there was a cave-in. I�m not sure, but I think the tengu Nestlings were buried with him.�

Tristan had always assumed that he would be glad if Yves died; the male had been cold and distant and often cruel to him. In his heart of hearts, though, he must have always loved his older half brother despite all that. It hurt to know Yves was dead.

Lucien stood silent, looking skyward as if gazing at something written there. After a minute, he murmured, �I see. Yves was supposed to be here to oversee this part. Father must have decided that I didn�t have enough experience. He�s not waiting at Shikaakwa like we planned.�

�Or Fefe saw something go wrong,� Adele said around a mouthful of chocolate.

Lucien turned sharply to her. �Like what? Have the rebels turned back from the trap?�

Adele snorted as she unwrapped her last truffle. �I�ve been tuned into a different wavelength for days. I only checked to see where Heaven�s Blessing was going to be, not why. That would be a whole lot harder for me. It�s always worst to be first. Heaven�s Blessing had all the kinks ironed out by the time he got to tweaking Fefe. That�s why she�s with him and I�ve been stuck in a cave.�

Adele popped the chocolate into her mouth.

�Please see what you can find out,� Lucien said.

�Fine. I will.� She pulled out the red ribbon of the intanyai seyosa caste and tied it as a blindfold over her eyes.

Their father�s servants had tried to train the Eyes but there was much they didn�t know or couldn�t remember. Why a red ribbon? Was it just symbolic or was there a reason it needed to be red? None of the elves at the mansion had known. They left it to the Eyes to determine what worked best for them and the girls had adopted the caste�s badge of power.

Adele liked to move her hands while �seeing� in graceful dance-like motions. It reminded Tristan of hula. She swayed in place, languidly moving her hands. She hummed softly to herself. He couldn�t recognize the tune.

�The sun is setting.� Adele traced the arc of a setting sun with her right hand, dipping down into the west. She elegantly raised her left hand. �The radiance is fading. The dawn will bring a new world. Heaven�s Blessing stands poised to take back what was��

Adele went still. Slowly she cocked her head.

�What is it?� Lucien said.

�The moon is waning. It�s full of mice, nibbling away at the cheese?� Adele cocked her head the other way. �It�s making the moon�s orbit wonky and it might fall?�

�What�s that supposed to mean?� Lucien said.

Adele tore off her blindfold and stuffed the red fabric back into her pocket. �It�s the damn giant birds and talking dog and lots and lots of mice again. I don�t understand. They were on Earth. How are they here too? They�re running all over the place, ruining everything.�

�Ruining everything?� Lucien echoed. �They going to stop us from using the device?�

�I don�t�I don�t know. It�s all weird and wiggly. Most people have one or two paths of action that you can see but this is thousands of paths, all crisscrossing, moving so fast its blurry. I can�t tell if the mice are supposed to represent one person I�ve never met or a group of people.�

�If they were on Earth first, then they�re probably human,� Tristan said. �Maybe it�s agents like the NSA pair or maybe it�s a corporation.�

�Danni sent a strike team to take out Midas,� Lucien said. �If they are your mice, then they should not be a problem much longer.�

This was news to Tristan. Who or what was Midas? He didn�t want to ask and betray to Adele how little he knew about the current plans. He would need to ask Lucien privately, if the day allowed.

Adele took out the blindfold and ran the piece of fabric through her fingers as if she were considering donning it again. �I shouldn�t be seeing the mice if Danni has already taken steps to eliminate them. Their impact on our plans is still massive. Fefe must have seen our rodent infestation and warned Heaven�s Blessing.�

�Here they come,� Lucien said.

Tristan pulled on his oni mask even as he scanned the forest around them. He could sense no movement. Both Adele and Lucien were gazing upward.

He wasn�t sure how Lucien sensed their father�s arrival. One moment the sky over them was gray with rain clouds. The next it was filled with a massive gossamer airship. The displaced air boomed loudly as it washed the briny scent of the gossamer down over them.

�What in the world?� Tristan gasped. �Did that gossamer just teleport?�

�It was my �welcome home� present to Father. A bit of a flex to show him what I can do.�

Tristan stared upward, stunned by the achievement. How in the world had Lucien managed that? When did he do it? The shimmering, nearly transparent gossamer seemed too large for being less than three decades old but it couldn�t be older. Or could it? Had Lucien spell-worked an adult gossamer? The gondola was lavish imperial red with gleaming gold trim. There were black Elvish runes on the bow that spelled out �Heaven�s Light,� which was a play on Lucien�s name.

What did Tristan have to offer their father? Nothing as impressive as this. His last major feat had been ferreting out the Chosen bloodline, but that had all been rendered moot. They were on the cusp of a new world order. He might desperately need Lucien�s protection. He�d been growing hesitant about finding Boo. To keep Lucien�s good will, though, Tristan might have to swallow the sense of wrong that he had gotten about the entire mess. For better or worse, the girl was now an important game piece in the war. If their father managed to find Haven and kill the rest of the Chosen bloodline, she would be the lynchpin to controlling the tengu Flock. She was young and had been meticulously sheltered in Lucien�s care. She wouldn�t be able to rule the Flock alone. Someone would take control of her; it might as well be Lucien. He, at least, loved her.

Mooring lines were cast down and made fast to anchors that Tristan hadn�t noticed before. He drifted back. Now was not the time to catch his father�s attention. The war had not gone well in the last two months. The news of Yves� death was going to hit hard.

I shouldn�t be so terrified of the man that gave me life.

But his father wasn�t a man. He was an ancient being that was ruthless and ambitious. He�d proved over and over again that he�d use his own flesh and blood to achieve his goals. How many of his children had he put in the grave? As his father�s people had briefed Lucien on the incoming Harbingers, it became clear that he and his brother were not his father�s first brood. There had been countless half brothers and half sisters born long ago. All the others had died in their father�s service. Yves had been the only survivor, but now even he was gone.

It was clear now why Lucien had been careful to make himself so valuable to their father.

The metal elevator descended from the gondola.

Father had given up his human clothes, returning to his rich purple imperial robes. They were hand embroidered with red orchids. He wore a duster of red fairy silk with the shimmer of protective spells carefully painted in silver. His hair was no longer carefully contained in a discreet braid but flowed down his shoulders like gleaming white silk, a testament to his health and vitality. It had been something carefully beaten into Tristan after he had left his mother�s care: hair was a badge of honor. He was to wear it as long as possible despite his covert missions.

It wasn�t until Tristan came to Elfhome, and had been told their true history, that he realized why his father was so focused on long hair. His father had been born a sickly albino with extremely weak eyesight. If he had not been the firstborn child of a powerful female, he would have been cast aside, perhaps even drowned as an infant. Instead he�d been painstakingly spell-worked to be perfect in every way that magic could make him. It was said that a hundred thousand slaves had been blinded so that spells could be developed to allow him to see and, more importantly, he would not pass the weakness on to the royal bloodline. His father�s eyes were no longer the light pink color that they had been at birth but a striking amber color flecked with vivid red. It was like looking into the heart of a bonfire.

Tens of thousands of years, though, had not erased his father�s shame of being flawed at birth.

His father stepped off the elevator as if he already ruled the world. He swept his fiery gaze over Lucien and Tristan to focus on Adele. �Where is my son?�

He said it as if he had only one.

�Forgiveness.� Adele bowed low. �Yves is dead. He was killed in a landslide while still on Earth.�

His father took the blow with only a slight tightening of the muscles of his face. He lifted his right hand slightly.

Felicie ghosted forward from behind their father. She styled herself after Pure Radiance, dressed in a flowing gown of white fairy silk with a red ribbon tied over her eyes. She had even painted her fingernails a frosted white. Her white hair spilled down her back almost to her knees. She walked as if gliding on air. She looked decades younger than Adele instead of just being a few hours� difference in age. �This explains why Yves was absent from my visions. His death is not unexpected. It does not require us to change our plans.�

�The Harbingers took the bait.� Lucien spoke without removing his mask. �They are moving into position to attack the eastern camps. The Fire Clan accompanies them. As expected, none of the wood sprites are part of the rebel forces. Danni is orchestrating the collection of them.�

Felicie waved lazily as if dismissing what Lucien said. �Something has stirred the changeling. Neither she nor her cousin is in place. Danni has tracked the cousin but the changeling will evade her � as she is wont to do. Our strike on Midas is also uncertain � someone is meddling in our efforts.�

Tristan wished he knew who or what Midas was. It reminded him again of how little he�d been involved in the overall battle plan. Most of what he knew, he�d gleaned from careful observation.

�Mice,� Adele whispered. �Most likely.�

If anyone else heard her complaint, they ignored it.

�I can deploy my little brother to investigate,� Lucien said. �He can go into the city without a second glance from anyone.�

It made a good cover story to explain Tristan�s absence as he searched for Boo.

Heaven�s Blessing flicked his hand, allowing the venture.

Lucien nodded his acknowledgment, only a slight loosing of his hands to indicate his excitement.

Tristan was glad he had on the oni mask so that he didn�t need to control his face. He wasn�t sure what emotion he should have displayed. Excitement for Lucien? Eagerness for their father? Cool disinterest for the Eyes?

Lucien was updating their father. �Turtle Creek was no longer viable. The levels of magic here are suitable. The platform was not damaged by Malice or the rebels. We have made the needed preparations.�

By saying �we� instead of �I,� Lucien shared the credit with him despite the fact that Tristan hadn�t done anything. It was a safe gift considering Lucien�s spellcasting prowess.

�Let us proceed,� Heaven�s Blessing said.

So much had happened since the start of summer, Tinker often lost track of all the little details. She couldn�t remember what day exactly she rescued Windwolf except it had been during the June Shutdown. After accidently agreeing to be magically transformed into an elf, she�d been dragged off to Aum Renau by the Wyverns to meet with the queen. Said meeting lasted for days and days to become the most boring three weeks that Tinker had ever endured in her life. Windwolf�s coastal palace was like living in the middle of the forest as some of the �rooms� were just groves of trees with a network of glass roofs suspended between their trunks. There had been no electricity. No computers. No internet. Paper was a rare commodity, treated like it was edged with real gold. Windwolf had a library but it contained mostly books that were over two hundred years old. The most scientifically minded of them was a copy of Philosophi� Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Sir Isaac Newton but it was written in Latin or something.

She�d been bored, bored, bored to the point that she had learned to ride a horse and use a bow and arrow. (Granted, the latter skill came in handy for killing Lord Tomtom but at the time she was simply out-of-her-skull bored.)

When Queen Soulful Ember finally�finally�gave her royal permission for Windwolf and Tinker to return to their interrupted life, they arrived during the July Shutdown. Pittsburgh was missing. It had gone to Earth, leaving Tinker behind. All that remained on Elfhome with her were the enclaves built along the northern arch of the Rim.

The enclaves proved to be just as primitive as Aum Renau.

A great many truths dawned on Tinker that day. One of which was that she had been utterly plucked out of the cycle of life as she knew it. Eternity loomed before her � huge and massive and boring as hell if she didn�t have her normal level of technology. The other truth was that nothing in human civilization ever lasted more than a few hundred years. Even the Chinese imperial rule had been a series of various dynasties rising and falling. Sooner or later (and it proved to be sooner rather than later � by her own doing no less) she was going to be stuck on Elfhome with whatever happened to be there when the gate failed.

She�d freaked out.

The next morning she had commandeered a fleet of construction vehicles and began to create infrastructure. Almost as soon as she had started, though, she was kidnapped by the oni, never to return to the hilltop. She had managed to totally forget about it � which seemed inconceivable until one considered what the rest of her summer had been like.

That morning, they had cut down five acres of virgin ironwood forest. She had left the hilltop denuded except for massive stumps. (She had thought that they would need to use dynamite to blast out the rootballs, but the elves had said they had some kind of magic to excise the huge remains.) There had been detailed, ambitious, but often unrealistic plans tacked to a hastily erected bulletin board. (She wasn�t thinking too sanely that day.) She was sure that the shanghaied humans from the EIA and the city would have fled shortly after she had left. Windwolf had told her that the work had continued after she disappeared, but she figured that was just his people. Yes, the landscaping would be beautiful but would there be any electricity?

Tinker doubted it.

Stormsong had promised, though, that the Tinker Domi Computer and Research Center had honest-to-God technology. More importantly, it had a casting circle. Tinker hadn�t included one in her plans, so someone else must have decided to put it in. Windwolf? Tooloo? Being that Tinker couldn�t think of any other place with computers and a casting circle � that she hadn�t blown up or dismantled � she had decided to give it a try.

The construction site seemed like a totally different place. Someone had pushed farther into the virgin forest, clearing a full twenty acres of the snaking ridgeline until it lay windswept. The massive stumps had been removed, the hilltop leveled, and wild flowers sown. White drifts of yarrow covered the ground. Lobelia and phlox created islands of color. Tinker had designed wind turbines made out of Ford 150 trucks. She had barely finished one base tower before Lain pulled her down off it and talked sense into her. Someone had finished her work. A line of sixty-foot-tall wind turbines crowned the ridge, facing west, their long white sails turned against a sky filled with rain clouds. Her bare-bones tower had been modified to something more elven in design with a solid stone base and wood shingle sheathing. (This made her happy as the structures would be able to offer more defense during an attack � which was probably the point of the changes.) To the north and east, the ironwood forest stretched out as far as the eye could see as a sea of green. To the west, the white dome of the Observatory peeked out over the forest roof. To the south, the land dipped down to the river with tips of the skyscrapers barely visible. At one time, the Rim cut its arc clean through the area but time had pushed the forest into the city proper, diffusing the line.

The dirt road had been graveled to make it more passible. There had been a stout gate with royal marines standing guard. The marines had waved the Rolls-Royce through once they saw Pony at the wheel. A ten-foot-tall fence of rough-hewn ironwood lined the edge of the perimeter of the hilltop, protecting the compound from anything that might venture out of the virgin forest.

Tinker expected elves, perhaps some horses and maybe even indi. She hadn�t expected the surprising number of EIA trucks and cars parked just inside the gate. Yes, there were more royal marines within the fence line, but the bulk of the people in sight were men.

�What the hell?� Tinker muttered. �What are all these humans doing here?�

�Wolf asked Maynard to assign someone to oversee the technology side of the project,� Stormsong explained. �Considering the progress made, the person must have been given command of an entire section of the EIA.�

A tall EIA officer spotted the Rolls and crossed the compound to meet it. Tinker recognized him but it took her a minute to remember from where. He�d led the squad of EIA commandos who had helped rescue Oilcan�s kids. Oh, good, he should be willing to cooperate if he�d followed her into the whelping pens. She hadn�t bothered to catch names as she charged into the pens but she�d collected Captain Roger A. Josephson�s name and phone number just in case she couldn�t get hold of Maynard and needed backup.

The captain was a tall human, solid without being thick, with his reddish blond hair shaved on the sides in a military cut. �Domi, we didn�t expect you to�well, I guess we never expect anything you do. How can we help?�

�You�re in charge here?� Tinker said. �I thought you were some kind of combat commander.�

�Yes, I am � and I am. My command are special operations forces. We�re a combat unit that specializes in establishing infrastructure if it�s been compromised by sabotage or nature. I�m actually new to Pittsburgh; we were deployed after the Viceroy was attacked. Maynard assigned me to the tech center in July. My unit was the only one close enough to respond when you needed help in the whelping pens.�

�I was told that you have a casting circle here.� Tinker scanned the compound. There were lots of buildings of all varieties, some still under construction. She was pleased that the idea of being �separate from Pittsburgh�s infrastructure� seemed to continue after she left. There was a water tower and men were installing a large septic system to handle sewage.

�The casting circle is in the last tent on the right.� Captain Josephson pointed at a large white tent of elf canvas. �A strong ley line crosses the area that we cleared, so I had one put in��

�You did?� Tinker said in surprise.

�The Viceroy made it clear that if I were to discover any gaps in your plans, I should see they were filled. The casting circle is just one of several items that I thought were needed to complete the project. We haven�t gotten around to building the permanent shelter as it needs to be constructed without nails.�

�Good, good, good.� Tinker pointed to the only thing that had an electrical panel on it. It was a small mobile office. �Computers? Printers? The type that can print spells?�

�Yes.� Josephson trailed after Tinker as she started for the computers. �We�re building a permanent building to house the equipment but it�s not finished yet. We focused on finishing the wind turbines and securing the area.�

�Oh! Oh my,� Tinker whispered at the set up inside the mobile office. She wanted it all. The huge monitors. The sleek computers. The printers. The digital whiteboards. The climate control. All of it must have come straight from Earth with the rest of Josephson�s command. �My cousin just sent me something that I need to print out.�

Josephson gave her the password for the network. She connected and sent the spell to the printer.

�Do you need anything else?� Josephson asked.

�We might get company if the oni managed to track me.� Tinker copied the list that she�d been making on her datapad. She emailed it to Josephson�s contact information. �Here�s a list of things and where your people can find them. Items at the top of the list are the most important. Anything you can collect will help.�

His eyebrow rose at the list. �I�ll get right on it.�

Oilcan had given no explanation as to where he�d gotten the spell that he�d sent her. He merely wrote, �Cast this spell as soon as possible, it will shield you from the magic bombs in Dufae�s box.�

Tinker had studied the photographs that Oilcan had sent her. They were disturbing on so many levels. The new spell that suggested a brilliance that matched hers. The crayon notes reminded Tinker that she�d been at her most dangerous when she thought she totally understood the world. The comprehension of what Tinker and Oilcan had accessible to them and what they didn�t, though, suggested that one or both of the twins could match Tooloo in knowing unknowable things. It was as if after making her, the gods twisted the dials to eleven and let loose a flood.

Tinker printed out the spell, cued up other spells that she thought might be useful in the upcoming fight and headed to the casting circle. Shortly after Oilcan signaled her with Morse code, the domana in the east began to fight in earnest. Tinker could feel the call for magic to all three Spell Stones as small pings on her awareness. Tooloo said that the other players in the deadly poker game were about to use the Dufaes� bombs. Tinker hadn�t completely believed her. Tooloo twisted the truth into pretzels. The twins, however, seemed to be confirming what Tooloo had said. The timing was terrifyingly logical: strike while the domana were preoccupied on the eastern front.

Tooloo said that Tinker had everything she needed, that she didn�t need the unedited Codex, and that time was ticking down quickly. Tooloo must have known that the twins were going to crack the problem of the shield. Looking at the resulting spell, Tooloo had been right that Tinker wouldn�t have been able to quickly come to this answer. She wasn�t even sure how the twins had managed it.

What did Tooloo expect Tinker to do? Or more exactly, what did Tooloo want?

Pure Radiance had come personally to the Westernlands to find Tinker. The queen�s oracle had said that the pivot was the person who had been marked with a Wind Clan dau. They thought at first it would be Sparrow, but Pure Radiance had pointed directly at Tinker as the person on whom the fate of the world would spin. Pure Radiance had gone on and on about open doors and pivots and closing the door tight.

Tinker thought that when she�d stranded Pittsburgh on Elfhome, closing the two gates open between Elfhome, Earth, and Onihida, her work was done. She was wrong.

Tooloo hadn�t wanted Windwolf to mark Tinker. She didn�t want Tinker to become an elf. Tooloo had tried to keep her hidden. Tinker getting kidnapped by the oni hadn�t been in Tooloo�s game plan. Tooloo suggested that was her daughter�s plan all along: use Tinker as a �baited trap.� Tooloo might not even have wanted the gate destroyed. But she�d taught Tinker � and probably her father and grandfather � magic. Tooloo had made sure Tinker had a copy of the Codex. Tooloo wanted her to do something with magic. Something related to the magical bomb that been locked in Dufae�s chest. Tooloo obviously had waylaid the chest, followed Unbounded Brilliance from Elfhome, and then babysat all the little hidden wood sprites since the French Revolution.

Pure Radiance wanted the Skin Clad stopped. But what else? What did she want that required her to have her own mother bound hand and foot? Or perhaps the better question was what did Tooloo want that Pure Radiance was so against? Why were they fighting? Over what?

Tinker kept looping back to one basic fact: Tooloo lies. A lot.

Did it matter what Tooloo wanted? Did Tinker want to blindly buy into Tooloo�s plan? Granted, Nathan had been a horrific lesson showing that Tinker didn�t understand the world as well as Tooloo � but there was a difference between understanding the world and wishing it well.

Tooloo�s own daughter had turned against her. Whatever Tooloo wanted, it had been drastic enough that she had only allied herself with a wood sprite still in his doubles. If �allied� was the right term for their teamwork. Unbounded Brilliance might have been an unwitting tool � just like Tinker was. Or possibly would be � if she didn�t figure this out.

Assuming, of course, that Pure Radiance hadn�t turned the Skin Clan against her mother for selfish reasons. Pure Radiance�s own daughter, Stormsong, believed that the female was capable of infanticide to achieve her goals.

Maynard had told her once elves believed that the end justified the means. Pure Radiance could commit horrific acts and everyone would turn a blind eye because they were assuming that she was acting for the common good.

Who did Tinker help? The female who helped raise her but lied to her almost every day of her life? Or the queen�s most trusted advisor? Or neither?

The only thing Tinker was sure of was she didn�t want the Skin Clan to wipe out everyone that she loved. They had already tried to kill Windwolf. They�d enslaved her. They had kidnapped and threatened Pony. They�d killed a thousand royal marines as if they were nothing. They would kill Tinker�s entire Hand.

Tinker wouldn�t allow that. She had to stop them.

The Skin Clan had eleven nactka. Eleven chances to destroy what the elves had in Pittsburgh. Tinker could set the shield up to protect her and her Hand and whoever else was at the center � but what then? Whatever the spell did, Windwolf, Prince True Flame, Forest Moss, and the Harbingers were all going to fall under its influence, deep in the forest, surrounded by the enemy. Part of her wanted to rush out there and find Windwolf � but her gut was telling her that she didn�t have time. She had very little time.

Even if the twins� spell protected her this time, the Skin Clan only needed to cast their spell a second time when she was least expecting it. If their plan worked � on their first or second or third try � then they could take the remaining nactka to the Easternlands and use them there.

Tinker was fairly sure that neither Pure Radiance nor Tooloo wanted that. Tooloo had protected the Dufaes for hundreds of years, so the twins� spell probably was part of her plan. Tooloo hadn�t struggled for generations to create a temporary protection. Her plan required Tinker to do something clever. Something very wood-sprite-like.

Tooloo said that she had given Tinker everything she needed in her copy of the Dufae Codex. If Tinker didn�t need the Codex to create a shield against the Skin Clan�s spell, then what was she supposed to do what?

�Can you guys take over?� She handed the spell to Pony. �I need to figure something out.�

�Certainly, domi,� Pony said.

There was a moment as the warriors conferred as to who would stand guard while the rest worked at laying out the spell. Stormsong took charge of the tracing while Pony followed Tinker back to the mobile office.

Tinker thought better on whiteboards. She ported the spell onto the board and started to tease it apart. She tried not to hear Tooloo�s voice in the back of her brain, saying that she was wasting time. The twins had done the heavy lifting. What could she figure out from their work? If Tooloo hadn�t lied, then everything she did have in her copy of the Codex was all she needed. Her Codex had been heavily edited, supposedly to keep her safe from her own curiosity. While it had all the various shields written out, it didn�t have the initialization spell to link her to the Stone Clan Spell Stones�

Tinker�s breath caught in her chest as the thought connected to all the elements of the new shield spell.

The elves had nothing like computers. Dufae had never dealt with a software virus. He couldn�t grasp what the Skin Clan spell did as a whole, but Tinker recognized an attempt to stop a virus. The spell identified the domana genetic key that allowed them to link with Spell Stones and rewrote it. Of course, none of the shield spells that Dufae knew would block that link. It would make no sense for the elves to create something that interfered with their most powerful weapon. An enclave�s defensive barriers wouldn�t hamper their domana from setting up a connection in the middle of battle. Nor would a sekasha�s shield spell, since they often overlapped with their domana. Dufae had been a double; he might have known a great deal of lore on the Spell Stone construction but he had been born long after the Rebellion and the Clan War ended. It was possible that the creators of the Spell Stones designed the initialization process in the way that they had because it was the one thing that couldn�t be blocked.

Any domana not shielded by the twins� spell would lose their ability to call the Spell Stones. With one spell, the elves were about to lose their great weapons against the oni horde.

There was a muffled boom from the southwest.

�What was that?� Tinker glanced out the windows of the mobile office.

Fireworks burst across the river, somewhere over the Hill District � a bright bloom of color and then a deep boom.

�What idiot is setting off fireworks in a war zone?� she growled.

Even as a second fireworks display went off over the Hill District, another shot upward from Downtown. A sudden golden flower painted against the dark rain clouds. Then a third set over Mount Washington.

This wasn�t one random jerk setting off fireworks. This was a signal. She had a very bad feeling about this. The first fireworks had been over Oakland.

�Domi!� Stormsong shouted from the casting circle.

Tinker felt it shiver down her back. She was out of time. She ran toward the casting circle. �Oh shit, this is it. Trigger it!�

Out in the northeast where Haven must lie, she felt a massive shield go up. The twins must have created a spell to encompass the entire village. A few moments later, one went up in the heart of McKees Rocks. It could only be Oilcan.

Tinker hit the edge of the casting circle and Stormsong triggered the spell.

Tinker had expected something in Oakland and as various shells of the shield spell rose around her, she felt the enclaves react, starting with Sacred Heart. The newly finished enclave defensive shield rose. The other enclaves triggered their powerful defenses, nearly identical to the one on Sacred Heart. The new shield, however, didn�t go up in Oakland.

�Shit, shit, get the new spell up, Forge!�

Forge or Jewel Tear cast a Stone Clan scry, revealing a massive number of ground troops moving uphill from the river�s edge.

�Oh, I�m sorry, Forge,� she whispered as she realized that Oilcan hadn�t gotten a copy of the spell to their grandfather.

There was a massive flare of power to the southeast near the Rim. The scale of it took her breath away. Almost instantly the outer shell of the shield flashed to a blinding light as it deflected the power of the incoming spell.

Tinker whimpered. What would it do to the people whom she loved? All the people who looked to her for protection? Would anything be left after the oni had crushed all the resistance?