Her eyebrows rose. “Don’t you?”
“A little.”
“I thought you knew what all that crap does, Thorvald.” Willard gave me the same frown as when I’d suggested I would simply drive up to find the dark elves.
“I know what most of them do. Someone gave me this one recently. She told me what it does, but I don’t know her that well, so it could have been a story.”
I realized how stupid that sounded. That I’d met someone once for twenty minutes and accepted a magical trinket from her. But it hadn’t done anything bad yet, and I’d won that hundred dollars.
“It looks like an elven luck charm,” Freysha said. “What did she say it is?”
“An elven luck charm.”
“It’s probably fine then. They’re actually considered quite valuable. You say a stranger gave it to you?”
A relative, apparently, but that wasn’t any of Freysha’s business.
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” I said, “but I’m not going to open up to you. I don’t know who you are or why you’re here. And I’m positive you’re not as young and innocent as you look.”
Gondo plucked long shreds of paper off his ears.
“He might be as young and innocent as he looks,” I said.
Freysha spread her hands. “I am thirty-seven of your years. That actually is young for an elf, but I am well educated and can be useful. I wish to earn a place here.” She turned shining eyes toward Willard. “I found a catalog for one of your city’s universities. They have many engineering programs. Is it very expensive to attend? How much will you pay me to work here if I earn a human degree and prove myself a reliable employee?”
“Uh.” Willard wiggled her fingers. “Let’s talk about that after you’ve been here for more than three days. I want to find you somewhere to sleep first.”
“Of course.”
“Let’s go see Lieutenant Reed.”
“Wait.” I held up a hand. If Freysha had been able to tell the diamond trinket was a luck charm, what else might she know? “Freysha, you said this is of elven make?” I touched the charm.
“It is. I would be able to sense something made from our people’s magic even if I hadn’t seen others like it.”
“What about this?” I touched Sindari’s figurine.
“Dragon magic.”
That matched what Sindari had told me about how some of his people had come to be linked to the charms.
“And my sword?” I tapped Chopper’s hilt.
“Dwarven.”
“I could have told you that,” Gondo said.
I ignored him and asked her, “Do you know words of power that might activate it?”
“You don’t?” Freysha’s brows rose again. Surprised that I was wandering around with stuff I didn’t have a pedigree for? Well, that was how Earth worked. We didn’t have full-blooded master crafters walking around. You took what you could find and were happy to get it.
“I know one word.” Because Zav had told me.
“There are often as many as ten or twelve linked to a high-quality blade crafted by a master. I could look that one up if I were back home, but…” She was stuck here. Bathing in a fountain.
I feared I would need to search elsewhere for a resource. Too bad Lirena hadn’t given me a way to contact her.
“Go shop for munitions, Thorvald.” Willard waved me toward the door. “You can research your treasure chest of goodies when we get back.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m going.”
“Yes, Colonel,” she corrected me. “Right away, Colonel.”
I smirked back at her. “You said I was a smartass.”
“And a pain in the ass. Don’t forget that part.”
As I walked out, Willard was asking Freysha if she knew anything about feeding cats and tending litter boxes. Maybe she would have a place to stay this week, after all.
16
“You are cleaning me out, Val,” Nin said, stepping into the little armory in her food truck where she made merchandise far different from her signature beef and rice dish. Outside, the rain had stopped, and her two assistants in the kitchen were busy serving meals to customers.
“I need enough for me and Willard to blow up a hundred dark elves if we need to.” I put another case of ammo on the counter for her to tally up.
I’d selected a rifle for Willard. It wasn’t automatic, but Nin, who usually only took custom orders, didn’t keep a lot of extra merchandise on hand, so it would have to do. Realizing we would be tramping around on foot, at least for part of this adventure, I kept myself to one case of grenades instead of two, but I was taking enough flashbangs to outfit an army. They were usually for distraction, but they might be effective weapons against the light-sensitive dark elves.
“Are you paying for all this today?” Nin pulled out her tablet to tally everything up.
“Yes, but put the rifle and its ammo on a separate invoice that I can give to Willard. And the flashbangs too. She’s feeling generous today.”
“As you wish. Val?” Nin lowered the tablet. “Did Dimitri ask you to co-sign on his lease?”
“Lease? Is he getting an apartment?”
“No. For his Fremont shop.”
“He didn’t, no. He knows I’d tell him he’s a nutcase and Zoltan can co-sign.”
“Zoltan does not have a credit record. I asked.”
“Did he ask you to co-sign?” I frowned at her.
“Yes. I like him, but I have concerns. I have worked very hard to become a citizen and establish credit for myself and my business.”
“Don’t risk your credit record on their start-up. Zoltan has the money to make something happen if they can’t go through the normal channels.”
“That is what I was thinking. But I did not want to be a bad friend.”
“You’re not. You’re a good friend for telling him that he’s being irresponsible by trying to drag you into his scheme.”
“Oh, I do not believe it is a scheme. I made him do a business plan. I think he can be profitable, but it would be risky for me to invest or co-sign on a lease at this juncture.”
“Damn straight. Tell him that. Or I will.” I patted the case of ammo. “Send him to me if you need to, and I’ll shoot down his idiocy.”
“I can do it. I just was not sure if that was right.” Nin nodded. “Thank you. You are also a good friend, Val.”
“Does that mean you’ll give me ten percent off on these flashbangs?”
“No. Those are magically enhanced, and this is business.”
A soft rap sounded at the inner door. Nin slid it aside.
“There is someone here to see your client.” Her assistant pointed at me.
Maybe Willard had come down to select her gun personally. No. As I focused on the square outside, I detected someone with a familiar magical aura.
“Oh, good. I was hoping to ask her some more questions. Nin, will you bag all that stuff up for me? I brought a canvas tote.”
“Excellent. I will give you ten cents off for bringing your own shopping bag.”
“The crazy good deals you give me are the reason I keep coming back.”
“And the excellent merchandise.” She winked at me as I let myself out the back door.
Lirena faced it, as if she’d known where I would come out. Once again, she wore a cloak, but her hood was down, her blonde hair wrapped into buns almost as impressive as Princess Leia’s. They were higher on the head and hid the points of her ears. They also made her look like she was wearing cinnamon rolls, but judging by the guys in line trying to catch her eye, nobody was worried about her hairstyle.
“Greetings, cousin.” Lirena offered the bow-curtsy. “I am glad I was able to find you.”
“You seem to be able to find me wherever I am.” We were miles from my apartment, and I was positive I hadn’t mentioned Nin’s food truck.
“Of course. We share blood, remember.”
“I’m here shopping for munitions for a mission. I don’t suppose you’d like to lend me that flute and teach me how to use it? Is there a special note to hurt the ears of dark elves?”
“Yes, but you would need to spend many years studying music in order to play it. Also, it is a valuable family artifact, so I cannot part with it.”
I’d figured as much.
“There is something I wish to speak with you about.” Lirena glanced at the line of people watching us. “Will you walk with me?”
“Yes.” I doubted we would find more privacy on the busy streets of Seattle, but I extended a hand for her to lead the way.
We hadn’t walked far when she asked, “Do you know what happened to the dragons?”
“Dragons?”
Did she mean Zav and Zondia? Or was something going on at the Dragon Justice Court?
“Two were here in this world only yesterday.”
“Ah. I’m glad to hear they’re gone. How can you tell?”
Lirena frowned at me as we turned a corner on the sidewalk, busy men and women streaming past us toward a crosswalk. “I can sense that they left. You cannot?”
I hated being reminded of how poor my magical abilities were. “I can only sense them when they’re within a mile or so of me.”
“They are nowhere near this city, nor this ocean and coast.”
“Your range is a lot larger than mine.”
“I can show you how to improve that, but tell me why the dragons left.” Lirena squinted at me. “You do not seem surprised.”
Her interest in this topic made me wary—hadn’t she supposedly come to observe me and see if I was elfy enough to meet my father?—but her offer to teach me something that would be incredibly useful kept me from saying something sarcastic.
“I asked Zav to leave and take his nosy sister with him.” I didn’t intend to share my life with this near stranger, but I found myself explaining what I knew of the incident with Zondia and Amber.