Karl chuckled. “Oriel planted some evidence in there last night, and an anonymous note was delivered to the base commander this morning about a certain book the chevalier in charge of base security was keeping. The note said he was using information in the book for blackmail.”
“What was the evidence?”
“Forty thousand pounds.”
“Where in the world did he get that much money?”
“Oriel just kind of waved his hand over a ream of printer paper. I have no idea if it would pass a government counterfeit check, but I doubt that it matters.”
After driving around for an hour, we agreed that we weren’t being followed, and Karl directed me to a bar in a rough area on the north side of the city. I parked the car around the corner and waited for him with the doors locked. Some of the men who walked by and scoped me out didn’t inspire much confidence.
Karl went inside and was there for about an hour. When he came out, he had a brown paper bag in his hand. He got in the car and gave me directions. The smell of fish and chips wafting from the bag made my mouth water.
We ended up at a different beach than the previous day. The weather wasn’t as nice, so we ate our lunch in the car watching the breakers roll in.
“Our contact was there, and we’ve reset the time table,” Karl filled me in between bites. “I gave her all the information Oriel gleaned from inside that security office, so she’ll get that to Trevor. I think we’re back on track and all set. We just have to wait out the week.”
“And hope that Ian and Josh survive. I heard that convoy out to Knowsley gets hit by resistance groups pretty regularly.”
He grinned. “Only when it’s transporting things the resistance wants. Yesterday’s shipment is just food, but tonight’s has a two truckloads of swords. They came in on a boat from Germany. I’m going to need Ian tonight, though, so someone else will have to take command.”
“Sounds like their internal security is rather lax.”
“They don’t seem to be aware that the Fae can glamour themselves invisible. Oriel has been all over the cathedral compound.”
When I got back to my room after dinner, I found two Knights guarding the door—a sergeant and a corporal.
“Identification,” the sergeant barked.
I dutifully showed her my papers. “Is something the matter?”
“Sergeant O’Grady, you’ve been assigned new quarters. You can remove your personal belongings and take them with you.”
The corporal opened the door, and they both followed me into the room. Mason’s side of the room was disordered, as though someone had searched through her things. Mine was just as I’d left it. I picked up my duffle bag, and the Knights followed me out.
The sergeant handed me a card with a number on it. “This is your new billet. Down one floor and to the right.”
“Thank you,” I said, and went looking for my new room. When I found it, I was relieved to discover that it was roommate free. During the rest of my stay in Liverpool, I never saw Sergeant Sabrina Mason again.
That night, the convoy from the docks in Liverpool out to Knowsley ran into explosive devices planted beside the road. All of the swords destined for the training camp were stolen, and half of the Knights guarding the convoy died in the fighting.
We left Liverpool a day earlier than I had expected, driving south in the SUV. It should have been a four- or five-hour trip to Salisbury, but Ian left the main highway early and took us on a tour of secondary roads.
I had been in England several times before, but I’d never driven through the country like that, and I loved the green pastures and fields.
We stopped midday at a country inn in the Cotswolds. As soon as we walked through the front door, I felt the magic. All of the people working there and their patrons were either Fae or paranormals. The inn’s hostess who welcomed us was Tiana.
After a wonderful lunch, everyone gathered in the main room and discussed the campaign to come. Oriel and Karl passed on the intelligence they had gleaned during our stay in Liverpool.
“At daybreak one week from today in Turkey,” Tiana said, “we, the Fae, will launch a major attack on the Knights’ fortress in Istanbul. That will be followed by almost two thousand human mages assaulting the Knights’ headquarters in Venice and one thousand mages with five hundred Fae surrounding Rome, cutting it off from the rest of the world. As soon as the Knights respond to those operations, we’ll launch offensives in Germany, Norway, and England. We anticipate timing that for two to three days after the Rome operation, and you should be firmly in place by then.”
“When is the assault on Salisbury scheduled to start?” Karl asked.
“London and the Thames Valley first,” Tiana said. “We’re hoping that we’ll draw reinforcements away from Salisbury. It’s much closer to London than Liverpool. Once they respond, we’ll launch the attack on Salisbury and Sarum. Our objective there is to cut them off, rather than overrun them. We’ll surround the area and pull their attention outward. Hopefully, they will be less vigilant internally.”
I spoke up. “The ley lines are currently stable, but you can’t expect that to last. The Knights are bound to respond by screwing up the lines.”
“That’s true,” Tiana said. “The number of people we can put in the field is limited by the number of rubies we hold. Luckily, we have quite a number. Our intelligence is that the Knights have produced two hundred thousand of the things, and the resistance has at least fifty thousand of them. We captured a thousand in that Liverpool raid alone.”
“But they are pumping the rubies out of a factory in Durrington Walls,” another of the Fae said. “That’s what tipped us off that the Heart is there.” I knew that Durrington Walls was part of the Stonehenge tourist complex.
“The Fae who are already inside their operation will contact you,” Reginn said. “Your man Trevor has prepared places for you within the Knights’ organization that should put you in optimal position to access the jewel.”
After the briefing, Oriel and I took a walk. The inn was on the edge of a picturesque village. We walked through the village and beyond up into the rolling hills. Past a farmhouse, a footpath led from the road through a beech woodland to the top of a hill where we could see a fair distance. It was incredibly green and beautiful.
It had been more than a week since we had been together alone, and I had no idea when we’d get the chance again.
“Make love to me,” I said, wrapping my arms around his waist and laying my head on his chest.
“I thought you’d never ask,” he replied, putting his finger under my chin, tilting my face up, and kissing me. The grass was soft, the afternoon was warm, and we didn’t get dressed again until after we watched the sunset while still wrapped in each other’s arms.
The Knights had taken control of Salisbury, Old Sarum, Amesbury, and Stonehenge basically by force of arms. The British government had objected, made an effort to evict them, and lost. A large force of army troops still ringed the area, limiting the Knights to a single way in and out to the east, and a single way in and out to the west.
Our party passed the army checkpoints, then went through the whole mess again with the Knights.
“Is the British Army aware of the offensive the Fae plan to launch?” I asked as we drove away from the last checkpoint and entered the city of Salisbury.
The great cathedral loomed over everything. I understood why the Knights had been so intent on taking control of the area. The main ley line that ran through the area was huge—as large as one of the lines running under the City of the Illuminati.
“My understanding is yes,” Karl said. “The Brits have recruited paranormals into a special force just like the Americans. From what I’ve been told, their force is smaller but better trained. The problem here, in the United Kingdom, is that between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, the witch hunts in this country drove a huge number of witches and mages to North America. On a per capita basis, we have more talent in the U.S. and Canada than they do.”
The directions we had been given sent us to the cathedral, where we were processed, provided our orders and assigned our billets.
Oriel joined the contingent of priests stationed at the cathedral. Karl, with his rank of chaplain, was replacing the top religious official of the Knights stationed at Old Sarum, although his office was in the cathedral in Salisbury. Ian and Josh were posted to Old Sarum as part of the guard contingent, and I was assigned to the company of witches who maintained the wards at Stonehenge. Again, everything was according to plan, which caused me to be even more nervous.
Once again I was separated from my companions. The main Knights’ base was at Old Sarum, where they had taken over shopping centers, office buildings, and even private homes of those who weren’t members of the Universalist Church. But the unit I was assigned to was quartered in a new set of barracks built at a farm the Knights had commandeered north of Stonehenge and east of the superhenge at Durrington Walls.
They did give me my own room due to my rank, but I was also given command of a dozen witches. The five men lived in one wing of the building, and the seven women lived in the other. From being a part-time apprentice witch six months before, I was suddenly in charge of a circle.
My room was marginally nicer than my room in the City of the Illuminati, and I had a bathroom that I didn’t have to share. That was a good thing, since it would have been impossible for two people to be in the space at once. I could barely turn around in the tiny shower, but it did have hot water.
The main room had a small table, two chairs, a narrow bed with a thin mattress, and a wardrobe. There was enough empty floor space for me to lie down and do some exercises.
I stashed my duffle bag and went looking for Standard-Bearer Monica Dal Corso, the company commander. I found her in the company administration building.
Dal Corso was a tall, dark-haired, olive-complexioned, curvy-but-fit woman that I judged to be in her eighties. She was still a striking beauty and a powerful witch. Her demeanor was that of a no-nonsense commander who was completely comfortable with her own power and position.