I ran for the pier’s processing building. I needed witnesses—lots of them. On the other side, streetwalkers huddled on the long stretch of loading docks. They weren’t likely to help. I made for Old Northern Avenue, the slap of wet feet coming up behind me. I hesitated on the sidewalk. I wasn’t picky about where I would find protection. The Rowes Wharf Hotel and the Tangle were equally distant.
A loud hissing drew my attention. Melusine, in her full serpentine glory, slithered down the Fish Pier. The hotel was less than a mile away. I could do a five-minute mile, faster if I put a burst of essence into it. The last place I wanted to be with a mad fey beast was in the desolate stretch of road between me and the Tangle.
I ran the center line of Old Northern Avenue, cars wailing their horns at me. I tapped my body essence, pushing myself harder. My head sang with pain, the darkness resisting the use of my ability. A glance over my shoulder revealed Melusine gaining on me. I was halfway to the bridge. I wasn’t going to make it.
I ducked down an alley. Yggy’s bar had been a safe haven for the fey for over a century. Heydan, who ran the place, had one main rule of the place: leave animosities and conflicts outside. I doubted a crazed shape-changing serpent would respect the rules under the circumstances, but I hoped at least to find help. I reached the old steel door, dented and scratched with a large Y painted on it. I grabbed the handle and pulled so hard I almost yanked my arm from its socket. The door didn’t budge.
I stared, amazed. Yggy’s was never closed. Ever. Day or night, people knew that one place existed where they could go and take a break from the world. And now it was closed.
I banged on the door. “Heydan!”
A shiver ran over me, like a blanket of cool air. A deep and subtle essence filled the air, and Heydan appeared beside me as if he had been there all along. I didn’t understand how he did that. He was a giant of a man, a unique fey with no peers that I knew of. Bony ridges beneath his skin curled from his temples and around his ears to the back of his bald head. A light glimmered in his deep-set eyes.
“I need help, Heydan. Melusine’s gone crazy,” I said.
“I am Heydan. I watch and wait,” he said.
I had no idea what that meant. “Listen to me, Heydan, Melusine….”
The rip of metal filled the air, and a car tumbled across the end of the alley. People ran screaming along the street.
“The Watch is over. The Wait begins,” Heydan said.
He was gone. One moment he was there, the next I was alone. I ran out of the alley, intent on reaching the hotel. Melusine slithered down the pavement, her arms cast wide as if to embrace me.
I rolled into a dive between parked cars and pulled out the rune dagger. As I came up on my feet, the blade stretched to its full length, burning with cold white light. Melusine swerved to meet me, elation on her face. She dodged the blade with ease.
I needed space to maneuver, so I slid over the hood of a car and cut back into the street. Melusine swayed, her essence pouring over me. Stop this, Connor, and come with me.
If nothing else, she was persistent. Now that the faith stone had given me the heads-up, it was easy to reject her attempts to seduce me. “It’s over, Melusine. It didn’t work. I’m not going with you,” I said.
She reared up higher. Pity that, little man. I do not accept rejection. Maeve will be displeased.
She darted forward, swinging her arm. I underestimated her speed, and she swept my feet out from under me. I rolled and jabbed at her exposed side. She shrieked as the blade sliced skin, but it was a superficial cut. Translucent scales fluttered to the ground.
I was not told of your sharp little tooth. I will have a word with Maeve about that when we are done, she sent.
“Tell her I said hi,” I said. I lunged forward, thrusting toward her chest. She slid backwards, her body rolling across the pavement. Her tail came around. I ducked as it slammed the ground. I jabbed, and Melusine screamed. She yanked her tail away, wrenching the blade from my hand.
Melusine hit me from behind. My shield absorbed the blow, but the force of it pitched me hard against a car. I pulled myself up. Melusine slithered forward, stretching her body in a wide loop to cut off escape. Down the street, her merrow companions were catching up, five of them now. Things were going to get worse.
A resounding roar filled the air, a guttural animal sound that reverberated in my chest. Melusine hissed and reared as a wild wave of primal essence rolled over us. I grabbed my sword from the ground. Something knocked me aside, something huge and dark and rank.
I stumbled backwards, blade out, as an enormous beast leaped at Melusine. She held her arms out as if to embrace it. It fell on her like a mountain, a beast flickering with indigo essence. They rolled in a tangle of fur and scales. Enormous pawlike hands battered Melusine from side to side as she screamed and clawed.
The beast bunched its neck like a great bear and bellowed as Melusine constricted her coils. Its powerful roar shivered across my skin. The monstrous bear bared its teeth, thick and long canines dripping with saliva, and bit into Melusine’s neck. Her scream went from a high-pitched note to a strangled screech as the beast shook its head. Melusine’s arms flailed across its back, clawing for purchase. The bear swung her around, slamming her down against a car.
Her arms went slack with the blow. The beast found its feet, backing out of the nest of coils with Melusine’s limp torso in its mouth. When it was free of her scales, it tore out her neck and threw her body to the ground.
Rearing onto its hind legs, the beast stood over a dozen feet high and roared in victory. It dropped to all fours and lumbered toward the merrows, thrusting its huge round head forward with a snarl. They fled without a fight. The beast growled and retreated, maneuvering its bulk around toward me.
I held my sword out as it approached. As it closed on me, it became smaller, its bulk shifting and contracting. The fur receded and the bearish muzzle flowed inward, exposing thick rolls of skin. When it was a few feet away, long, pointed ears slid through greasy hair, and a thick sagging gut grazed the ground.
I stared slack-jawed as Belgor stared up at me. He leaned on the car, struggling to bring his girth off the ground. He leaned heavily against the fender, his chin and bare chest smeared with black viscous blood. “I do not care for snakes,” he said.
“I had no idea you could do that,” I said.
Still catching his breath, he shrugged. “I have not lasted these many years on my wits alone, Mr. Grey. I trust this settles my debt to you?”
Dumbfounded, I nodded. “Yeah, I think that covers it.”
Belgor waddled off like he had stopped by to chat and had to be going.
36
I didn’t stick around for the police after-party. Leaving the scene of a crime was a crime, but I wasn’t worried about it. Being attacked by a giant snake-woman and four or five of her semiaquatic friends was probably justification in most people’s eyes to go into hiding for a bit. Enough witnesses were available to report that a crazy guy with a sword was the victim. Some people might even consider it a typical night down in the Weird. Besides, I wasn’t about to discuss Belgor, not after what he did. He might be an underhanded slimebag who would sell his own mother to keep himself out of jail, but the man had saved my life.
When I reached the Old Northern Avenue bridge, vitniri swarmed down the steel struts and surrounded me. The man-wolves huddled close, snapping at anyone who showed the least curiosity in me. They escorted me all the way to Rowes Wharf Hotel, pacing along the building’s shield barrier until they were sure that Eorla’s people detached another bodyguard for me.
Elven warriors from the Kruge clan, their bows notched with glowing elf-shot, ushered me inside and up to a suite overlooking the harbor. Eorla arrived after, and, for the first time, she let herself show uncertain upset, grabbing me by the arms when she entered. “Are you all right?”