Stormsong signed ‘kill him?’ in blade talk. Tinker signed back ‘wait.’
“It’s an oni?” Tinker asked. “Or an animal?”
“That’s a blurred line with the oni,” Riki said. “I think you would call it oni — they’re fairly clever in a homicidal way. The greater bloods made them by mixing animals with lesser bloods, just like Tomtom did with Chiyo. Legend has it that they used monkeys and turtles — a pretty sick mix if you ask me.”
“I didn’t see any while we were making the gate.”
“There aren’t any in Pittsburgh. They’re clever, but not enough to pass as a human.”
“So you’re saying it came through the gate?”
“The oni use them for special ops; they’re strong swimmers and wrestlers.”
Tinker looked back into the discontinuity, the slow drift of blue mist. What were the oni up to? Were they just testing these strange waters to see where they led — or were they trying to salvage the gate?
Then again, was Riki telling the truth that there were no kappa in Pittsburgh?
“What are you doing here, Riki?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Talk? Talk about what? How can I even trust anything that comes out of that lying mouth of yours?”
“I’m sorry, Tinker, about everything that happened. I’m really am. I know you’re pissed the hell at me, but I need to talk to you about the dragon.”
“What dragon?”
“The one that attacked you. The one I pulled off you. The one that might have killed you and all your people if I hadn’t called it.”
“So it was a dragon?”
“Not an Elfhome dragon, but yes, a dragon.”
“An Onihida dragon?”
“What does it matter where it’s from? It’s a freaking dragon. Can we just move on?”
“Just answer the fucking question!” She shouted at Riki. “It’s rather simple. Was it an Onihida dragon?”
Riki paced the limb like an agitated crow. “For a long, long time dragons were worshipped as gods, both on Earth and Onihida. They lived in ‘the heavens’ and had great powers that they often used to help humans and tengu alike. All the legends about dragons go on about the heavens and traveling from to Onihida or Earth and back. What that mystical shit might have actually been talking about is travel between universes. So dragons may be native to Onihida — or might be from someplace else. I don’t know.”
If Riki had told her the truth about his childhood, he was raised on Earth and probably was less in tune with the mystical than she was. Not that she was particularly “in tune.”
“The dragon cast an oni shield spell.” She pointed out the flaw in Riki’s “not from Onihida” logic.
“No, that’s not oni magic, its dragon magic. The oni true bloods figured out how to enslave dragons and stole it from them.”
So he said — but how could she know if he was telling the truth. “Dragon magic? Oni magic? What’s the difference?”
“Originally oni magic was only bio-engineering, just like the elves.”
“So the solid hologram stuff? Like your wings?”
“That’s dragon magic.”
“And the tengu? They’re both oni and dragon magic?”
Riki did an angry little hop. “Tinker! I just want to ask you one simple question, not give you a history lesson.”
“What do you want, Riki?”
“The dragon — when it attacked you — did it mark you with a symbol or tattoo or something like that?”
“Strange that you ask, but yeah, it put one right here.” She half-turned and patted her butt cheek. “It says ‘kiss my ass.’”
Stormsong snickered.
“I know how pissed you must be, Tinker. Believe me, if this wasn’t important, I wouldn’t come anywhere near you.”
She scoffed at that. “What does this mark do?”
“So it marked you?” Judging by the excitement in his voice, it was very important to him.
Stormsong shoved Tinker suddenly behind her and activated her shields with a shout. At the movement, Riki jerked back out of sight. A second later, a bullet struck the tree truck where Riki had been standing, ricocheted, and struck Stormsong’s shield.
“Shields, domi.” Pony triggered his own and pulled his sword.
Tinker felt a kick of magic from the west. She forced herself to find her center and cast the trigger spell. Her heart was pounding as the distorted into her shield.
Sekasha emerged from the forest shadows; their wyvern armor and tattoos were the black of the Stone Clan. Five in all — a full Hand, the back two acting as blades, which meant they had someone to guard. They halted some twenty feet off, tense and watchful.
“Lower your weapons,” a female shouted in High Elvish.
“Lower yours! This is Wind Clan holding!” Tinker shouted angrily.
“It’s a royal holding,” The stone clan’s domi came out from behind one of the ironwoods. “And you’re conversing with the enemy.”
The domi was short for an elf, several inches shorter than her sekasha, but willowy graceful as any other high caste female Tinker had ever seen. She wore an emerald green underdress and an overdress with a forest of wildly branching trees over it. Her hair was gathered into elaborate braids, dark and rich as otter fur, twined with emerald ribbons and white flowers. Two small gleaming orbs circled around her, like tiny planets caught in her gravity.
“Yeah, I was talking to him,” Tinker almost dropped her shield but then she realized that her sekasha hadn’t put away their swords. “It’s a good way to find out things you don’t know. Like who are you?”
“Hmm, short and vulgar — you must be Wolf Who Rules’ domi. What was your name again? Something unpronounceable.”
“This is one of my issues from court.” Stormsong murmured in English. “Lowest ranking introduces themselves first; it’s a matter of honor. You outrank her, so she should go first. She’s trying to provoke you since she can’t call insult; you are still under the Queen’s protection.”
“Fuck that. Who the hell is she?”
“Her name is Jewel Tears on Stone. She and the rest of the Stone Clan arrived this morning.”
“Is she right about this being a royal holding now?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“Shit!”
“You are talking to me, not her.” Jewel Tear picked her way gracefully toward Tinker. Despite the sweltering heat and her long gown, there was no sweat on her creamy white skin. “You are Wolf Who Rules’ domi? Tinkle? Thinker?”
Screw this. “Can you introduce us, Stormsong?”
“Me doing it would be a breach of etiquette and be considered extremely rude.”
“Good. Do it.”
Stormsong executed an elegant bow and said. “Jewel Tears on Stone, this is our Beloved Tinker of Wind.”
Amazing how they all reacted as if she slapped Jewel Tears. All the Stone Clan sekasha moved forward as if to attack.
“Hold.” Jewel Tears snapped. She glared at Tinker for a moment, but murmuring, “You are such a rude little beast. I don’t know if I should be flattered or horrified that Wolf Who Rules chose you after I cut him loose.”
Tinker glanced to Stormhorse, who nodded slightly, confirming that yes this was an old girlfriend of Windwolf’s. Well, if it was a battle of wits that this bitch wanted, she came to the right place. “That proves what they say.”
“Which is?”
“Only an idiot would turn down Wolf Who Rules.”