“Elf? As in Rethna?”
“I’m probably wrong. I need to see that grimoire.” His eyes closed again.
“We’ll work on that,” Lily said. “You called it a bomb. You didn’t see any magic involved?”
“No. Purely physical stuff.”
“Okay. Did you see or smell anything I need to know before things went boom?”
“Two projectiles, one right after the other. First one broke the window. Second one lit everything on fire. Lots of nasty smoke. Smelled . . . sweet, for a second. Then nasty. Uh . . . like garlic, matches, and smog. Don’t know what else. I was busy.”
A raspy baritone called from the other side of the wall. “Agent Yu! Ms. O’Shaunessy’s here.”
The baritone belonged to the police sergeant who was handling crowd control. Lily shoved to her feet. If only she wasn’t so tired . . . tired of trying to do unofficially what she should be investigating with the full force of the Bureau. Tired of keeping secrets from her boss, from everyone. Tired of people she cared about being attacked, hurt, killed. Tired of clandestine organizations and war—God! The war had barely begun and she was so sick of it! Sick as hell, too, of mantles—stupid damn mantles that did what some stupid damn Old One wanted them to do, and never mind who got used up in the process and what that did to Rule.
Anger smoldered in her at that last thought. It gave her the energy to head for the stupid damn wall.
“Hey, Sherry,” she called as she drew near the earthen rampart. “Do you have what you’ll need for contacting it?”
“Except for what only Fagin can provide, yes. I understand that’s on its way.”
“Should be.”
“Emily and Kirk are with me. Emily’s a strong Earth-Gifted. Kirk’s Earth Gift is minor, but he’s very skilled. They’ll be handling the contact under my supervision.”
“Why—oh. Right.” Sherry’s Gift was Water. “The elemental isn’t crazy about water.”
“I should never have been the one to deal with it in the first place,” Sherry said grimly. “Hubris and stupidity are a bad combination. Can you climb over the wall? Rule said Cullen’s out of commission, but I have some questions you might be able to help with. It would be better if I didn’t have to shout them where prying microphones might hear.”
“Uh, the ward can’t affect me, but if the elemental decided to drop me in a pit and fling big rocks at me—well, my Gift doesn’t stop rocks.”
“Of course. Sorry. I’m shook up,” Sherry admitted. “I can’t believe I missed how big this one is.”
“Cullen missed it, too. He says most of it was asleep, and they—earth elementals—don’t sleep in our realm.”
“He’s sure of that?” she called, her voice sharp.
“Cullen’s always sure. He isn’t always right, but he’s always sure.”
Sherry’s mutter was barely audible with all that dirt separating them. “He’s right a disagreeable amount of the time.”
Lily had to grin. “We’d better talk over the phone,” she said, and took hers out. As soon as Sherry answered she went on, “I’m not sure what help I can be. Mostly I can only repeat what Cullen told me before . . .” She caught a glimpse of movement and turned. “Or maybe you can ask him your questions after all. Looks like the stubborn son of a bitch has talked Rule into bringing him over here for some reason. You’ll still need to talk to him by phone so he doesn’t have to raise his voice.” She paused. “I have some questions, too.”
“I do need to talk to Cullen, but if you can make your questions quick, go ahead.”
“You said you might have to negotiate a separate agreement to get us out of here. Why’s that?”
Sherry’s voice was dry. “That’s not a quick question—or not one I can answer quickly. Basically, all I can do is remind the elemental of its agreement with Fagin, using his blood. The problem is that the agreement uses words, but earth elementals are nonverbal.”
“Not making sense yet.”
“Elementals can use words, but only in the most literal way. They think spatially rather than verbally. The agreement is both spatial and verbal. Fagin’s blood . . . um, you might say it activates the spatial portion of the agreement. That’s why the elemental erected the wall and wards—because Fagin bled. There are two ways the elemental is allowed or required to act: first, if Fagin specifically invokes its protection. Second, if Fagin’s blood is spilled within the defended space.”
Lily chewed that over a moment. Scott had brought Cullen’s nesting materials out; she watched as he made Cullen a pallet several feet back from the wall. “So if Fagin had cut himself shaving, the elemental would have closed down the property?”
“It’s literal, not stupid. It knows the difference between an attack and an accident. Accidents don’t invoke it. But if it had been invoked in error, Fagin could ask it to remove its protections.”
“He didn’t do that.”
“So I noticed. Since he hasn’t, we have to negotiate a second agreement to get all of you out. First we remind the elemental of the original agreement, which does not require it to keep you inside the defended space. Then we persuade it that allowing you to leave will benefit it.”
Rule settled Cullen on his new nesting spot. Cullen frowned at Lily briefly, then turned his head to study the earthen wall. “What does an earth elemental consider a benefit?”
“Power or love.”
“It wants love?”
“The stories say that Earth elementals have sometimes formed a loving bond with a human and will go to great effort on their behalf. But love can’t be arranged or bartered, which is why blood is the usual initial offering.”
Yuck. “Initial? And whose blood are we talking about?”
“Possibly a small amount from each of you, with additional non-blood offerings at subsequent full moons for an agreed-upon period. At least that’s what we’ll try for. Which reminds me—Fagin probably won’t be able to make his offering tomorrow. Tell him one of my people will take care of that for him.”
“Will do. How long do you think this negotiation will take?”
“Anywhere from an hour to the rest of the day and into the night. And now I need to talk to Cullen.”
“Wait—one last question. This one really is quick.”
She asked, Sherry answered, and Lily got off the phone with a real sense of relief. Sherry was willing to speak to the press about elementals. After Lily gave the piranhas of the press her brief spiel and promised them a press conference with Croft, she could hand them off to Sherry. Which was really mean, but Sherry wanted to do it. She was sort of the Wiccan equivalent of Rule: the public face of her people. She considered it her duty to educate people about her faith and about magic in general—preferably in ways that made it all less scary.
Lily wasn’t sure how she’d explain an ancient and powerful elemental in a way that made it less scary, but if anyone could, it would be Sherry.
Lily went to stand beside Rule and looked down at Cullen. “He looks terrible. Why is he out here instead of decently unconscious?”
“He wants to study the ward while it’s still up.”
Of course he did. Lily looked at the pale and strained face of Rule’s obsessive friend. Her friend. Who could have died, but hadn’t. “The elemental won’t be taking down its ward anytime soon. You can study it later.”
“You sure about that? If the original bargain was done right, there should be a mechanism for terminating—”
“There’s a problem with that,” she said firmly, then subvo-calized so those on the other side of the wall wouldn’t hear: “If the ward stays up, Fagin’s library stays safe. Sherry knows we want that, for now.” In a normal voice she added, “Sherry wants to talk to you, if you’re up to—”