I kept the staff up in the air, and said, “Let the Gray Lords in their halls know that the Columbia Basin Pack holds these lands and grants sanctuary to whomever we choose.”
Yes, said Adam in my head.
Yes, agreed the pack.
In movies, they stop rolling the film after the climactic speech, or they change scenes.
I had things to do.
I knelt beside Adam, but before I could do more, he rolled upright. He rose to his feet with only a little stiffness, then shook himself as if he’d been wet. I could feel the shivers of pain the motion set wracking and howling through his healing wounds, but no one else would.
The others all turned to go, leaving the cleanup for the poor humans whose city I had just claimed—and I already saw a dozen ways that was going to backfire on us. There was a chance that every supernaturally endowed creature in a hundred-mile radius hadn’t witnessed my declaration, but I was pretty sure that’s what the walking stick had been doing with its light show. It didn’t think, not like that, but I was getting better at reading its intentions anyway. Zee started to turn, hesitated, then turned back. “So that was what they were trying. Stupid verdammt troll,” he said.
I paused. “What who was trying when?”
“What the Gray Lords were trying to do when they sent that troll after me.” He didn’t say anything for a moment, and when he did, he sounded sad. “There aren’t a lot of trolls left, Mercy, not so many that they should have sent this one to die, sad excuse for a troll that he was. And do not mistake me, they meant for him to die—that’s what I missed.”
“They meant for him to die?” I asked.
“They would know,” Zee said. “The Gray Lords are not as forgetful as some of the younger ones. They would know that a troll would not kill me.” He sighed and turned back down the bridge and started walking. “You do not send a puppy to kill an old wolf.”
I followed him, Adam at my side. Warren and Darryl flanked us. Tad walked next to his father, near enough to help if he faltered. Aiden trailed behind us. It bothered me to have him behind us, but I had his promise.
Tad said, after a moment, “You didn’t kill him, Dad.”
Zee considered it—or maybe he was just trying to appear thoughtful and disguise how slow he was moving. After a bit he nodded. “This is true. Interessant.”
“How so?” I asked at Adam’s silent prompting.
“I am not at my best,” Zee said. “Things were done.” He dismissed them with a shrug. “It would have taken me a long time to kill him and, without your wolves to keep him on the bridge, the battle might very well have engulfed some of the town.” He glanced around at the police officers, who were all giving us a little space. “And even had I managed to limit him to the bridge, I would not have been able to keep the humans away as effectively as you managed. Many humans would have died. You have changed this event, and not to their advantage.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Whoever made the decision to send the troll after me, they wanted a train wreck,” he said. “They wanted death and destruction followed by a battle guaranteed to terrify anyone who watched it happen. A battle generated entirely by the fae. Something to remind humankind that they spent most of their existence being frightened of the Good Neighbors for a very good reason.” He looked back at me, then at Adam, who was walking beside me slowly—as slowly as Zee was moving, in fact. “You have changed the game on them. The fae did not come out of this looking wonderful, but the werewolves defeated the troll, and you defied the Gray Lords themselves. You’ve set the pack up as the defenders of humankind—and proven that you are capable of taking down the monsters of the fae.”
I thought about that awhile. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” I was asking Adam, but it was Zee who answered.
“Wer weiß?” he said. “Only the future will tell us that. But no good ever came from battling the Gray Lords at their own game. You have changed the rules.”
“I would take it as a favor,” I said thoughtfully, “if you and Tad would come to stay with us while Aiden is our guest.”
Zee looked at me. I didn’t want him and Tad alone in his house if the Gray Lords were sending trolls after him. He glanced at the boy, who was trailing behind.
“Yes,” Zee said. “I think that would be wise.”
4
Tad and Zee followed me to Adam’s SUV, with Aiden tagging along behind like a stray puppy uncertain of his welcome. We walked very slowly because Adam was hurt, and so was Zee—and I wasn’t certain about Tad. Traffic was still stopped, and people watched us as we walked.
“Hey, Mercy,” someone called, “do you know what’s up?”
I looked over, but I recognized neither the voice nor the face of the woman who was standing outside her car, a toddler on her hip.
“Troll on the Cable Bridge,” I told her. “We dealt with it. They’re working on getting traffic moving, but I think the bridge is going to need major repairs before anyone can use it.”
“Troll?” A teenager in a minivan filled with other teenagers stuck his head out the window. “You mean like a real troll? Lives under bridges, tries to eat goats? That kind of troll?”
I nodded and smiled but kept walking.
He let out a happy sound. “Trolls versus werewolves. Our werewolves for the win!”
Adam opened his mouth and let his tongue loll out. Someone in the teen’s van let out a wolf whistle, and it wasn’t because of Adam’s big pink tongue.
“Grandma, what big teeth you have,” I murmured.
The corners of his lips turned up, but he closed his mouth.
About halfway back to the car, traffic started moving again, though it wasn’t going to be breaking any speed records. After that, we got honked at—which made Zee say something rude in German. Tad grinned and waved at everyone.
“Quit frowning, Dad,” he said. “If you smile, they’ll forget all about us in a day. If you go around looking like that, they’ll wonder how many other trolls are going to be wandering into the Tri-Cities.”
Zee smiled.
Tad rolled his eyes. “Not like that, old man—that will give them nightmares.”
“Be careful what you ask for,” I said.
Tad rubbed the top of my head. “I’ll keep that in mind, short stuff.”
“I told you to feed him more coffee,” I told Zee. “Look what happened when he outgrew me.”
“Children whine too much,” the old fae said. “Just how far away did you park—and why didn’t we get a ride there?”
“Sorry,” I said, meaning it, because I needed to get Adam home so he could change and his shoulder could be checked to make sure it had healed right. Werewolves heal fast, which was good up to a point—but if a bone wasn’t set correctly, it would heal just as it was. Then it would need to be rebroken. “But there is no back way here, and no one could have driven us until the traffic cleared anyway.” And the traffic still wasn’t cleared.
It hadn’t felt like a long way when we were running for the bridge, but with two—possibly three—people who were hurt, it was too long. I’d have offered to run ahead and grab the SUV, but I knew that neither Adam nor Zee would have allowed it unless they were on their deathbeds.
Tad said somberly, “Hey, Mercy? I’m sorry it took us so long to come help with the troll. We didn’t know about it until we saw the traffic backed up. We’d taken refuge in one of the old warehouses in the Lampson scrap yard. I was headed out to find someone with a cell phone I could borrow to call you when I saw the troll.”