“What’s is he saying, Riki?” a woman hidden within the knot of tall males asked.
“I’m not sure,” one of the tengu men answered, presumably Riki. He wore a black tank top and blue jeans. If it weren’t for his wings, he’d look like a normal Japanese man. “I think he’s telling me his family tree. Dragon names are really long. It takes about five minutes to say all of Providence’s proper name.”
“Most my life, the oni were split between two camps,” another man said, drawing Olivia’s attention. “My father, Lord Tomtom, led the oni assault troops. He oversaw the grunt work of preparing for the upcoming invasion: training the troops, feeding them, housing them, and keeping them hidden. His men were considered fodder; the greater bloods expected them to be slaughtered by the elves during the initial attacks. Lord Tomtom was expected to win by sheer numbers. The other camp was controlled by Lord Yutakajodo, also known as Kajo, which means ‘snake.’ Something like this box would have gone to him.”
Olivia recognized Tommy Chang from her nights working as a whore on Liberty Avenue. He was king of the underworld in Pittsburgh, supposedly running everything from music raves to hoverbike races. She originally heard about him at the bakery, where he sounded harmless enough. She’d been surprised to discover that he also had a stable of prostitutes who worked the streets downtown. The girls that Olivia hung out with had nasty things to say about Tommy Chang, but they had nasty things to say about everyone, especially one another. It was hard not to believe the rumors because he radiated aloof menace, from the tank tops that showed off his muscular arms to the way he stalked down the street.
Olivia stopped believing all the rumors after the third time she’d been told to run to Tommy or his enforcer Babe if she seriously thought a man was going to hurt her. Tommy couldn’t be as evil as the streetwalkers painted him if he’d protect a total stranger.
Tommy Chang wasn’t wearing his normal bandana. It revealed the fact that he had catlike ears instead of human ones. They were covered with black fur, short and sleek on the outside but with tufts of hair on the inside, just like the one black barn cat at the Ranch. The ears rotated to catch different sounds in the room.
One of the most common complaints about Tommy that the Liberty Avenue whores had was that he was cold and aloof. Was Tommy unapproachable because he was half cat? Was Tommy always a cat or had someone made him a cat the way Tinker had been made an elf? Like Forest Moss wanted to make Olivia an elf?
Olivia realized that she was staring and looked away. Now was not the time for an existential crisis. This did explain why Tommy and his people had suddenly disappeared off Liberty Avenue when the Wyverns started to comb the city for hidden oni.
“The tengu were considered part of the assault troops under Lord Tomtom,” Riki said while the dragon inhaled several more pastries. “There was a handful of our people that Lord Kajo used as spies but he killed them all a few days prior to Jin Wong’s return. We don’t know why. They hadn’t reported anything about the box. It’s possible Kajo knew that they would have rebelled against him once they learned what was within it.”
“Kajo is always one step ahead of everyone.” Tommy’s cat ears laid back in anger. “My father would have otherwise killed him years ago. Lord Tomtom wanted to be sole commander of the Pittsburgh forces and thought he could achieve that by assassination. Kajo danced rings around him. I never knew if I should cheer or be embarrassed.”
The hidden woman spoke again. The room seemed to quiet as if everyone paused to hear what she had to say. “Chloe Polanski danced rings around me until I figured out what she was doing and how to get one step ahead of her. She was like Esme and Stormsong. She could see the future. Could Chloe be Kajo?”
Chloe Polanski? The television field reporter?
When Olivia had first arrived on Elfhome, she found work at a bakery. It didn’t ask for immigration papers; it couldn’t afford to since Pittsburgh had a severe labor shortage. Most of her coworkers had been women living on Elfhome illegally.
It was common knowledge at the bakery that Chloe Polanski was pure evil. Duff Kryskill had a score of horror stories about how badly Polanski had treated his family when his baby sister disappeared. All the bakers knew to avoid talking to her. The reporter would gleefully see them all deported.
It came as no surprise to Olivia that Polanski was part of the oni war force, but clearly she wasn’t the leader. She had to be part of the oni intelligence network, gathering information on the elves and humans, spreading misinformation to create tension.
“I don’t think so,” Tommy said. “Polanski was too young. Kajo was here from the start. I remember her showing up on the news when I was about ten. She aged well but she has gotten noticeably older. It means she’s not immortal and would have been born about a decade before the first Shutdown.”
“Domi!” Olivia’s female sekasha escort called out. “You have a visitor.”
The tall wall of men parted even as the center of the chaos turned its attention on Olivia.
“This is Olive Branch over Stone,” her escort introduced Olivia. “Forest Moss has taken her as his domi.”
“Wolf’s child bride,” Forest Moss had called Tinker many times and now Olivia understood why. Surrounded by tall elves and the large dragon, Tinker was stunningly tiny. For the minute of stunned silence that followed the introduction, Tinker seemed younger than Olivia.
And then Tinker started to move, and the impression was lost. “Oh fucking hell, no!”
“What is wrong, domi?” The sekasha started to move between Olivia and Tinker.
The girl smacked them out of her way and bore down on Olivia. The impression of “tiny” vanished.
“How old are you?” Tinker snapped in English.
“Nearly as old as you,” Olivia said.
“The hell you are!” Tinker cried. “I’m an adult.”
“You’re eighteen,” Olivia said as calmly as she could.
“This isn’t about me,” Tinker said. “That crazy old loon—”
“He is not a loon!” Olivia clenched her fist tight. “If you’re not going to be civil, I’ll talk with your husband.”
“I am being civil!” Tinker snorted. “‘Civil’? Who talks like that?”
“Obviously, I do.”
“And you’re what? Fourteen?”
“I’m not here to discuss my age,” Olivia stated firmly. If Tinker guessed the truth, Olivia wouldn’t be able to lie. She needed to put the brakes on the question. “You have no say in what I do with my life, so—” Telling Tinker to shut up would probably be a bad idea.
“Shut the hell up?” Tinker guessed what Olivia hadn’t said aloud.
“Something like that,” Olivia whispered.
“Did he force you?” Tinker asked.
“I tracked him down and asked him to take me as his domi,” Olivia said.
“Do you even know what you’ve signed up for?” Tinker said.
“I was turning tricks on Liberty Avenue,” Olivia said. “Trust me, I know exactly what I was proposing.”
Tinker turned to glare at Tommy Chang.
“She’s not one of mine.” He backed away, hands up, ears flattened to his head like a scared cat. “I only do that for my people. Most of them are my cousins.”
It was amazing to see the most feared underworld figure in Pittsburgh backing up in panic. Then again, there were six sekasha in the room. One female, Olivia noticed, had black tattoos and chest armor instead of blue. Why was she in different colors?