There wasn’t much to do, while waiting for Niko to analyze the recovered crystals. JC was staying near Niko in the dining room, in case he needed help or anything unexpected happened.
The rest of them sat on the stone rim of the fountain or lounged on the ground below or, for Theo and Dulce, leaned on the inner edge while in the water. Emma had seated herself on the edge, shadow-black sandals removed so she could dangle her feet in the water, and chatted with Dulce and Paz and Orfeo in rather broken Spanish that was nonetheless better than any of their seven could do; Theo was following as best she could, and Alison heard her sometimes adding information or asking questions. She hoped the conversation involved getting the trio caught up on recent events—she knew Theo had been trying, but some concepts were hard to get across.
The other four wisps preferred to stay in and around a tree, one still in a hammock while recovering from extensive injury, the others both protective and feeling safer. Alison hoped the flock as a whole could genuinely begin to trust that with friends around, they would not be harassed.
Kayla was practically twitching, though she stayed quiet and apparently lost in thought, sitting with her legs crossed near the inner edge of the stone where Theo could reach her. Zach kept getting up and prowling restlessly, returning to curl into a ball next to Kayla in an attempt to relax, then rolling off the edge and back to his feet to do another circuit around the immediate area.
No one was really relaxed. Not with an unknown presence, potentially a threat, loose on the island. How many of those things were out there? Alison was quite sure that not one of them believed that there were only the three they’d captured.
Something she couldn’t quite explain, a flutter of instinct somewhere in her mind, prompted her to look towards the house. Heartbeats later, Des’ ears twitched and swivelled, and she raised her head from her crossed arms.
Niko came around the house from the front door, JC a stride behind him to one side.
Theo ducked under and, a couple of heartbeats later, surfaced next to Kayla to cross her arms on the stone. “Well?”
Kayla blinked and turned in place, suddenly alert and focused. “What the hell are they?”
“Spies,” Niko said. “Someone hacked the Gate, with enough skill to prevent even a notification on the central control system that it had ever opened, and held it just long enough to slip one through. They were programmed to divide in two every time they encountered or collected enough resources to do so, and then both would continue at a set angle to either side of the original course. Once they run into a barrier they can’t cross, they’re supposed to reverse course and gather together, then search for a place that they can get a signal out.”
“Like Lloyd,” Alison said. “Moving around near the pasture with a mirror. He reminded me of someone trying to get a phone signal.”
“Exactly. Don’t ask me to explain why some locations give better access outside the shields, the reasons are complicated and on an island this complex there are likely to be factors I don’t know about. They were supposed to send one final collective data burst with everything they found.”
“What for?” Kayla asked. “Who sent them?”
“I have no idea. But whoever was behind Lloyd would be at the top of the list of my suspects. It would have to be a powerful wizard. Arctos is getting as many as possible searching for Phrixos, but I highly doubt that he has said anything that would point anyone in this direction. That dramatically reduces the list of wizards aware that there might be anything here to see, let alone strong enough to pull this off and motivated enough to bother. The simplest explanation is that it’s someone already involved. Say, someone wondering why his accomplice has dropped out of contact.”
“Lovely. So how do we prevent it?”
“Keep them from reaching critical mass? Because I don’t know a way to identify every location that would allow contact and block it, or to ramp up the shields to prevent everything. But that is easier said than done.”
Emma, who had drifted closer, shook her head. “You have a hundred faelings, all over the island, and many of them have natural abilities that would allow them to track and capture those things. What we need is a way to get word to them that they should and what they should do once they have.”
“It’s only a couple of miles from here to the edge at any point,” Alison said. “But radiating outwards across rough ground could take an hour even moving steadily and would miss a lot, even if we can convince others to start helping and relaying it. They’ve already had time. Who knows how much they could multiply by then?”
“We need a broadcast system,” Theo sighed. “One set of decent big outdoor speakers, arranged directionally, would be able to cover the whole island.”
“Nee’ In’erne’,” Des muttered. “Connec’ all in a ne’work.”
“We don’t have tech,” Niko said slowly, “but there is one network that literally every faeling on the island is linked to.”
“What?” Suzi said in confusion. “What do you mean, a network?”
“You’re all wearing cuffs made of pure aether. They are all linked to the gold bracelet Kayla has. It might be possible to hack it enough to give us, say, thirty seconds or so of someone’s voice projecting from every cuff.”
“Um...” Emma said, and hesitated.
“It’s okay,” Theo told her. “If you have info or thoughts, throw them in.”
Emma took a deep breath. “No one will trust that. Word is still spreading that Isabel and the wizards have been overthrown, but a lot of that will be rumours and they won’t know what to believe or how to feel. They won’t trust this. They’re more likely to think it’s Isabel playing mindgames.”
“Then give them a familiar voice,” Suzi suggested. “They all know you, Emma. If you tell them, maybe they’d listen. More of them, anyway.”
Theo nodded. “A voice people recognize and trust can make a big difference, Suzi’s right. Will you do the talking, Emma?”
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“I... I suppose so,” Emma said, startled. “But I need to know what to say.”
“What are we going to tell them to do with them?” JC asked Niko.
“To kill them, they need to remove the crystals from the body or damage them enough in situ—by crushing, say. They should allow about twenty minutes, and after that, they can be tossed into the recycling system.”
“No way to count twenty minutes,” Zach said.
“Bury,” Des said. “Will go away. Jus’ slower. Verifying gone har’ though.”
“What about a bounty?” JC said. “Bring them here or to the house fae for a reward. We can think of something.”
Emma raised her hand slightly, although no higher than her shoulder. “Um... the house is full of things people would want. Even if you make the kitchen and the third floor off-limits. There are games, books, blankets, basic toiletries, tools in the workshop... all kinds of things.”
“One item per critter?” JC said. “I don’t think we could declare anything to be worth more than one, and values will vary. That works if they come here directly. What if they don’t want to come here and go to the house fae?”
“They might not be comfortable with their names on a list, if they aren’t comfortable coming here. Maybe we could gather up some things and take them out there, and Jo can let people pick something?”
“That sounds like it might work,” Kayla said. “But it won’t fit in thirty seconds, so just tell them there will be a reward for each one.” She unbuckled her watch and handed it to Theo. “Here. You’re the DJ. Figure out a thirty-second ad. Jace? Go find something to write on and with, eh? Niko, what do you need?”
“You,” Niko said, as JC nodded, pivoted in place, and strode back towards the house. “I won’t ask you to take off that cuff, I know you won’t and I’m in complete agreement, but I need access to it and to one of the aether ones.”
“Mine,” Suzi suggested.
Alison figured odds were high Suzi was offering because she felt like she wouldn’t have anything else to offer. She hoped that any further evolution or experimentation revealed some ability that would make Suzi feel less like she was the weak link. It seemed unlikely that there would be a whole class of fae who were effectively helpless against fae or faeling aggression. How did evolution work for fae, anyway? Surely it must in some fashion.
“That’s fine,” Niko said. “I need you and Kayla, and I need to concentrate, so we’re going to need to move away from the, ah, hub of activity here.”
Kayla hopped off the edge of the fountain and held out a hand to Suzi. “Lead on.” Suzi slipped her hand into Kayla’s.
They moved a short distance away, until Niko stopped and sat down on the grass. Kayla sat across from him, still holding Suzi’s hand; Suzi crossed her legs and let her minimal gravity and probably some gentle pressure from Kayla ease her downwards. Niko, meanwhile, dropped his backpack in front of him and began to rummage in it.
Alison looked at Zach and Des and Erica. “Best approach to hunting these things?”
*If they’re radiating out from the Gate,* Erica said silently, *and splitting as they go but continuing to radiate, then there is probably a ring of them roughly equidistant from the Gate.*
Alison repeated that out loud, just in case anyone else was paying any attention.
“Ragged ring,” Zach said. “Varied terrain, obstacles, don’t know if they swim or climb.”
“If no’ swim,” Des said, “no’ gonna go far.”
“True,” Alison said. “If they aren’t alive, maybe they can’t drown. I don’t think all of us being out hunting is a good idea.”
“No,” Zach said flatly. “Have to protect Kayla and Niko. Glad others aren’t here. If other faelings are coming here to drop off bounties, not letting Kayla be alone.”
Alison kept her sigh to herself. Zach wasn’t actually paranoid, she reminded herself. That was a dragon’s instinct to protect what he valued, and he valued Kayla’s safety very highly. It was possible she could talk him into seeing their invaders as a greater threat to Kayla, which would mean a compromise of trusting one or more of the rest to act as bodyguard, but she wasn’t sure—either that she could, or that she should. There could be multiple faelings arriving at fountain and house in quick succession, and they weren’t necessarily human-friendly.
“We can at least search the centre,” Alison said for Erica, who nodded. “I know they’re supposed to be radiating out from the Gate and they should be through the walls and out the far side by now, but they might be lingering in the important area or be slowed by the walls or something. It would probably be smart to check.”
Zach tilted his head, forehead furrowing, and he opened his mouth to say something. Alison already knew what it was.
“Not all of us together,” she said quickly. “You two make a good team hunting these things, since Zach can see them and Des can catch them fast. We’ll stay here, and even if Jace and Suze start collecting stuff from the house we can use as prizes, Theo will be here too. Between us we can keep things under control long enough for you to get back if there’s a problem.”
Slowly, Zach nodded, and traded glances with Des. Both got up.
“Radiate from Gate,” Zach muttered. “Hard to know where to start. Far walls?”
“Yes,” Des agreed. She glanced back as they left, and winked, a flicker of the yellow that lined her eyes and created those dramatic stripes at the corners. Alison hadn’t passed on the other part of what Erica had said, but they were all in clear agreement: Zach would find his stress over an attack easier to cope with if he could stay active, and Des could keep her head if anything happened.
Meanwhile, she could see Theo sitting on the stone ledge and scribbling notes on a pad of paper; Emma was alternating between offering her opinions when asked, and trying to explain to the Spanish trio.
Niko had a device out that looked rather like a compact brass keyboard, although it seemed to have small levers as well as keys. Four complex-looking wires extended from it, two of them attached somehow to Kayla’s gold cuff, two to Suzi’s glassy one. Kayla and Suzi both looked patient, while he did things rapidly on the keyboard thing.
JC was visible halfway back to the house, those strides surprisingly casual and efficient when you knew their house fae had to choose every motion deliberately, but Alison figured that familiar sequences must work automatically without conscious direction of every single muscle in order, otherwise she’d be unable to walk. The changes created by wider hips, lower centre of gravity, and the heels of her boots didn’t cause any difficulty, though, so maybe it all somehow translated?
Or it was all just fae magic, like her own ability to move freely and confidently with over twice the mass balanced on broad hooves.
“I’m going to go get the wagon,” she told Erica. “And park it by the front door for Jace to throw some reward items into. We have no idea how many of those things are out there or how many might be brought to the house fae or what anyone might want, but anything no one claims for this, probably the house fae can make use of.”
Erica nodded. *It feels terrible in a way,* she said silently. *Part of me wants to just throw open the house and let everyone take whatever they want. The rest of me knows that would not be a good and effective way to make things better. And none of that is relevant in the middle of a crisis, when a few simple rewards might motivate people to do what’s in their own best interests anyway.*
Alison laid a hand over Erica’s and squeezed. “I know,” she said softly, out loud. If there was a way to keep all six of her friends from hearing her when she spoke privately, she had yet to figure it out, though she remained hopeful. That meant that, oddly, the only way to make sure only Erica heard was to say it out loud. “We’ll make things better for them as fast as we can. Right now, let’s concentrate on making sure no one gets to spy on us and possibly use that info against us.”