Brave the Tempest Read online

  Something came at me in a rush of huge, bat-­like wings, but Saffy jerked me to the side before I saw it clearly. And before I ended up as road kill, although I barely noticed. I was too busy gawping like a tourist, because I’d seen portals before, and even been in a few. But nothing like this.

  Nothing even close to this.

  It was the Grand Central Station of portals, I thought, in awe.

  They were all different colors: one electric blue; another neon green; one pink enough to rival Hilde’s handbag; another a brilliant, sunny yellow; there was a purple so rich it looked like it was laced with glitter, a white so bright it hurt my eyes, and an ebony so dark that no light seemed to escape it at all, like a black hole had opened up inside the room.

  There had to be thirty of them, maybe more. I couldn’t tell because, while some were at least two stories tall, others were as small as my doubled fists, just tiny things, and hard to spot in all the moving light. It cascaded down from the largest as if through stained glass, increasing the cathedral-­like feel of the place. And throwing a moving, watery rainbow onto the crowd, while the combined energy field vibrated the rock beneath our feet.

  But the fact that the portals were literally powerful enough to move a mountain wasn’t the most impressive thing about them. That would be the fact that they were fritzing and sparking with tiny, lightning-­like filaments, sometimes fighting with each other, and occasionally arcing away to blow off this person’s hat or to shock that person’s backside. The wind generated by all that energy was also blowing people’s hair and stuff around, causing them to clutch their belongings tightly as they plowed ahead.

  I could see it all, because the portals were just giant, ­2-­D, semitransparent circles hanging in the air, instead of being projected against anything. Passengers entered them from the interior of the circle and exited from the opposite side, often at the same time. That sometimes made it appear as if a man went in and a woman came out, causing me to do a few double takes.

  And then to do another when a portal—­roughly human height and bright green—­suddenly winked out, causing a fey-­looking woman barreling ahead and carrying a load of packages to hit a large . . . something . . . that had just emerged from the other side.

  She went down, her packages scattering everywhere, while the large shaggy something, with a head the size and shape of a buffalo’s, turned to regard her in surprise. And then to help her up with a giant paw and assist her in picking up her belongings. She shoved bright purple hair out of her face and thanked him prettily.

  I just stood there and blinked at them.

  “May I have your attention, please.” The announcement cut through the cacophony, loud enough to make me jump. “May I have your attention, please. We are sorry to announce that service to Lalaquaie, Avery, and the Green Mountains has been disrupted. This is due to a roaming party having been sighted in the area. Management apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause.”

  A groan went through the space, and a bunch of people broke off from the crowd and went grumbling back out of the circle of light, looking like travelers who had just missed their train.

  Which is basically what they were, I realized.

  It really was Grand Central, or at least the magical, highly illegal, the-­Circle-­would-­shit-­a-­brick-­if-­they-­saw-­this equivalent.

  “Where are they getting all the power?” I yelled at Saffy, while it blew my hair in my face. “I didn’t think there was a ley line sink anywhere near here!”

  That was the only thing I knew of that could fuel something like this. The ley lines, usually used for quick transport by people with the stomach for it, were rivers of magical power that flowed around the earth. Their source was debated, but one thing was sure: when a number of them crossed at the same point, they created pools of energy that were a coveted resource in the magical world. But the only place like that nearby was on the other side of Vegas, not to mention being in the Circle’s hands.

  Saffy said something, but I couldn’t hear her. It was deafening this close. She must have thought so, too, because she was already tugging me away, out of the cathedral-­like central space, and into . . .

  “What is this?” I asked, stumbling forward slightly, because the floor was uneven and I was too busy staring around to pay attention. The portal light was still bright here, but no longer blinding. Allowing me to see that the main travel hub bisected a long, rock-­cut corridor lined with shops, cafés, restaurants, and—­

  “What’s that?” I said. And hurried across the crowded causeway to a shop framed by large, glowing crystal formations in bright pink and yellow, where dwarves were hammering out something on giant anvils.

  The anvils were huge, as were the hammers they were using. But scattered around the cave-­like shop, behind force fields covering depressions in the rock, were the most exquisite, delicate creations imaginable. Gorgeous necklaces in quivering gold flakes that scintillated fascinatingly when you breathed on them. Daggers of chased silver set with what had to be talisman jewels, because they boiled with enough power to raise the hair on my arms, and I wasn’t even that close. Chalices covered with runes that flashed different colors as various sorts of people passed by, one of which had an almost human-­looking eye that opened and blinked at me when I accidentally brushed the pedestal it was on.

  I reached out, unthinking, to steady it, and Hilde grabbed my arm. “You bond with it, you buy the nasty thing,” she warned me, as a dwarf rubbed his hands on his apron and came hurrying over.

  But the cup righted itself on its own, and I was already caught in wonder by the next shop in line.

  “Oh, wow,” I murmured, running over to stare through the huge, force field–­like front window, behind which a trio of animated mannequins was slowly turning.

  They were interesting enough on their own—­with scarlet lips that stretched into smiles when they noticed my interest and bright, jewel-­like eyes that completely failed to look human, but I was more captivated by what they were wearing.

  “What is that?” I breathed, watching as the exquisite evening dress one of them had on, a light, floaty, silken thing, like flower petals made into cloth, suddenly changed—­into scale-­like armor that cascaded down the full length of it, turning it into a battle dress to match the shield that folded out from the purse she’d been carrying.

  Goddamn, I could use one of those!

  But I hardly had time to take it in before a little graffitied crab was waving its pincers at me from a nearby rock wall. It was bright red and blended in a little too well with the stone. But the movement caught my eye, and its urgency made me follow it from the front of the sushi place it had been decorating, across the bumpy floor, and over to the other side of the huge, mall-­like space.

  Where I was promptly distracted by a magical tattoo parlor where powerful tats were being applied to several clients. And by a candy store, where a kid had just dropped a package, releasing a cloud of buzzing taffy bees. And by a bookstore full of animated ladders that zipped around overstuffed shelves five stories high and advertised book binding in “properly sourced dragon hide—­certificates upon request.” And by a florist, where gorgeous flowers spilled out of the shop and into the walkway in colorful profusion.

  The scent was almost overpowering this close, because I didn’t know these fragrances. And because the baskets of dried herbs inside were adding their perfume to the fresh flowers piled around the door. But despite that, a group of bright pink blooms were so sweet that I couldn’t resist moving in for a—­

  Saffy grabbed my arm. “Don’t sniff those. Unless you like fur.”

  “What?”

  But then I noticed that my little red guide was waiting for me, just up ahead, where—­

  “Oh my God!”

  “It’s like shopping with a sugared-­up toddler,” someone said behind me, but I was already off, heading
for a large force field of the kind that subbed for window glass around here, but this wasn’t covering a window. It stretched from the bumpy floor to the rocky overhang of a ceiling, several stories up, and curved as if flowing around a corner. Only there was no bend here, just a wedge-­shaped protrusion out into the corridor, one that was filled with—­

  No.

  It couldn’t be.

  I ran up and pushed a finger against the field, which bounced around like jelly. Or like what it was, a huge slab of water jutting out from the stone like an aquarium. But it wasn’t an aquarium, because inside weren’t fish but—­

  “Oh my God!”

  “Can you do something?” somebody asked.

  “You’re the one who brought her here with no buildup. I told you—­”

  I wasn’t listening. I was pressing my hands and face against the surface of the barrier, passionately wishing the kids were here to see this. We have to bring them, I thought, staring at a bunch of tiny yellow fish—­because there were fish in there, after all, zipping by in the light of more of those weird crystal formations. The crystals were blue and yellow this time, and spiking out from rocky promontories and occasionally the floor, sending what looked like sunlight filtered through water cascading everywhere. Enough that I could see flickers of silver tails, larger than any fish would have, flashing in and out of stalactite-­like formations in front of what appeared to be an extensive cave system.

  But I didn’t care about the caves. I cared about—­

  There! Right there!

  I leaned in, trying to get a better look, sure I was seeing things. Because it couldn’t be what I thought it was. It couldn’t—­

  My face suddenly slipped inside the wedge.

  Oh, shit, I thought, and tried to back out. But before I could manage it, the rest of me was sucked in, too. Leaving me stunned from the sudden shock of cold water, like jumping into a November pool.

  It was close to freezing, but the lack of air was more of a motivator. I started thrashing against the skin of the force field and panicking when it refused to let me through, before I remembered that I could just shift out. Spatial shifting was a perk of an office that desperately needed a few, and it had gotten me out of sticky situations in the past.

  But not this one.

  Because my power didn’t work.

  And, okay, now I was panicking. And staring at ­Hilde’s horrified, slightly distorted face outside the force field, only she wasn’t looking at me. She was looking at something behind me.

  I spun around in the water, almost dropping the damned book I’d been lugging around, because Saffy had said she knew someone who might be able to disenchant it. And then clutching it to my chest, because the whole not-­being-­able-­to-­breathe thing had just been complicated by the arrival of—­

  Well, call them what they are, I thought, staring in awe in spite of everything.

  Because they were mermaids.

  Or mer-­something, I corrected, noticing the finely muscled torsos dipping low to thick, scale-­covered tails. Even with long, filmy hair that floated out behind them like smoke, huge colorless eyes, and weird, almost transparent filaments wafting from the sides of their necks and faces, they didn’t look remotely female. They were also vaguely blue, or maybe that was the light.

  I couldn’t really tell and didn’t care because I was drowning, and because they currently had strange-­looking spears pointed at me menacingly.

  One of them, wearing a neckpiece of glowing crystals in some kind of metal, struck out with his weapon and stabbed violently at my chest. Or, I realized a second later, at the huge bound volume I was holding in front of it. I didn’t think he’d missed, since he was all of a few yards away, and then I really didn’t when bright, yellow-­white glints of light started spearing outward from the book.

  I would have dropped it, but I was afraid he’d miss and hit me. Because he was stabbing it again and again, causing cracks like lightning to run all over it and shedding more of that terrible light. To the point that I couldn’t look at it anymore, I couldn’t look at them, I couldn’t look at anything with my eyes scrunched up in pain.

  Which is why I didn’t see what was coming.

  But I heard it when a sound tore through the eerie quiet, like a hundred whales all deciding to signal at once. And I felt it when something slammed into me, hard as a fist. It was just a current under the water, but it threw me and the book I was still clutching back at the force field, pressing us against it so hard that I opened my mouth to scream before forgetting that I couldn’t, sure that every bone in my body was about to break.

  But the field broke first.

  Suddenly, I was hitting the ground outside along with what felt like half an ocean’s worth of water, leaving me gasping and heaving and coughing until I thought my lungs would come up. Which is why it took me a moment to notice several things: the field was back in place, and half a dozen mermen were on the other side, staring at me with their huge, colorless eyes. Hilde and Saffy were standing in front of me, trying to give me a chance to recover while holding back what looked like a mass stampede of people. And the book—­

  Was going insane.

  I finally gasped in some air and scrambled back a few paces, getting my feet under me in the process. And getting away from where the tome was writhing and jumping and spilling a searchlight’s worth of radiance everywhere. It was strobing the faces of the panicked people flowing around us, who were running away from—­

  What the hell were they running away from?

  I couldn’t see with all that light in my eyes, and with taller people and things flowing around me. And it was so loud in here, with people screaming and the loudspeaker blaring and my ears still half full of water, that I also couldn’t hear what Saffy was yelling at me. Until my ears popped and her voice got through.

  “—­of here! Did you hear me?” she screamed, grabbing and shaking me.

  “No,” I said, and threw up some more water.

  But then the light shifted and the crowd parted for a second, and I was able to see past her shoulder. More specifically, I was able to see a bunch of light fey pouring through one of the portals down the hall, a big one. Along with what looked like—­

  “What the hell is that?” I yelled.

  “Time to go!” Saffy said, a wand in either fist.

  But there was no time to go. No time to process the few dozen impossible things that had just happened and were still happening, because one of said things was about to run us down. The silver-­haired light fey soldiers streaming out of the portal were attacking people with the weird spears they liked to use, which could deliver anything from cattle-­prod-­like encouragement to fry-­you-­where-­you-­stand bolts, but that wasn’t the main problem.

  No, the main problem was the elephant-­like thing that a bunch of them were riding, and that had just torn its way through the portal. It was enormous, at least five times the size of the earthly animal, and suddenly made the huge space seem a lot smaller and more claustrophobic. And when it bellowed, the very air seemed to shake.

  Or maybe that was all the screams that suddenly joined in, like a chorus following the lead singer, because the thing was about to charge. Make that was charging, right down the rock-­cut corridor, giving people very few places to go. Especially us, because the only “shop” within reach was full of mermen, who were still floating there, enjoying the show.

  Only they weren’t looking at the crazed, mutant elephant, I realized. They were looking at—­

  “You have got to be kidding me!” I screamed, as something finished shredding the book and boiled out into the air. And, unlike in evil Santa’s shop, I got a good look at it.

  “That’s not a ghost!” Hilde yelled.

  No shit, I thought, staring upward.

  At the giant column of black smoke that had already filled the spa
ce above us, looking like an oil fire, except oil fires don’t have glowing red eyes. Ones that turned on me menacingly a second later, as what I guess was a head stopped churning around the ceiling and dropped down in a sinuous, almost snakelike gesture. Right in my face.

  I just stood there, trying to think where my power could send it, assuming I had any right now, which I wasn’t sure of, because I couldn’t feel it. I couldn’t feel anything but stark raving terror. Which wasn’t helped by the latest screeching bellow the damned charging elephant I’d somehow managed to forget about let out.

  I screamed, because that’s what you do when you’re trapped between a powerful, pissed-­off demon and ten tons of charging fury, wondering which will kill you first.

  It looked like it was going to be the elephant, which was almost on top of us now, roaring and blowing and slinging people out of the way, left and right, with its huge tusks—­

  And then trying to stop on a dime when it was suddenly confronted with an even bigger, even madder, even more destructive force that, for some reason, was now grabbing the feys’ huge ride and—­

  “Oh God!” I yelled, right before Saffy tackled me and flung us both back against the merpeople’s ward, causing several of them to rear back in alarm.

  But this time, we didn’t go through. This time, we stayed put, Hilde and Saffy warding like mad, putting a shield in front of us and several other people who had ducked inside that I’d have defied anything to get through.

  Including the elephant thing’s guts, which were spraying all over the place, like bloody rain. Some people were still screaming, and others were just standing there, covered in blood and watching in shock as not-­a-­ghost sliced and diced the ride and then started on the fey. And then the whole long concourse of traumatized shoppers gasped when the mighty group of fey warriors turned tail and ran like all the demons of hell were after them.