Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

LAYLA CASSIDY

Realm of Shadow Falls

Layla, Chloe, Tego, and Piper arrived in Shadow Falls, where Leonardo immediately shouted for medical aid, which arrived quickly and whisked Piper away to be checked over. Chloe followed behind, and while Layla knew that Piper was going to be fine, she was still concerned for her friend's well-being.

"We need to head over to the palace and speak to whoever's in charge," Layla told Leonardo and Antonio.

"We expecting trouble?" Antonio asked.

"Lamashtu," Layla said. "Shape-shifter, murderer, and generally just an all-around bitch. She hurt Piper. She almost killed her. Tried to kill a bunch of other people too. Maybe Athena."

"Athena's dead?" Leonardo asked. "I never thought that was going to happen."

"We're not sure, but maybe," Layla said sadly. She'd never met Athena, but anyone who'd died at the hands of Arthur and his minions had died at the hands of awful people. Layla didn't wish that on too many people.

"So what do you need?" Antonio asked.

"There's a possibility that Lamashtu is heading to Washington, DC, to break out Gawain," Layla said. "I don't have long before I need to head there and check with Roberto."

"I can change the destination," Leonardo said, and he turned to the realm gate.

Chloe walked into the temple. "So we going or what?" she asked. "If Lamashtu is in Washington, I plan on turning her into the world's largest pincushion."

"How graphic," Leonardo said as the realm gate came to life. "Good luck, you three."

Tego bumped into Leonardo, who sighed and scratched the huge cat behind the ear, before she followed Chloe and Layla into the realm gate.

Once in Washington, DC, they were soon out of the Lincoln Memorial and running toward where all the humans were. They reached the edge of the cordon at Lafayette Square, and Roberto spotted them and waved them over.

"And what can we do for you both?" he asked.

Layla and Chloe told him about what had happened since they'd left the Earth realm.

"Lamashtu might come back here?" Roberto asked, looking around, suddenly concerned.

"She could be anyone," Layla said.

"Gawain is in a safe house," Roberto said. "It's guarded by enough dwarven runes to be a serious problem for anyone, no matter their power. Lamashtu can't get in there as someone else—her shape-shifting wouldn't work."

"Okay, how about blowing it up?" Chloe asked.

"She'd need a nuke," Roberto said.

Layla looked around. "Could she get a nuke?"

"No," Roberto said, putting an end to that fear.

"Okay, so Gawain isn't the target," Layla said. "Maybe she doesn't come here. Maybe she goes elsewhere. I do feel a little better for having checked, though."

"I'm still uneasy," Chloe said.

"I can take you both to the safe house," Roberto said. "It's not far from here."

"Would that be okay?" Layla asked.

"Let me go check on a few things, and I'll be right back," Roberto said and walked off toward one of the large tents.

Chloe entered a nearby tent, which was full of people in army fatigues or suits, looking over large amounts of paper spread over a table.

Layla joined her, and several of the people in the tent stopped what they were doing.

"Can we help?" a middle-aged woman with short dark hair asked.

"What's that?" Layla asked, pointing to the blown-up photos on the table.

"We're with the rebellion," Chloe said. "We might be able to help."

The lady looked beyond Layla and Chloe to Tego, who took up a large portion of the tent entrance.

"Is that tame?" she asked.

"Tego is a her," Layla said. "And not even slightly tame, but she's friendly so long as you don't call her a ‘that.'"

Tego yawned, revealing the razor-sharp teeth.

"We found this mark in sixteen different spots around the White House North and South Lawns, Pershing Park, the President's Park, and all the way down to the Washington Monument," the woman said. "Same mark. Hundreds of times."

"Have you had any dwarves read it?" Chloe asked, picking up one photo and staring at it.

"None of them can translate it," a young man in army fatigues said. "It's elven, apparently."

"Tarron could read this," Layla said. "If he wasn't in a different realm."

"So someone is writing Elvish all over Washington?" Chloe said.

Roberto arrived before anyone could say anything else. "Hey, you're in here. We've been given clearance."

"These marks—any ideas?" Layla said, holding up a photo to Roberto.

Roberto shook his head. "We've been trying to get Gawain to tell us, but he's essentially turned into the Joker at this point. Mocking and laughter. That's all we've gotten from him."

"Have you tortured him yet?" Chloe asked.

The room fell silent.

"We don't do that," Roberto said.

"Do we need to find someone who does?" Chloe asked.

"Let's go see Gawain," Roberto said hurriedly, ushering Chloe and Layla out of the tent, with Tego following behind.

It was a short walk to the safe house, which was in an otherwise innocuous building on the other side of Freedom Plaza.

Roberto opened the door and motioned for everyone to go into the foyer beyond, where twenty heavily armed individuals stood next to a set of elevator doors.

"Tego, you stay here," Layla said. "Just in case."

Tego curled up on the floor next to the elevator, and Layla stroked her head before getting in and heading up to the top floor. The doors opened, revealing another dozen heavily armed personnel.

"They're at least taking Gawain seriously," Chloe said as Roberto led them down a corridor and used a key card to get inside a room with cameras and a one-way mirror, which looked into a much smaller room that contained a chair, table, and mattress. Runes adorned every surface inside the cell.

There were three people inside the room with Layla, Chloe, and Roberto: President Lopez, a Secret Service agent, and a general who Layla was pretty sure was called Blake. Gawain was sitting down on the mattress, staring at the one-way mirror. Occasionally, he waved.

"He's not bleeding a lot," Layla said. "That's unexpected."

"He's not doing anything," President Lopez said. "He occasionally swears at us."

"You want to try?" General Blake asked Layla and Chloe.

"No," Chloe said. "I'm really not the person you want in there with him."

Layla sighed. "I can try—not sure it'll do any good. I'm thinking Mordred or Nate would be better suited to getting him to talk."

The Secret Service agent opened the door, and Layla stepped into the cell.

"Layla, isn't it?" Gawain asked.

Layla nodded.

"You going to take this off me?" Gawain asked, showing the sorcerer's band.

"No," Layla said.

"No, I suppose that's too much to hope for," Gawain said.

"The runes all over the city—what are they for?" Layla asked.

"Graffiti is a terrible crime," Gawain said smugly. "But some people just need an artistic outlet. They're art."

"They're elven," Layla said.

"Elven art," Gawain told her with a smile.

"Where is Lamashtu?" Layla asked, trying to think of anything to say that might get Gawain to cooperate.

Gawain shrugged. "Mars?"

"Bye, Gawain," Layla said. "They're going to throw you in a deep dark hole, and you're going to die horribly."

"Ladies first," Gawain said, staring through Layla with a gaze that made her shiver.

The door burst open, and General Blake walked in. "You vile little shit," he shouted, waggling a finger at Gawain. "You think you can sit there and smile. You attacked our country; you murdered our president. You're going to be tried as a war criminal for this, you're going to be executed, and if I have my way, it'll be a slow, long death."

Gawain looked over at Blake, who was three feet away and flushed with rage. "I guess he's a lady," Gawain said, and he sprang up from his bed toward Blake and tore out his throat with his teeth. Layla dived into Gawain and dragged him away as Roberto and Chloe entered the room; the latter smashed the butt of a fire extinguisher into Gawain's face.

Layla pushed the semiconscious sorcerer to the floor, and he started to laugh, his broken nose making the sound even more unnerving.

Paramedics dragged the general out, but he'd stopped breathing, and as everyone else cleared out of the room, Layla heard one of them say that he'd died.

"Where's President Lopez?" Layla asked.

"She's been taken out of the building," Roberto said. "Back stairs, to an underground system of tunnels. She's safe."

Layla glanced back at Gawain, who was sitting upright again.

Roberto's radio went off, and he left the room, leaving Chloe and Layla alone.

"You think we should just kill him?" Chloe said. "It would be doing the world a favor."

Layla stared at her friend for a second. "You okay, Chloe?"

Chloe shook her head. "I can't stop wanting to wash my hands. I've scrubbed them a dozen times, and I still keep thinking Piper's blood is on them. I keep smelling it."

"You want to go back to Shadow Falls?" Layla asked. "I can hold the fort here, try and figure out if Lamashtu is actually turning up and, if not, try and figure out where she's gone."

Chloe shook her head. "No, I want to stay here."

Layla took her friend's hand in hers. "I'm glad," she said.

Roberto reentered the room. "We've got a situation," he said. "There's a really angry dwarf lady over at the square yelling at people."

"How angry?" Layla asked.

"She threatened to tear the head off a soldier and stuff it up the ass of another one," Roberto said.

"Jinayca," Layla and Chloe said in unison.

The trip back to Lafayette Square was done at a jog, and Jinayca's voice could be heard well before any of the three reached her. As they turned the corner and reached the edge of Lafayette Square, it was apparent that Jinayca was not alone. There were two dozen dwarven soldiers and Selene with her.

Selene spotted the three first and ran over to meet them.

"What's going on?" Chloe asked.

"Lamashtu is here," Selene said. "Nate took the memories of a Fury, and he saw the plan they hatched. She's here with those elves."

"There's Elvish written all around this part of the city," Layla said.

"What does it say?" Jinayca asked, having finally been convinced to stop berating the soldiers.

Layla, Roberto, and Chloe took everyone to the tent, while Tego milled around outside. Jinayca took one look at the writing and almost gasped. The human members inside all turned to watch the newcomers with a mixture of concern and interest.

"That's a realm gate destination rune," Jinayca said. "They're trying to turn a part of Washington, DC, into a giant realm gate."

"Can't we just erase some of the runes?" Roberto asked.

"I'd need time to figure out the way to do it without them exploding or doing something worse," Jinayca said. "And I'm not sure we have that time."

"They're going to bring an army through into here," Layla said, horror dawning on her.

"We need to find them now," Selene said. She looked up at the humans in the tent. "Get everyone you can ready; we're going hunting."