doubt she would even know how to fight. She might be able to hide herself or others from those who choose to pursue her as escaped property, but I’m not even sure she could still do that. Elementals gain power through the mortals bound to them, often as they are worshipped. The Shantel have been gone for centuries. Their elemental would have weakened.”
“I think the Shantel elemental spoke to me, through Pet,” Jay said.
“It spoke to you?” Rikai asked, sounding intrigued. “You’re lucky you’re still alive. I suppose using Pet as a conduit protected you. What did it say?”
Moment of truth?
Not yet. “I’d rather not share. But it didn’t seem weak.”
“A weak elemental is still the strongest thing you will ever encounter in your life, short of a stronger elemental or a bona fide god, should such a thing exist,” Rikai answered. “Even now, the power it left on you from your brief encounter is dripping off you in buckets.”
“What?” Now he knew how people felt when they spoke to him. What was she talking about? “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“It’s the only reason you and your ‘rather not share’ are still sitting in my study,” Rikai answered with a smile that was more predatory than pleasant. “You have traces of half a dozen different magics on you, which I suspect you gained by wandering into areas where you were not welcome. For Xeke’s sake, I’ll warn you that some of those spells learn. Escaping them will prove more difficult next time.”
“Thanks,” he whispered. It had been hard enough to escape them last time. “Xeke mentioned me?”
“No.”
Then how … No, never mind. “Do elementals, I don’t know, grandstand? This one offered a lot, but you’re saying it probably can’t deliver.”
Rikai laughed. “Little witch, most elementals think of themselves as gods. They crave worship, and I have never met one capable of admitting to its own limitations. Most of them will offer anything, in exchange for a mortal’s devotion. Grandstanding, as you put it, is all they do.”
So the Shantel elemental probably couldn’t do anything. It hadn’t been strong enough to reach its sakkri on its own, but it had obviously been desperate to do so. It knew Jay was afraid of Midnight, so it had told him what he wanted to hear.
Simultaneously disappointed and relieved, Jay rose to his feet, saying, “Thank you for your time. You’ve been very helpful.”
Rikai didn’t bother to stand. “I had thought your question might be more interesting.”
“I’m kind of glad it wasn’t,” he answered.
Jay couldn’t help the shapeshifter unless she asked for his help. In the meantime, if the sakkri went up against Midnight and failed, it would be sad, but if Jay understood Midnight’s rules right, the mess wouldn’t land on SingleEarth. The sakkri’s so-called owner would be the one held responsible.
Honestly, if he awoke after two centuries of slavery to discover his entire culture had been destroyed, Jay would probably be willing to throw away his life on a hopeless quest for vengeance, too. What did she have to lose?
CHAPTER 14
MIND ONLY SLIGHTLY more at ease, Jay followed Rikai’s servant to the doorway and then tackled the long drive back to SingleEarth. He ordered his usher tux for Jeremy and Caryn’s wedding, but when he found the bride and groom fussing over a seating chart—No, we can’t place Aunt Celia so close to Mark; she’s an uncontrolled psychic and won’t be able to screen out his schizophrenia—he fled to the library.
I’ll update them later.
He tried searching for more information about the Shantel, but the quiet library with its large plush chairs suggested another plan.
In his head, though, voices were arguing. All he wanted was to drift peacefully, but he couldn’t quiet the furious, faceless entities whose voices intruded on his dreamworld.
Do you have no control over your children? They are vicious, hungry creatures without any compassion or drive except to destroy and enslave.
Unlike some of our kind, I know the difference between an immortal and a god. If there is a deity greater than us, then surely he is the one who gave mortals free will. Whine to him, not me.
You stole my priestess!
If I had not stolen your priestess, she would have been dirt long ago, just like all the others.
We trusted you.
That was foolish.
“I want to see the pretty witch!”
Brina’s voice, apparently still musical even at high volumes, pulled Jay out of bizarre dreams that left him groggy and disoriented. When in the last few days