Warrior Rising - By Pamela Palmer Page 0,28

There's been no sign of Esri over there."

"Paige was the one guarding the ones at Fort McNair, wasn't she?"

Charlie didn't answer immediately and when he did, his voice was grave. "She phoned Jack the moment they spotted the Esri. The delivery van the bastards hid inside didn't stop at the gate, so the MPs shot out the tires. That's when all hell broke loose. A dozen Esri leaped from the van carrying swords. The flamethrowers were useless against them, thanks to King Rith's ability to douse fire. The only reason you guys were able to use them the other night, apparently, was that the bastard ran and didn't bother to put them out. Tonight he did. The Esri cut down every man in their path. And every woman."

Harrison felt a kick in the gut. "Paige is dead."

"Yes."

Dammit. He'd only known her a couple weeks, but she'd been strong and decent. "Any other Sitheen?"

"No, and no Esri deaths. Once King Rith got the stones and sang, not even the holly worked. Every human on that base lost consciousness. There was no one to stop them on the way out."

Harrison gripped the steering wheel hard. "He's on his way to Bolling."

"We think so, too, but we can't get there to defend it. Not with the death marks. If he hasn't figured out where the other stones are, we'll lead him right to them. Getting rid of these death marks has become priority number one. We need you to bring Ilaria to McNair."

"You think raising the draggon stone is worth the risk?"

"If we don't, we're not only sitting ducks, but useless. Once Ilaria's done with the stone, we'll hide it beneath one of the boats and move it. It was in the water at McNair, not far from the other three, yet we've reason to believe King Rith didn't find it. He apparently can't sense that one like he can the others."

A mere stone scenter wouldn't have been able to find any of the stones through the lead-lined boxes hiding beneath the surface of the Anacostia River. Fortunately, Rith's Caller abilities apparently only worked on the lesser stones, not the draggon. Unfortunately, once they pulled the draggon out of its hiding place, Rith, like any stone scenter, would be able to follow the magical scent.

"I'll get Ilaria over there as fast as I can."

"Call me when you're close."

"Will do." Harrison snapped his phone closed and looked at Ilaria. "How much of that could you hear?"

"All of it."

"That's what I was afraid of." Traffic was moving, if not quickly, so they stayed in the car, easing around a delivery van smashed up against the rail. "How well do you know King Rith?"

"Not well. After my first centuries, I spent little time in the Fair Court. Fifteen hundred years ago, I returned for a short while, to discover my mother had taken a new consort. Rith. I have a rare ability to sense power in others and I knew at once he had the markings of a dark Caller. I told the queen, but she was enamored of him and ordered me out of the Fair Court. She had no use for me or my complaints, as she called them. I stole the seven stones and ran."

"It sounds like you didn't have a lot of respect for your mother."

"I didn't." She raked a frustrated hand through her hair. "Don't get me wrong. I loved her. But she never saw the crown as a responsibility, only a privilege, and was concerned exclusively with her own needs and wishes. It was my mother who first enslaved the humans, then turned on the Marceils when the humans were lost to us after I sealed the gates. She wasn't intentionally cruel, she simply never considered anyone but herself."

"You disapproved of the enslavement?"

She exhaled a sharp breath. "The Esri don't need slaves. Ours is a simple world. A small bit of work is all it takes to live in comfort, but my mother wanted all things given to her. And her couriers and ladies learned to desire the same."

Harrison enjoyed the sound of her words, hearing the frustration and regret as she painted the picture of a strong-willed, honorable heroine in a larger-than-life family drama. A fairy princess thwarting her queen mother and the evil consort who meant to take advantage. But what was the truth? Was she intentionally painting herself in a heroic light? Or merely recounting the past as she remembered it? Or was she out-and-out lying to