The Fae Artifactor Read online

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  Epilogue

  Author's Note

  Author

  Published by Raconteur House

  Murfreesboro, TN

  THE FAE ARTIFACTOR

  The final book of The Artifactor

  A Raconteur House book/ published by arrangement with the author

  Copyright © 2019 by Honor Raconteur

  Cover by Katie Griffin

  Steampunk golden key with mechanical wings on rusty textural background by Black Moon/Shutterstock; Three steampunk keys with gears of gold, bronze and steel on black background by Black Moon/Shutterstock; Fractal smoke swirl by Martin Capek/Shutterstock

  This book is a work of fiction, so please treat it like a work of fiction. Seriously. References to real people, dead people, good guys, bad guys, stupid politicians, companies, restaurants, cats with attitudes, events, products, dragons, locations, pop culture references, or wacky historical events are intended to provide a sense of authenticity and are used fictitiously. Or because I wanted it in the story. Characters, names, story, location, dialogue, weird humor, and strange incidents all come from the author’s very fertile imagination and are not to be construed as real. No, I don’t believe in killing off main characters. Villains are a totally different story.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  Purchase only authorized editions.

  For information address: www.raconteurhouse.com

  Arandur of South Woods had been a Tracker for many, many years. He knew how to hunt any sort of game, how to track down a lost child, how to search for things not visible to the human eye. He had decades of experience under his belt and knew how to keep his head cool and calm, even as emotions pitched and roiled within him.

  When Sevana failed to arrive on time, he didn’t immediately panic. Her magic was still unstable; of course she could be delayed. He’d not been able to go with her to the Unda, but his undersea cousins had assured him that they would help her start the craft so that she might be able to fly back without trouble. Still, unforeseen events could have occurred.

  An hour passed, and he still didn’t panic, although he did pick up the Caller and try to reach her. When that failed, he frowned, the first inkling of doubt rearing its ugly head. Leaving Sevana’s study, he went instead to her workroom, finding the largest mirror there and tapping the glass gently with a forefinger. “Milly?”

  The spectral woman appeared in a few minutes, her round face creased in a welcoming smile. “Arandur.”

  “I’m glad you’re here,” he greeted with relief. Sometimes she visited her children and grandchildren, staying about in Sa Kao. While she could hear someone call her name from great distances, it did take a while for her to get back in the right region and trace which mirror the call came from. “I’m a little worried about Sevana. She was due in an hour ago.”

  Milly and Sevana had become rather close friends over the past several months. The matron grew visibly concerned. “You’re never one to make mountains over mole hills. You’re sure she didn’t just have trouble starting her flying device?”

  Shaking his head, Arandur explained, “The Unda swore they would start it for her. She called me seven hours ago and said she was on her way. Unless something unforeseen has gone wrong, I can’t imagine what’s delayed her.”

  “I’ll try calling for her.” Milly disappeared in the next instant, off to whatever reflective surface she thought would be near her friend. Sevana now kept a mirror on Jumping Clouds for the sole purpose of having a backup way to reach home if she fried a Caller. Milly knew exactly which mirror to aim for.

  Rocking back on his heels, Arandur set himself to patiently wait.

  And wait.

  They really had to sort Sevana’s magic out soon. Arandur knew her to be very frustrated, constantly fighting to do the simplest of spells. He shared her frustration, as this was not what he’d intended when he’d put his blood in her, but then, he hadn’t thought of far-reaching consequences at the time. He’d been desperate to save her, nothing else. Now Sevana was this hybrid of Fae and human, her magic core completely disarrayed. No one was sure how to fix her, either.

  It would mean a great deal of travel, time, investigation, and patience, but Arandur was of the opinion that they needed to stop Sevana’s business and focus on sorting her out. Sevana agreed. The Unda had made some noise about a project they wanted her help on, but Sevana had been firm before going down. She’d bring them children, but any other projects needed to wait until her magical core was fixed. Whatever the Unda wanted would have to wait until later.

  They already planned to start with one of Aranhil’s contacts. Not that the Fae king actually liked the idea of finding some sort of balance. He much preferred that Sellion become full Fae and come properly home to South Woods. However, Arandur did not think Sevana was ready to cut her ties to the human world just yet.

  Aranhil and Sevana hadn’t argued about this, but Arandur could see the argument building. It was a question of ‘when,’ not ‘if.’

  Milly snapped back to the mirror so hard it nearly cracked the surface. “Arandur! She’s not in flight. She’s nowhere near Jumping Clouds.”

  Grabbing the mirror’s frame, he focused intently on her. “What exactly did you see? Hear?”

  “I didn’t hear anything,” she denied, visibly agitated and vibrating in place. “But Jumping Clouds is in a storeroom of sorts, a huge room made with grey bricks. There’s a great many magical artifacts stacked on shelves all around it. Sevana’s nowhere in sight.”

  A place with magical artifacts collected? Arandur’s mind sped through the possibilities. Who could possibly catch Sevana mid-flight? Or had they caught her before she could properly get off the ground? Had she crashed? There were too many possibilities. “Did this look like an organized place? Or something cluttered and jumbled, like a looter’s storeroom—”

  She cut him off with a sharp shake of the head. “Very organized, everything labelled. Not a looter’s treasure room. There’s a tag near the steering wheel that reads ‘Cope Research Foundation, Entry 4863.’”

  Alright, that gave him a better idea of what was going on. Some organization had hold of her. The name vaguely rang a few bells for Arandur but he felt like it was something that Sevana had mentioned in passing; he had no knowledge of the place itself. “Tell me about Jumping Clouds itself. Does it look damaged? Do you believe she crashed?”

  “No, it looks perfectly intact,” Milly said, chewing on her bottom lip. “I don’t think she crashed. I don’t see any other mirrors in that room, but let me try different areas, maybe I can find her. You think she stopped for help and couldn’t reach us?”

  “It’s possible. Things like this have happened before. As long as Jumping Clouds didn’t crash land, then she’s likely not hurt. Keep trying to find her. I’ll report this directly to Aranhil and see what Tashjian knows of the place.”

  She waved him off and Arandur ran from the room to grab the Caller sitting on the table in the study, one of the few surviving in the mountain. Sitting down, he activated it carefully. “Tashjian.”

  It took a few moments, then the Caller’s shape changed into that of
Sevana’s master, duplicating the same rumpled clothes, messy hairstyle, and disgruntled expression of the old man. From appearances, it seemed that Tashjian had been in the middle of something and it wasn’t going well. Arandur recognized that look from Sevana, as she wore it often these days. “Well, Arandur, what is it? Don’t tell me Sevana’s melted something again.”

  “I’m actually not sure what’s wrong,” Arandur admitted, trying to phrase this so it wouldn’t alarm the other man unduly. “Sevana was due in an hour ago but she hasn’t arrived. When Milly checked on her, she found Jumping Clouds in what looks to be a storeroom of a place called the Cope Research Institute. Do you know anything about the place?”

  Tashjian’s irritation shifted into concern, mouth drawing down into a frown. “I do. But it’s out of the way for Sevana, she wouldn’t fly over the place. Why is she there?”

  That was indeed the question. “Can you contact them? Do you have a means of doing that?”

  “I do. Let me call and see what’s happened. And don’t panic, I don’t think she’s been kidnapped. Again.”

  Snorting, Arandur drawled, “That would be something, to be kidnapped twice in one month. Alright, I’ll sit and wait for your word.”

  “Call you back in a few minutes,” Tashjian promised, then the Caller went dormant once more. Thinking that it would be best if he had both communication devices in the same room, Arandur picked up the Caller and headed back to the workroom. He sensed Big’s unease and gave the walls a pat as he walked through the hallways. “It’s alright. I don’t think she’s hurt, she’s just either had a misadventure of some sort or got sidetracked by some problem. You know how things go with her.”

  She should be home, Big grumbled back, as discontent as a concerned parent.

  Arandur bit back a smile. Big had adopted Sevana as a daughter of sorts years ago and he hadn’t changed his stance since. Sevana was his little one that needed protecting, and the best way to do that was to have her under his own roof. “She’ll be home, soon enough.”

  He pulled up a stool in front of the mirror, set the Caller down next to it on its small table, and settled into wait. As he did, he considered different possibilities of what had happened, but the strangeness of her current location didn’t make sense. Tashjian was right—if the research institute wasn’t anywhere near her flight path home, then how did she get there?

  With a snap, Milly popped back into the mirror’s image, visibly agitated and moving so much that she rattled the frame of the mirror. “Arandur. I don’t like the look of this one bit. I can’t get any visual on her, there’s not enough reflective surfaces in or out of the building, and the small slivers of reflection that I can use only give me snatches of conversation. I just overhead someone say that ‘her magic is too disruptive, either sedate her again or renew the shield on the room.’”

  Now he felt alarm, flashing hot and cold, and he straightened from his casual slouch on the stool. How many people had a disruptive magical core right now? What were the odds that someone else was like Sevana? “But you didn’t hear anyone use her name?”

  “No. I’ll keep trying, but…” biting at her lip, Milly confided, “I think it was her they were talking about.”

  The Caller abruptly came alive with Tashjian’s features and he looked fit to be tied. “Arandur. I’ve called three different people that I know down there and as soon as they realized it was me, they all immediately ended the call. They looked quite panicked too. I don’t know what’s going on down there, but I think they have Sevana, and I don’t think she’s there of her own volition.”

  “It appears that way,” Arandur agreed, anger building like a steady, roaring fire within him. “Milly overheard a snippet of conversation that makes that very likely. Tashjian, where exactly is this place?”

  “Sa Kao, outside of Aleka. Arandur, perhaps we’re jumping at shadows.”

  “If she’s grounded in a place outside of her flight route, late without calling anyone, and even Milly can’t find her in a place that won’t talk to you? Then we’re not jumping at shadows,” Arandur bit off. “She’s being held against her will. Apparently she really can be kidnapped twice in one month. I’m going after her, Tashjian.”

  Tashjian opened his mouth, ready to argue, then grimaced and bit it back. “No, you’re right, all of that tallied together makes it too conclusive to ignore. But you shouldn’t go after her alone. The research institute has some of the finest magicians in the world. They’ll put up quite the fight even against one of the Fae.”

  The smile that crossed his face was not at all nice. “I never said that I would go alone.”

  Tashjian looked alarmed. “Wait, don’t call a war party for this! We can call the king of Sa Kao, he might be able to help us.”

  “One of ours has been taken. Again. We will not let this go a second time.” Done with the conversation, and anxious to be moving, he pushed the stool back and ran through the tunnels and to the back door in Big as quickly as he could move. He could hear both Tashjian and Milly calling after him, but he ignored them. There was nothing else to say at the moment. The mountain shifted with him, his rocks grating in agitation. Arandur patted a wall in reassurance as he moved. “Don’t worry. I’ll find her.”

  You always do, Big answered, still clearly worried. Be safe.

  “Trust me, Big. I’ll find her.”

  Arandur made a new land speed record getting back to the heart of South Woods. He more or less stumbled into Aranhil’s meadow, panting and flushed, feeling far more out of breath than he had since a child. In fact, he was so out of sorts that people visibly cut themselves off and stared at him.

  Aranhil had been relaxed on his throne but even he straightened, picking up on Arandur’s alarm. “What is it, Arandur?”

  Striding straight for him, Arandur made the proper bow of greeting, then rattled everything off in rapid fire. “Aranhil. Sevana was taken some hours ago by a facility called the Cope Research Foundation.”

  The king of the Fae’s power stirred in a powerful eddy, sparking in anger. “I am displeased. This world seems to think it can take our daughter as it wishes. This facility, it gave no notice to us?”

  “None. Milly was the one who found her location—or I should say, the location of Jumping Clouds. At this time, we still have not ascertained where she resides in the facility. I spoke with Tashjian Joles on the way here and he informs me that there is no viable reason for them to take her. This is a magical research facility, one that is well known and respected in Mander. It has no dark motives that we know of.”

  “That does not ease my mind.” Aranhil stood, snapping out his robes as he did so, every fiber of his being bristling like an enraged porcupine. He gestured to people as he moved. “Lock down the defenses. Mothers, see to the children, and warriors, with me. We will go to Sellion directly. Arandur, you know of where this Institute is?”

  “I do,” Arandur answered, baring his canines in a feral expression. He’d not seen that particular look on his king’s face in decades and he thrilled to see it now. Blood would spill this day.

  Word spread quickly, Aranhil’s command covering all of South Woods within minutes. The very trees sang of a call to arms, the air shaking with the bloodlust that rose. Arandur stopped at his house just long enough to switch weapons, to take on the powerful claymore that he rarely used, then joined the others waiting on the edge of their eastern border. Aranhil had changed from his flowing robes into something imminently practical, a set of armor made of dwarven chainmail and sturdy leathers. He went completely unarmed, however—at least, to the visible eye. Arandur knew better than to take that visual state as truth.

  With everyone gathered on their chellomi, the Fae army moved seamlessly forward. Arandur rode stirrup to stirrup with Aranhil for one reason only—he was the only one among them who knew where to go. Six hundred warriors rode behind him in a thunderous wave of hooves. Aside from the jangling of harnesses and the reverberations of the earth, the party moved
in eerie silence. No one needed to speak or ask questions. They only had one goal in mind: Rescue their taken sister. Destroy those foolish enough to take her.

  They rode. And rode. The chellomi’s hooves barely touched the earth, covering great distances with each stride, golden manes and tails streaming in the wind. They did not tire, or strain, their movements poetry itself as they covered miles and leagues without truly noticing the distance. They passed settlements and towns, villages and farms. The humans came out to see what the commotion was, then stared in awe at their passing. Never in living memory had the Fae nation moved en-masse like this. They watched with first amazement, then growing terror, as they recognized a war party on the hunt.

  And none of them knew the target.

  The war party crossed the borders into Sa Kao without notice or care, as human borders meant little to them. The coast of the Missun Sea was their goal, and the building outside of Aleka—the Cope Research Institute. Arandur led them directly there, across the Sea of Grass, a flat land that gave no trouble to the chellomi’s stride. It took barely seven hours to cross the distance, and they arrived as the moon rose into the sky, the sun settling into its bed beyond the horizon.

  Arandur had been in Aleka a few times before, so he knew the general layout of the city. They avoided its main roads, splitting off to the right toward the two-lane highway that led to the more industrial section of the city. Even at this time of night, their passing did not go unnoticed, and people’s doors and windows popped open to see what the noise was. One good look, and they frantically shut them again, calling out warnings to their families and neighbors to stay inside. The close quarters of the buildings on either side of the road made it easy to hear them, even over the loud ringing of so many hooves on paved stone, and Arandur’s mouth quirked in a humorless twitch. The citizens of Aleka need not worry.

  They were not the target.

  Bypassing the last of the houses, the war party reached the fenced-in area of the Institute’s grounds. The research institute had sectioned off quite a bit of space around their buildings, perhaps as a safety precaution to the rest of the city, as they probably had accidents like Sevana did. Accidents that resulted in explosions.