Roz was our walking armory. He usually carried any and every weapon he could manage to tuck inside his long coat, flashing it open like some crazed exhibitionist when we needed extra weapons. But he almost always had something that would do the trick.
“You have any of those ice bombs you carried for a while? If I recall, they could do a nasty jolt or two of frost damage. What would something like that do if you set it off underwater?” I had visions of the water surrounding the K’thbar freezing into a giant cube and him popping to the surface, one big Elder Faesicle.
Roz gave me a long, wilting look. “You really don’t think we can just freeze him? Yes, you do, don’t you? Trust me, Camille, it’s not going to work. You can’t freeze one of the Elder Fae into a Popsicle. I’d like to say yes, but it’s not going to happen.”
I deflated. “Thanks for bursting my bubble.”
He laughed. “Well, you have to admit, that’s a tall order. But one of those bombs could potentially shift the temperature of the water so drastically, it might shock him.”
“Shock him and it would probably kill us. Remember: Those waters are frigid as it is—even in the middle of summer, they aren’t all that warm. We’re going to have to wear wetsuits even though we aren’t officially scubanauts.”
Delilah shuddered. “The thought of wearing one of those makes my skin crawl. They’re skintight.”
“You don’t have to, remember? You get to stay on dry land.” I stuck my tongue out at her. “Okay, so the ice bombs are probably not going to be a big help but I still say bring a few. What, if anything, would a firebomb do?”
“Same thing in reverse. Would heat up the water nice and toasty. Which might not be a bad idea, given how cold it’s going to be. It would make it a sight easier to navigate through the water—our muscles wouldn’t be so tight. So I guess I’ll take a few of both, just in case.” Roz was jotting down notes as we spoke.
“Claws. You ever see the X-Men movies?” Vanzir said. “We need a few of those claws. Of course, we’d have to wear them like you wear brass knuckles, but that would be bad-assed for up close and personal battle.”
I blinked. “That’s not a bad idea. I think there’s a weaponsmith who can make them—they come with wrist and arm braces and the claws retract into the brace.” I had never in the world considered getting something like that for my own use, given how prone I was to hurting myself. But I could easily see Roz or Vanzir, or even Trillian leaping around with them. “But we don’t have time to order them.”
“Stainless-steel garden forks. They’re strong as all get out, and they are sharp,” Iris said as she entered the kitchen, a basket of early lettuce and radishes over her arm. “I brought up some vegetables from the garden for you. I could hear you from the porch. You’ll want to get longer ones, if you want to stay out of reach of the creature.”
Trillian snapped his fingers. “Of course—and they’re easy enough to get. We can stop by the hardware store on the way to Edmonds. We take daggers, short swords, and gardening tools.” He snorted. “I suppose anything works in a pinch.
“I suggest we get a move on. I can’t think of anything else that might be useful, given how little we know about K’thbar.” I had dressed for action, but none of us owned a wetsuit, so we’d have to stop by a scuba supply store for those, too. It was going to be an interesting shopping trip, that was for sure.
As we headed out to the car, amid admonishments to “Be careful” and “Don’t you dare drown” and “Whatever you do, don’t let Delilah go near the water” coming from Hanna and Iris, I glanced up into the large oak near our house. There, on one of the branches, was a large raven. I knew exactly who it was before she spiraled down to land at my feet. In a bright flash of smoke and sparkles, there stood Raven Mother.
RAVEN MOTHER WAS one of the Elemental Lords and Ladies. She was a trickster, a lot like Coyote, and she had always had an eye for me. She wanted me to leave my post with the Moon Mother and join her ranks. Raven Mother had always been at odds with the Moon Mother, coveting the brilliant moon high in the sky, and all that the Moon Mother laid claim over, including her priestesses and witches.
But circumstances dictated that we work with her, and truth to say, she wasn’t evil. It was just difficult to trust her, regardless of how much she beckoned to me. Her son, Bran, was a member of the Court of the Three Queens, and soon enough I was going to have to put up with him on a daily basis. He was head of the Fae militia out at Talamh Lonrach Oll.