Free Seeing Spots by Zenina Masters Page B

brought her head up. “What?”
    “We have temporarily lost our connection to the world. I am sure they are working on it as we speak.”
    “Well, damn.”
    The woman with the pale hair grimaced. “You took the words right out of my mouth.”
     
    * * * *
     
    The elf lord Wormith faced the representatives from the shifters, the mage council and the transport guild master specifically. Dira Montrose was at the table, and she looked most unhappy.
    “Who dares to disconnect the Crossroads?” Dira was furious. Jets of fire came out her nose.
    Wormith swallowed. “I represent the fey, and we are insisting upon an equal facility for our people to mate in a realm of magic.”
    Dira blinked. “What?”
    “We are at a point of extinction. No more children are being born to those who mix pure magic with pure magic. No children at all. We need to be able to mix our bloodlines with those of the shifters and—”
    Dira lifted her hands. “Wait. The Crossroads is a place where the link is done by beasts finding their mates. Although many elves are beasts, this would hamper a shifter’s ability to find a correct match. What am I talking about? This is asinine. Put the Crossroads back and we will forget this lapse in judgement ever happened.”
    Wormith settled in and shook his head. “Never. I am not giving up on this. The Crossroads will float untethered through the ether and I will not give you the charm to recall it. We have hidden it well.”
    He had to be brave. He was sitting in a room where almost everyone wanted to kill him and he had to open talks for the expansion and inclusion of the fey into the Crossroads. The survival of his species depended on it.
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    Being seasick was not something that she normally experienced, but Sable’s vision was spinning and her stomach followed along.
    Hands helped her up and a cup of water was pressed into her hands. “Drink up. We nearly lost you.”
    She swallowed carefully and absorbed what the voice said. “What?”
    “Never mind. We are going to get you to your room and you are going to rest. We will be having a meeting in the bar, and someone will come to give you a briefing afterward.”
    Sable blinked and cleared her eyes. “If you can just prop me up in a corner, I would like to be there for the briefing. I prefer to be kept in the loop.”
    The dark-haired man and pale-haired woman nodded. “Come on, we will help you.”
    Sable thought she was supposed to sign something upon arrival, but she kept her comments to herself, knowing she wouldn’t make any sense.
    Her greeters slipped under each arm and helped her up, walking her out of the wood-paneled building and into the graveled street, meeting up with a flow of other men and women who were all approaching a building with the word Crossed Star hanging on a placard above the wide doorway.
    Sable was supported through the crowd and set at the corner of the bar with the smooth wood under her hands. The press of bodies was not onerous. Everyone seemed to have a fairly calm attitude.
    When a blue woman came forward and she stood on a chair, the quiet murmuring ceased.
    “Well, as some of you may have felt, the Crossroads has been disconnected from the world. We are currently a bubble of magic floating in the ether. This is not yet a time for panic. We have supplies for several weeks and I can begin to cannibalize the magic here and turn it into supplies and equipment if it goes on beyond that.”
    Someone called out. “What happened?”
    The blue woman winced. “There is the taste of fey magic around the stump of the connection to the world.”
    One woman narrowed her eyes. “You are fey.”
    The woman next to her smacked her sharply and her hair bristled upright. “She is a djinn. It is like saying that you are a mage because there is magic in your blood.”
    The original speaker winced. “Sorry, Spike.”
    A lovely man moved to the woman with the urge to smack and he put his arms around her,