Friday, June 10, 2022 Galt Winery, Sagaponack, Long Island, New York, United States

The Cullinan that Xu had arranged to take them to the party from his house in Sag Harbor was beyond ostentatious. Charlie had relaxed enough to call it ‘gauche,’ which was the word she used instead of tacky, but it was undercut by her trying to find out if she could get bigger rims put on it before the party.

“Who knew Southampton would lack a rims shop?” she complained.

“Rims? What? Why?”

Charlie looked at her, deep into her eyes, her hand reached up to cup the side of Ella’s face, “That is the wrong question. The right one is ‘Why not?’” And burst out in nervous giggling.

They sat back and tried to relax. Ella had to keep her eyes up as she would otherwise get carsick unlike Charlie who was playing some game on her phone.

Ella shifted again. She wanted her fatigues and gear. She was nervous enough that Charlie had to tell her to stop making her eyes glow even through the contacts.

They were flanked by two of the Escalades that had brought them there. When they arrived to the winery, the gate attendant waved them through, and Ella saw that she was not the only one accompanied by others. In the parking lot to the side, people loitered in grooups next to the cars, drivers and more than a few bodyguards. There was another field where helicopters were evenly spaced out and more kept landing.

Ella saw a cart leaving the winery building with barrels that were being loaded into a variety of the cars parked outside.

The whole thing was absurd. Especially all of the guards. Why be this rich if you live in fear? Wouldn’t it be better to not have people so envious, so desperate, to not need armored cars and guards.

Then again, Zaidu was her driver, and instead of his normal GSG tac kit, he was wearing a tuxedo. He looked uncomfortable, and, if Ella was being truthful, ridiculous. He was a soldier’s soldier, nobody looking at him would not know what he was.

Ella tapped the earring she had been given and it came to life, “This is Ella. Anyone copy?”

“Ella. Arcsa. Copy.”

Satisfied, she exited the car with Charlie.

Zaidu followed them but was stopped at the entrance to the winery, the guard put his hand on Zaidu’s chest, “Sorry, guests only.”

Zaidu trapped the hand tight to his chest, pivoted to the side, pulling the guard along with him and giving him a shove from behind to cause him to fall foward sprawling. Zaidu had a gun at the other guard’s head before Ella realized what was happening.

“I’ll wait here then,” he hissed. And put the firearm away. “Be mindful where you put your hands.”

The other guards belatedly began to move, but Zaidu had already put his firearm away and was walking away. They looked uncertain.

“Behave,” Ella said loudly. She had just about had a heart attack.

Charlie pulled out the invite from her handbag. The invite they had was beautiful, handmade Amalfi paper had textured translucency, the painstaking calligraphy. Charlie had crumpled it into a ball when she had stuffed it in her purse and now threw it at the guard on the ground. She used Ella’s alias for this trip, “Come on Jyoti.”

Ella swept past the guards following Charlie’s example of ignoring them.

The winery hall was done in rustic stone, three stories high, with large open windows set high to let sunlight in. There were barrels along one wall behind a bar. Various people in tuxedos and evening dresses milled about in small groups. Ella saw them wheel out a set of barrels through another door, another purchase. And it gave Ella an idea, a bad one, which she filed away in case she needed it.

Charlie mentioned that Everett Marr would greet them at some point, but to otherwise keep her mouth shut and act disiniterested. Assume that everyone was beneath her, and let Charlie do the talking.

Charlie was wearing a green dress that had various cutouts in risque locations, bangles and strappy white heels. It was very Charlie. Ella could occasionally catch a glimpse of the thigh holster through one of the cutouts, but it was barely noticeable.

An older man, with a large paunch and jowls, gray thinning hair and beady watery blue eyes came over. He was wearing a navy tuxedo and carried a handkerchief which he wiped at the sweat on his forehead.

“Welcome. I am Everett Marr, welcome to my winery. Thank you for joining, Miss?” He waited expectantly looking at Ella.

“Oh hello there, Mr. Marr! I am sure you know my father, Alistair Harris. I’m Charlotte.” Charlie had her Savannah accent going, but it was a bit different than when she was drunk. Ella couldn’t put her finger on the difference, but she supposed this was what the Savannah upper crust spoke like.

“This is my friend Jyoti Bannerjee, visiting from New Delhi. Her father is a minister in the current administration.”

Everett Marr was still eyeing her up and down. She knew immediately what kind of man Everett Marr was. Although shouldn’t he be leering at Charlie?

“Miss Bannerjee? Welcome. May I ask what brings you to my little party?”

“My father thought we might find common ground, after all, the current administration is hardly very friendly to us.”

“That is true. Are you here in an official capacity?”

Ella looked at him, he was still leering at her. She wished she had something covering her stomach. And she felt angry. Why should she be victimized by this old, gross racist pig?

Normally, Ella channelled Charlie to brazen through things, but, in the here and now, she was struggling not to snap his neck as Zaidu would. It would be easy, a quick step in, an easy blow to the stomach to bring him off guard and she could pop his head off like a bottle of champagne.

She gave what she could only assume was a look of boredom as she resisted the urge. As Charlie had instructed her, she tilted her head back a little bit to give the impression of looking down at him even though she only had an inch on him with her heels, “Let’s just call it unofficially official. Or… more importantly… I have my father’s trust to represent our interests.”

“Might I say your English is quite good,” he said. His beady eyes hadn’t even moved to her face. Ella could spear hand him in the neck and crush his trachea. Or take the knife and cut his throat. She needed to keep it together here, she had never had such an intense visceral dislike of someone before.

“I did attend school here. Exeter and Brown.” There was a Jyoti Bannerjee with this exact background, but she was currently at the beach in the Maldives with her very illicit lover, one of the true Miss Bannerjee’s father’s colleagues.

“That explains it. Might I get you a drink?”

“Please. Perhaps one of your whites?” she said, using that fake, syrupy-sweet voice her mother used when she was truly angry.

“Of course. Maybe I will have a chance to give you a private tour of the winery? Or maybe the three of us,” he said belatedly, including Charlie in whatever disgusting fantasy he was having.

“I shall consider it.” Ella said coolly. Not negative enough to drive him away, but let him work for it.

Marr walked over to the bar.

“Ugh… I thought you said he was a white supremacist,” Ella whispered to Charlie.

Charlie gave a fake giggle for the room before answering, “Well he is. But he is harboring some brown fever.”

He was back soon enough, but trailing right behind him was Charlie’s dad.

“Father, at last.” Charlie gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

Her father grunted, but then turned to Everett Marr, “Everett, I would like to put our differences behind us.”

Ella took the opportunity to look around while Marr and Harris were talking. And then she spotted something that made her go still. A gaunt stringy looking figure.

“Excuse me, I need to head to the ’ladies’” Ella said and walked away quickly. She pulled out her phone along the way and sent a quick text

Kothin here.

The voice through her earring comm came through.

“Did he spot you?”

Negative.

She made it to the restroom and stepped in. They were private restrooms so she took a quick look around and locked the door.

“Arcsa, Ella. What do you want to do?”

“We are getting ready for an assault. We will take him and Marr.”

“No. What about everyone else here?”

“We won’t leave witnesses.”

Arcsa, to Ella’s shock, was angry. Kothin was someone the Aqrabuamelu had hated for millennia

She could stop this. With one command. But… to go down that path felt far too dangerous.

“Arcsa. Go ahead and get your men into position. I am going to talk to him.”

“No! That is too dangerous.”

“Arcsa, I’ve got the gun, I have enough magic to burn him and everyone in there to ashes. I’ll leave the comm open.”

“Copy,” Arcsa’s response was curt.

Ella was about to leave the bathroom when Arcsa came on the radio.

“Eleanor, do not leave the bathroom. Unknown hostiles are attacking the guards in the parking lot.”

“Arcsa, what is going on?”

There wasn’t an answer. Ella paced a little bit and then she heard screams through the small high window outside

“Fuck this,” she hiked up her lehenga and pulled the pistol and knife. It felt like a cheap piece of plastic.

“I should have worn leggings under this. Damn it.”

She eyed around the corner, it was still calm. The outside noises hadn’t penetrated the thick walls here. She carefully folded the pistol under a pleat in her skirt and made her way over to Charlie..

“Charlie, something is going on outside. Some sort of attack. You should take your dad and go hide.” she whispered to her.

“Fuck… here? Ella you are a magnet for bad shit.”

Charlie put on a smile and went to interrupt her father and Mr. Marr, “We would like that tour of the cellars now Mr. Marr. Father, you must come along.”

Alistair Harris was nobody’s fool, “Yes, Everett. Let’s finalize this somewhere more private.”

Everett Marr, who was in the process of losing to Alistair Harris in court, was not about to let his chance at settlement go, quickly acquiesced.

Ella was still too surrounded with people to use her mic, so she sent more texts.

Arcsa, status?

No response. Well, there was nothing to it. She found Kothin again, who was idly standing at the bar and staring right at her.

She made her way over to him. Along the way she grabbed two glasses of wine.

“Your Royal Highness,” he murmured with a half bow as she arrived.

Fuck it. “Seneschal.” His brows raised a bit at her knowing his title.

She took a sip of a glass and handed it to him.

“You remembered!” His delight was evident. He examined the glass solemnly, gently dipped his tongue into the liquid and set it aside to the table.

“I’d hardly forget. And Tang is gross. Kothin, I am rather cross at you.” Ella wanted to say she was going to fucking murder him, but she was so angry, her statement had looped all the way around to something very mild.

“Alas,” he said, “I seem to be out of favor of royalty everywhere.”

This made Ella pause, “So the Emperor is getting tired of you? I can understand the sentiment.”

He smiled again. Suddenly there was a sound of gunfire outside. The crowd tensed and four bodyguards, including Zaidu, came inside. They had their handguns out and slammed the huge wooden doors hard behind them. Zaidu had blood dripping down from one arm.

Kothin looked at her, “He sent me here to keep an eye on Mr. Marr. And then an attack? I made a mistake and questioned him. He perhaps took it poorly.”

“Everyone, please move away from the windows.” Zaidu yelled. The crowd, in shock, stood still.

Kothin downed his glass, “Yes, I expect I have outlived my utility to the Emperor. He grows increasingly paranoid in direct relation to your increase in power. Young princess, I don’t suppose you are hiring?”

What the fuck was going on?

“Zaidu!” she yelled over, “get me…” but Zaidu had already thrown a vest at her which she grabbed out of the air and began strapping on over the saree blouse. “I’d kill for fucking pants right now… In fact…”

She scanned the room and found the nearest man who was close in size, “You, strip off your pants, right now!”

The man, some industrialist Ella kind of recognized from the news, spluttered. Unfortunately for him, he was the closest in size to her, shorter than his date who towered over him in heels.

“Fucking now!” she yelled. She didn’t need to even point her stupid plastic gun at the guy, the crowd was staring at her like she was a maniac, and maybe she was. She almost burst out laughing. The guards in the front of the hall were held back by Zaidu. Ella had to make a snap decision here, she handed the pistol to Kothin. “I guess I am hiring. Provisionally. Now hold this for me.”

Kothin’s suave demeanour melted a bit in surprise. But he held the pistol and kept it pointed at the man who was hurriedly stripping off his pants.

Ella grabbed them up, stripped off her skirt, and quickly pulled up the pants and cinched them with the belt. No time to worry about modesty.

“Zaidu…” but he strode over and handed her a proper handgun. “Report!”

“Unknown number of assailants. They aren’t drow, but invisible, don’t appear on IR either. Limited aerial capabilities.” Zaidu had a slash through his arm that was dripping blood.

“What about the squads in the forest?”

“Two squads down, one at reduced strength. Who is he?” Zaidu nodded at Kothin who was holding her pistol and alternating between pointing it at the industrialist who had no points now and was still standing there in shock and Zaidu.

“Zaidu, meet Kothin. Kothin, this is Zaidu. Kothin, don’t point the gun at him or he will hurt you.”

Zaidu tensed at hearing Kothin’s name.

“You gave him your gun?” Zaidu hissed.

Ella checked the handgun Zaidu had handed her. It must have been one of the bodyguard’s outside as it wasn’t one she recognized. She checked the chamber and mag after she found the paddle release for it.

“It isn’t loaded,” she said. “And he didn’t take the opportunity to shoot me.”

“Welcome to the team, Kothin. Your employment starts now until we are out of this, whatever this is. Betray me and the Aqrabuamelu get to vent thirty-thousand years of anger on you. Now brief us on what is out there?”

“No idea,” he said, eyeing the quivering Zaidu closely. He had fully switched the handgun over to pointing at Zaidu and then looked down at his hand and looked around and finally put it on the bar next to him.

Ella strode over, grabbed the gun and cleared it. She winked at Kothin.

Kothin continued, “Ekerri had lots of alliances and resources before I served him. Aerial, invisible? No idea.”

Ella looked at the hall and then she… looked up. At the large open windows to let light into the hall.

“Everyone, head to the cellar! This is not safe!”

“You, chicken legs, go!” she ordered the now pantsless man, he looked at her and started moving.

Ella pointed to some of the guards that had made their way in. Some of them were bleeding and she picked them, “Get these people down there.”

Perhaps they would have argued, but Zaidu was there backing her up.

“Kothin, not you. You get to stay.” Trust only insofar as you have to.

“Yes, my liege,” he said. And didn’t that title just make Ella more concerned.

She didn’t deign to look, she kept her eyes on the windows above, keeping the pistol in her hand trained on them. Zaidu kept his eyes on the other windows across the way.

She saw three lights temporarily light up, in a triangular pattern in a endow and she took a shot. Nothing.

The remaining people started screaming and running. One of the bodyguards by the door, a bit quicker on the uptake than the others turned to face upwards with his pistol. Ella heard the sound of wind and flapping.

And the guard was bisected neatly from shoulder to the opposite hip.

The blood sluiced down onto the floor with a sickening splash. The guard fell into pieces. Ella started firing her gun at where the guard had been, the other two guards by the door falling back. There was a flash of light and another bodyguard fell over, a huge piece blown out of his torso.

“Two!” Ella screamed, retreating. Her eyes flared bright, the room lighting up in stark relief. But she couldn’t see any enemies. “I’ve got nothing on visual.”

They backpedaled fast to the door into the cellars where they made their way in. The final guard was running to them and just as he was entering, his trailing leg separated at the knee and he went down. Ella grabbed his hand and hauled him through while Zaidu kept up fire.

The door shut with a clang, and they leaned against it, It started rattling as something on the other side pushed hard and Ella wedged her feet into the ground and on a corner to push against the door.

Charlie was at the bottom of the stairs and she hurriedly came up with a couple of curved wedges which they hammered into the door edges on all sides.

The door was ridiculously thick oak, and Ella suddenly heard a thump on the other side. The whole door shuddered. Then another. Then silence.

“Damn it,” Ella said. “Arcsa is right, we need to take the offensive here.”

Akhlys hunched inside the wine cellar. The ceilings were quite low, and she worried she would bump her head. This was made even more difficult by the number of humans here. When the soldier and the girl came down, Akhlys had to restrain herself from taking them. The others outside had done their job well, thinning the soldiers outside and the more pathetic ones.

The Keres once again hunted the outside world! Her soul sung in glory. The competition to hunt had been fierce and brief, and they had followed this Ekerri out through the channel he had woven. He wanted the head of this human, Eesha. But the Queen had given other orders.

This Ekerri will not deal for the one thing we want — out of the Killing Gardens. You, our child, shall not kill the human nor this disloyal minion. Follow her, pretend to have killed her if necessary, find our way out.

Queen Nyx, first among equals, Huntress of the Greens, had grown tired of the parody of the Hunt, the taking of trophies. The hunting strategies had been refined over millennia against their own kind. But these humans, their metallic projectiles hurt but the Keres were proof against metal. It made this far too easy.

And so Akhlys perched on a barrel of expensive white wine in the corner, watching the others. If they had looked, they might have seen the Ecstasy of the Hunt, that focusing in on a prey before leaping, the glowing three eyes. But none of them looked.