Maenad March: A Boston Technowitch Novel by Erin M. Hartshorn

Author:Erin M. Hartshorn [Hartshorn, Erin M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hartshorn Publishing, a division of Eimarra Press
Published: 2022-07-30T22:00:00+00:00

Iris arrived soon after Hsien left, and I ducked out to meet the trolls at the Symphony stop, promising to be back soon, as I needed to change for the wedding.

Passengers from the T streamed past Knight at the T map, hunched over as if to avoid notice.

“Hi, Knight.”

She jerked her head up. Her cheeks were wet.

If I’d ever thought about trolls crying, I certainly wouldn’t have thought they’d do it in front of me.

“What’s wrong?”

Her face went stoic. “Rose won’t be working with us. He doesn’t believe a battery is a good solution.”

“Does he have a different solution he wants to try?”

“It won’t work.” Her voice was harsh and ragged, filled with annoyance and the remnants of tears. “Let me see this battery of yours so that I may begin working. Whatever Rose’s choices, I will not disappoint Iárn. I will go to a new hold carrying the reputation of this one with me.”

More troll politics. The last time I’d been caught by troll politics, I’d come face-to-face with a creature the trolls only referred to as the Beast. I sincerely hoped this time was not going to be that drastic.

I pulled out the coiled thumb ring. “This is your battery. If you place a crystal in the middle, it will hold more magic, but it will shatter the crystal.”

“Why doesn’t it have a crystal now? Are you trying to limit my power?”

Passersby bumped into me without seeming to notice I was there, and I sighed. “Can we discuss this somewhere other than the station?”

“Where would we go?”

I didn’t have a specific destination, just somewhere else, where we weren’t surrounded by crowds. I brushed past Knight, slipping inside the glimmering outline on the wall behind her.

“You have been in the trollways before?”

“I have.” This was the first time I’d entered them on my own, without being invited. “I can’t find my way around, though.”

She weighed the ring in her hand as if trying to decide how much magic it held. Coming to a decision, she said, “Come with me.”

The walls sped past, and my inner ears told me they had no clue which direction we were going or whether all of me was even holding together. We stopped next to a rock wall. Knight stepped through, and I followed.

We were, at a guess, somewhere west of Boston, with a small hill behind us and a pond in front of us. Frogs chirped and squeaked in the reeds and bushes. It could have been idyllic, but instead it was chilly and not at all welcoming.

The gap wasn’t visible — they rarely were — but I could feel it running from the hill to the pond, narrow enough to step over but deep enough to get lost in, if any were capable of falling in. Could feel it even without pulsing with my magic, which wasn’t good. I wanted to fix it, but my job here was to teach Knight.

“Sit here, next to the gap,” I instructed, “and grip each end of the coil in one of your hands.

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