A Sprinkle of Stardust

Chapter 2 - Nemesis

A storm was brewing.

Fegris Mountain emerged ahead as Lyrani left the forest market behind her. Fern Manor, the three storey mansion built into the rock face, belonged to Lord Dundor.

Lyrani could just make out the dark sloped roofs and tapering doorways, as mysterious and forbidding as the activities going on behind them.

Not many knew that Fern Manor was the headquarters of ECISI. Few even knew of the existence of the agency.

Glancing down at her wristwatch, Lyrani saw that her briefing started in five minutes. She looked up at Lord Dundor's mansion all the way across a stretch of grassy plain. There was only one way she could make it there on time.

Lyrani broke into a sprint.

The landscape flew past, a blur of green bushes, brown bark and grey sky. The wind rushed in Lyrani's ears, singing of freedom, of fearlessness. All too soon yet not quickly enough, she was at the foot of Fegris Mountain.

Lyrani's lungs burned as she skidded to a stop on Lord Dundor's doorstep. Taking a deep breath to refill her lungs with the air they had lost, she lifted the metal knocker and tapped it against the door three times.

She glanced at her watch. She had a minute to spare and not a second more.

A tall elf let her in. His long red hair was tied at the nape of his neck.

"Ah, Agent Esch." He observed Lyrani with tranquil hazel eyes.

"Harmon." Lyrani nodded in greeting, then paused to catch her breath.

Harmon raised his eyebrows. "I would hurry if I were you. Lord Dundor is waiting."

Lyrani raced to the life-size portrait of her boss across the entrance hall, past the stone dryads draped in shawls of carved leaves. Lord Dundor's painted eyes stared down at her, filled with reproach even though she wasn't guilty of what they accused her of. For once, she wasn't late, but it was just like Lord Dundor to be ready to start a meeting early.

Lyrani pressed her palm to the gleaming rectangle of metal beside the painting. Golden light rippled over its surface, then the portrait swung forward to admit Lyrani to ECISI headquarters. It must've been her millionth time entering this secret section of the mansion, but the thrill that ran through her was exactly the same as the first time she ever stepped through this doorway.

Lyrani waved back at Harmon before rushing into the hidden passage. Her gasping breaths tore through the darkness as she raced up the stairs.

Lyrani's mind drifted back to the last time she and Lord Dundor had spoken. The director of ECISI had wanted to know if Lyrani was still comfortable in her chosen line of work.

It was nearly two years since she went on a mission that required her unique skill set.

Lyrani was more than a spy. She was the lethal hand of justice on the rare occasions when she needed to be.

The conversation with Lord Dundor niggled at her, twisting at that sense of unease inside her until it became too tight to unwind. Something had changed in Elvenland.

Why else would Lord Dundor need the services of an assassin? Who could he possibly require Lyrani to kill all these years after he had last given her such an assignment?

Lyrani shook herself out of her speculation, instead focusing on her surroundings before she delayed herself any further.

The idea of "secret intelligence" brought certain images to mind—windowless corridors and dark, underground interrogation rooms, dungeons buried in the mountainside, and passages hidden in the walls. Whoever built Fern Manor had seen to it that it didn't look anything like that, and every director of ECISI who had taken over it since had maintained that deceptive image.