In the Teeth of It

by K A Miltimore

  She knew right away that no one was in the house; you can just tell when a house is empty, even before you shout out for anyone to answer. Hedy peered into the shop, and though the lights were still on and Raluca’s book was still on the table, she knew she wasn’t there.

  “That’s odd. I wonder where she went? I thought she was going to stay here and wait for Ana.” Hedy walked over to the table and picked up the book. The cover felt smooth in her hands and the image of Raluca and Yami leaving together flashed before her, a look of distaste and annoyance on Raluca’s face.

  Where would they go together? And why was she seeing this image?

  “Hedy, what is wrong? You look like you are freaked out.” Mel came up to her and touched her softly on the arm. Hedy could feel the touch, but she could still see Raluca and Yami in her mind. She saw them leave the house and get into Hedy’s car, taking off at high speed. How was she seeing this?

  “Something is wrong. Yami and Raluca are together in my car but I don’t think Raluca left willingly. I think Yami took her.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting a Moroaica before. You must pardon my appearance. I haven’t quite been myself since that little encounter with the intrepid baker.”

  The voice came from the darkness at the back of the cave. Raduca and Yami had made their way into the forest and to the dark little cave where even Raduca’s keen eyes were having a hard time adjusting to the darkness. She could just make out the shape of a darker figure melting into the shadows.

  “All this drama is hardly necessary. If you have something to say, there is no need to drag me into the dirt and the woods. Do you know how hard it is to get sap out of wool? Ridiculous.” Raduca really didn’t care about the wear on her Chanel jacket; she was more interested to see what the voice would say to such goading. She felt Yami’s hand tighten uncomfortably on her thin arm.

  “Oh, I do apologize for the drama, as you say. And bringing someone as august as you to a dirty cave in the woods is likely the height of offense. But in my current state, it really was necessary. You see, our friend the baker caused me quite a grave injury and it takes quite a bit out of me to leave the safety of this cave. I have had to rely on my crows and, of course, Miss Hayashi. She has been quite useful. Thank you, my dear.”

  The voice was calm and cool, with just the slightest rasp indicating it was taking effort to speak. Raduca could make out a faint orange glow coming from deep within the cave and she guessed it was this glow that kept the speaker nearby.

  “Let’s get on with this, shall we? I am an old woman and I have neither the time nor the patience for this. Ask what you want to know and let’s be done with it.” Again, she felt Yami’s hand on her arm as the woman pulled her to a flat top stone that served as a seat. With minimum force, she felt Yami pull her down to a sitting position.

  “As you say, let’s begin. The opportunity to learn the location of every waystation in the network is one that I can hardly pass up. It won’t be much longer before my strength is restored and when it is, I will take great pleasure in visiting each and every waystation along the network. And you will tell me where they are.”

  Raduca watched as the dark figure came a bit closer, inching toward the dim light. She could make out reddish hair and dark eyes in a face but everything else was blackness.

  “Why do you think I would help you in any way? It’s laughable that you think by merely asking, I will provide you information that we keep separate and secret for just this reason.” Raduca gave a dry laugh and it reverberated in the cave. Yami said nothing next to her.

  “Naturally, I didn’t expect you to give me the information willingly. But I do expect you to give it to me. Miss Hayashi is quite persuasive. It is one of her many talents. In addition to being a kitsune, as you no doubt guessed, she is also highly skilled at finding just the right pressure point to illicit a desired response. Isn’t that right, my dear?” Lyssa’s voice had her usual light and easy tone but the malice under the surface was inescapable.

  “I do what is required. Nothing more. Nothing less,” Yami said simply, directing her words at no one in particular. She did not care for this part of the job, but it often was part of why she was hired. She did what others often wouldn’t or couldn’t do.

  “You may find me a bit different from your usual interrogation. The Vaduvas are made of stern stuff. I don’t expect you to believe me, but as I said, let’s get this over with.” Raduca spoke with almost a wistfulness to her voice and it surprised Yami. It wasn’t the usual reaction from someone about to be tortured.

  “Very well. Let’s see if Miss Hayashi has any tricks up her sleeve that might be…inspiring for you.”

  Lyssa stepped closer again and Raduca saw a face that looked like a mask of horror. It was aged, like wet layers of husks that had been torn and puckered, with a slash for a mouth. Apparently, this is what an ancient goddess with a mortal wound looked like.

  “Get on with it, girl.” Raduca’s voice bounced hard against the stone walls, followed by a deep breath.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Hedy, why do you think Yami took Raluca? What’s going on?”

  Hedy knew Ana was speaking but she was still seeing the images of Raluca and Yami in her car, driving out of town, in her mind. Where were they going? How was she seeing this?

  “Hedy. Hedy!” Ana’s voice cut through the vision and Hedy snapped back into the shop, looking at the worried faces staring at her.

  “I…I don’t know. I just know that something has happened. Somehow, I can see what is happening in my mind, like I am seeing my own memory. I saw Yami and Raluca in my car, heading north out of town.” Hedy felt like she was caught between two worlds, one foot in her shop and one in the vision in her mind. It was disorienting and frightening, like she might fall down and there would be no floor to catch her. She grasped the chair at Raluca’s table and vision swallowed her mind in a wave.

  “Where are they going, can you tell?” She heard Mel’s voice but it sounded far away. Hedy watched the vision for a minute, trying to tell what road they were traveling on. It all looked very familiar.

  “They are on a windy road, past pastures, and there is a sign up ahead. It is a white sign, red letters and a green shape on it. It is coming closer…the Christmas tree farm.” Hedy saw them drive past the farm, but then turn on a side road just behind it. Hedy’s vision flooded with a wave of red and pain engulfed her mind. She screamed out, crumpling into the chair.

  “Hedy! What happened? Are you alright?” Mel’s panicked voice was floating above her but all Hedy could see was the red that now filled her eyes. The pain radiated from behind her eyeballs and traveled down every nerve in her body.

  “Stop, oh, please stop. No, they are torturing her!” Hedy’s face was a mask of pain, her eyes rolling back into her head. Mel grasped her face, trying to bring her out of it.

  “Ana, help me!” Mel didn’t know what to do, Hedy was writhing and lashing in the chair, moaning as if her own flesh were being burned or cut. How could they stop this? Mel’s heartbeat thumped in her ears. The sweat from her palms was slick on Hedy’s cheeks.

  “Mel, we have to sever the connection somehow. Take the book from her hands.” Ana was pulling Hedy out of the chair, away from anything that Raluca might have touched. Hedy was bigger than Ana and it took all her strength to pull her up and away, getting her into another seat nearby. “Get me a big bowl of water, Mel. Cool water.”

  Ana had no idea if this would work but she didn’t know what else to do. Something was connecting Hedy to Raluca and unless they could break that connection, Hedy would feel everything that she was feeling. Hedy screamed again, lashing her arms blindly as if she could stop whatever was happening to Raluca.

  Mel took a big metal bowl from Hedy’s work counter and dumped out the ripe pears that it was holding. She hurriedly filled the bowl from the tap, unsure as to how much water Ana needed. She ran the bowl over to Ana, sloppin
g the water on the wooden floor as she went.

  “Thanks, Mel. Help me get her hands into the water. Hold them under.” Mel stood behind Hedy, grasping her wrists and using every bit of strength she had to plunge her hands into the water. Hedy was moaning, straining against Mel’s efforts to hold her. Mel looked up at Ana’s face, opening her mouth to speak. She saw Ana’s eyes close and heard a low murmur from her lips, so Mel kept quiet and concentrated on holding Hedy’s hands where they were.

  Ana’s hands were in the water, undulating back and forth, caressing the water and letting it filter through her fingertips. In her mind, she focused every bit of her energy and thought into the water itself, down to the molecules as they swirled within the bowl. The water had an energy and Ana’s hands were amplifying it, directing the energy to swirl and roll against the metal sides. The water was frothing, close to breaching the edge of the bowl but Ana kept it contained, focused on just the small container and the pair of hands within it.

  Mel held Hedy rigidly, locking her arms so that Hedy couldn’t pull her hands free. She noticed that the moans from Hedy were growing softer and her hands weren’t thrashing as hard as they were before. Hedy’s breath began to flow from a ragged gasp to more of a forced in and out, as if the pain was receding. Mel felt Hedy’s body begin to relax against her. She still held tight, just in case she tried to break free.

  After a few more moments, Ana was silent, and the water began to still. Mel could see that she had placed her hands on top of Hedy’s; all three of them were touching now. The water swirled around them for a few more moments and then it was still.

  “Hedy?” Mel was afraid to break the silence, but the woman was starting to stir against her arms. Hedy gave a large exhalation.

  “Mel? Ana?” Her voice was weak. Her eyes flickered open, blinking at the light.

  “Yes, we are here, Hedy. Are you alright?” Ana’s voice poured over Hedy and she took another huge breath. She felt a twinge of fire on every nerve, like a little shock wave after a tsunami.

  “Why are you holding me in water?” Hedy looked at her hands, still plunged in the bowl with Mel and Ana holding her there. The girls slowly released her and pulled out their own hands. Her wrists ached from Mel’s hard grip.

  “Let me get you a towel.” Mel hurried over to the counter and brought back a few hand towels. Hedy slowly pulled her hands from the bowl.

  “Hedy, do you remember anything?” Ana spoke again with all the calmness of a mountain pond.

  “I saw a vision, of Yami and Raluca, and then everything went red and this pain draped over me.” She didn’t dare speak anymore in case it came back.

  “We had to break the connection. Ana thought the water would help and it did.” Mel said, proudly smiling at Ana and her ingenuity. Ana smiled back.

  “What I want to know is how you had the connection with Raluca in the first place. It couldn’t have just come from holding that book.” Ana took the bowl from the table and placed it carefully on the counter, trying not to spill any more water. She dropped the hand towel on the floor and used her foot to wipe away some of the spills.

  “Raluca took energy from me earlier, drawing it out of me because she was weak. She’s a Moroica and she feeds on energy. She said we might have a connection for a bit afterward.” Hedy’s head was pounding, but this time the pain was her own. She had a massive headache right behind her eyes and she needed some aspirin.

  “Then you were not only seeing what happened to her, but you were feeling whatever it is that Yami is or was doing to her.” Mel gave Ana a worried look. What if the connection came back?

  “We have to find her. If Yami is torturing her, this could very well kill her. She is an old woman.” Hedy stood up shakily and Mel instinctively grabbed her arm to support her. “I’m okay, I just need some aspirin. Can you get Darro? We need a ride out to the Christmas tree farm. They are just past there.”

  Hedy watched Mel run to the door and shout for Darro, her mind still whirling. She was back in the present moment, in the shop with Ana and Mel, but the fear that she would be drawn back into Raluca’s mind was palpable. She couldn’t imagine what was happening to the old woman and how she was bearing it. She also couldn’t imagine what they could do to help her once they made it to the farm. If Bren were here, at least they would have his fire as back up. But Bren was gone. They were on their own..

  “Hedy, what will we do when we find them? Do you have a plan?” Ana must have been thinking the same thing as Hedy, because doubt was etched on her face. Worse yet, she was looking to Hedy for answers and she didn’t have any.

  “I’m not sure,” Hedy confessed. “Yami has Raluca and I don’t know who or what Yami might be. I suspect Lyssa is behind it all and is likely there, too. I’m hoping we have the advantage of numbers and maybe we can help Raluca free herself. It’s times like this that I wish I were more like my guests; I feel useless as a powerless human.”

  She gave Ana a weak smile, but she was quite serious. Being involved with those who had powers left her feeling unprotected and weak.

  “Any more magical weapons in your collection? There is always that elfish knife.” Ana looked toward the entry.

  “I have Aaron Burr’s revolver, the one that shot Hamilton, but I doubt it still works and there is nothing magical about that. There is the knife, but I can’t imagine that Lyssa would let anyone get close enough to her for that to be effective again. She’s too smart for that. No, I don’t think the collection is going to be any help this time.” Hedy felt a panic in the pit of her stomach. Maybe going to save Raluca was going to get them all killed.

  “Well, maybe we need to find out just what kind of being your friend, Michael, really is. He might have some power that can help.”

  Hedy flinched. She wasn’t at all prepared to find out what the story was with Michael and nevermind how strange it would be to ask him. She barely knew him.

  “Darro is coming now. Are we going to head out there?” Mel was back in the shop, her face ruddy from running outside to get Darro.

  “Yes. We have to do something to save Raluca. You two don’t have to come, of course. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t more than a little afraid of how this thing is going to go down.” Mel’s phone rang, interrupting Hedy.

  “It’s my uncle. I better answer.” Mel swiped the screen and said hello quickly into the phone. Her face instantly looked worried. “What? Are you sure it was him? Where?”

  Mel’s mouth was a hard slash and Ana instinctively put a hand on her arm.

  “OK, I’m heading out. I’ll call you.” Mel swiped the screen again and looked at both Ana and Hedy. “My uncle says that Dylan was one of the kids at the Christmas market and he helped steal a car. The kids were driving north, out of town. My uncle is going to go looking for them.”

  “Is it possible they are heading toward the Christmas tree farm?” Hedy felt the panic rising into her throat; there was no way that all this was just a coincidence.

  “We’re going to find out. I have to go find Dylan.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The old woman was remarkably resilient. Yami had a rather eclectic skill set that would induce pain in a number of places - digits, limbs, eyes, mind - but Raluca was stoic throughout. The cave echoed occasionally with a small cry or a grunt escaping through clenched teeth, but beyond that, it was quiet, and Lyssa was growing impatient.

  “This is your speciality, no? What is the delay?” Lyssa’s irritation was clear in her voice; if she could have done the job herself, she would have. Her physical strength wasn’t up to the challenge at the moment, despite the presence of the stone.

  “She is resistant. She is unlike others I have persuaded.” Yami didn’t want to use the word ‘torture’ but she knew that is what this was. It was usually an effective and quick method to gain what her employers wanted. She wasn’t fond of it but, as with some chores, sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and get to work. Raluca was proving problematic, though.
>
  “Ha, I told you I wouldn’t be as easy as you hoped. Your crude methods lack any of the finesse of the early days.” Raluca turned her head to spit a small globule of blood before looking back at her captors.

  “If she isn’t going to cooperate. I suppose there is no reason to keep her alive. As much as knowing the location of all the waystations would be useful to me, I can still journey on without them. Or perhaps, one of her employees would be more malleable.” Lyssa’s voice still sounded strained but there was the return of a lilt, as if she were considering asking them over for tea. Yami found it rather chilling, and apparently so did Raluca because she began to shift on her perch.

  “‘Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than on anything on which it is poured.’ Surely, you remember the ancient philosopher, Seneca? What do you hope to gain from all this? Even if I told you the location of the waystations, even if you somehow managed to visit them or destroy them, what does that gain you? It’s not as if they can’t rebuild. You can’t kill the idea of the waystations.” Raluca was speaking to Lyssa but she kept her eyes on Yami.

  “Destroying the waystations would release chaos into each city, each community, and that is enough. Let them rebuild. I will just destroy them again. Once I have my strength back, time is not a factor, Miss Vaduva. Save yourself from any further unpleasantness and just tell me what I want to know.”

  “What you cannot understand is the role the waystations have played in human history. The sanctuary they have been for those, like Miss Hayashi and her family. Whatever your mad scheme is, there is no reason to involve the waystations.” Raluca’s eyes were piercing into Yami’s face, as if she could will her to understand the gravity of the situation.

  “What do you mean my family?” Yami asked before Lyssa could speak again.

  “We served as a haven for your grandmother. Did you not know that?” Raluca tried to keep her voice even but it was vital that she get the kitsune on her side.