by E M Graham
I nodded.
‘Alright,’ he said decisively as he stuck out his hand to seal the deal. His eyes glinted out of the shadows. ‘We are partners.’
As our hands touched I stuffed down the frisson of dread that crept up my spine, submerged it right down there with the knowledge I might be making a pact with a devil. Arrogant as I was, I had no doubt whatsoever that I could prevail over Willem. He was, after all, merely a failed sorcerer, while I was a young witch on the brink of her mature powers. After I got what I wanted I could simply break the agreement at any time.
I would playact with him for his so-called coven, and I found I had no sympathy for the women who were being bilked out of their money - even if Carrie was an acquaintance of mine, maybe even a friend in a former life. They wanted what they could not have, and would be delighted with a mere illusion. Foolish women.
Whereas I, on the other hand, I was a powerful witch who needed a clean record in order to be allowed to study. Willem would send Brin back to where he belonged, and I would be able to act as if the whole incident never happened.
Even more, I would get the medallion which would lead me on the trail to my mother.
‘Can you do it tonight?’
‘Brin?’
‘Yes, of course,’ I said with a touch of impatience. ‘He’s right around the corner at the Rocket. What do we need to do?’
‘Where did he come over?’
I sighed. ‘Over by the old railway station,’ I said. ‘But he won’t go back there, because he knows that’s the only place I can make him return.’
‘It won’t be easy, what you ask,’ he said, thinking hard. ‘In fact, I couldn’t possibly do it tonight. I need to gather some supplies....’
He paused, then spoke again. ‘You know, Brin could be quite helpful to us. In our venture.’
‘No!’ It burst out of me before I could catch myself. I needed that elf gone, and now. No time for this flimflam and hedging. ‘Can you do it or not? I need to see that you can really help before I get mixed up in your schemes.’
‘Of course I can do it,’ he snapped at me. ‘But it’s not that easy, okay? You’ll need to get me some of his hair, and I’ll want a blood candle. Zeta doesn’t carry any real ingredients like that in her store.’
‘A blood candle?’
‘What, are you stupid? Never heard of one of the most basic necessities for the dark sorcery arts?’ he asked, the sneer in his voice magnified by his Dutch accent. ‘What kind of halfbaked witch are you?’
I said nothing for a moment. I was a natural witch, one quite ‘unread’ as Hugh put it, having had no formal education in the craft of witchery. However, Hugh had also poo-poo’ed the idea of spells and such, for as he put it, true magic came from the mind and the power of the witch. All that stuff, eye of newt and hair of toad and incantations, that was all just fluff and smoke and meaningless to a true witch. So Hugh said.
‘Where are we going to find a blood candle, then?’ I was beginning to feel like I was wasting my time here.
‘Oh, I’m sure I can rustle something up,’ he said dismissing my worries. ‘But it’s not going to happen tonight obviously.’
‘When then?’ I needed to pin this guy down, he was being far too slippery.
‘I don’t know,’ he snapped. ‘Give me time to think.’
Which he did, for a moment, then turned to me with a smile quite unsuited to his face.
‘Tomorrow – yes, that timing is right. You will help me with my next project,’ he said. ‘Maybe this little witchling will go to the ball after all, hmmm? All of my friends, we shall attend the grand soiree en masse.’
He stood, to let me pass through the door. ‘Bring the elf’s hair first,’ he hissed, too close to my ear. ‘Upstairs. Tomorrow evening.’
I paused before leaving, my eyes on him uncertainly. What did the Witch Kin ball have to do with all this? I had no desire to crash their party – my aim was to remain totally under their radar until the elf was safely brought back to where he belonged. Willem started to laugh from deep within his belly when he saw the hesitation in my eyes.
All my senses were screaming not to trust him, but by this time I had no choice.
I ENTERED TO ALT GROG and flipped back to real time immediately, noting that I didn’t need Willem’s assistance with it this time. I was getting better, and if I kept it up I might not need the sorceror at all. Willem didn’t follow me, but I could hear the echoes of his evil laughter ringing against the stone walls.
‘Hey, where did you appear from?’ Jack was staring at me with disbelief. We were standing together at the bar.
‘Oh, you know me,’ I said weakly, giving no answer at all.
He shot me a weird look, but then reached over with his arm around me and gave me a peck on the cheek. ‘Thanks for coming,’ he said in my ear. ‘It means a lot to me.’
It was a comforting place to be, within that embrace, but I couldn’t stay.
‘I have to go out again, but I’ll be right back,’ I said, and smiled apologetically over my shoulder as I left to find Brin.
The elf was still sitting exactly where I’d left him, thank God, a ring of chocolate and cream around his mouth and a cascade of croissant flakes down his front. He was seat-dancing to the jazz playing overhead, unmindful of the strange stares he was getting from the other patrons. I brushed him down and wiped his face, and he was good to go.
‘Will Alice be there?’ he asked as we left the bakery.
‘Yeah, she’ll be coming along soon,’ I told him.
At the Grog Shop, the band had started their first set. I elbowed my way through the crowd, towing Brin in my wake. The coke I’d left on the bar was still there, the ice long melted, but I ordered a couple of bottles of water for us both, not knowing how much sugar an elf could take in his system. And I wouldn’t take a chance on giving Brin alcohol.
And then Alice came in. Suddenly it was as if Brin had his own private spotlight, the glow coming from him was so strong. He clung to her, and she let him.
Jack’s band weren’t topnotch, I had to admit, being a little rough around the edges but it suited their grunge sound, and they had something good happening. Brin seemed to love them. He became so engrossed in the music that he even forgot Alice after a while, so entranced was he by the guitar and its electronic sound. After the first set ended, Brin bounced over to Jack and the guys.
I used this space of time to let Alice know about Brin’s new sleeping arrangements.
‘Thanks, Dara,’ she said, a little sheepishly. ‘We don’t have the space in my house. Guess we didn’t really think that one out, but...’
And I didn’t tell her off, I didn’t point out how their actions could be costing me my future. The elf wasn’t long for this world, after all, for Willem would be sending him back to Alt tomorrow night, and I would let them enjoy what time they had together.
Besides, after my course in Scotland, then I could afford to return to Alt and re-unite the pair. At least that’s what I told myself.
When the next set began, Brin still hadn’t rejoined us, and to my horror I saw he’d now gotten up on the tiny bandstand with the guys. To stop his head from banging on the low ceiling, he hunched his back and kept his head low, all knees and elbows sticking out, but with a beatific smile on his face.
‘I know that guy,’ I overheard someone at the bar say. ‘He was up at the Student Center today.’
‘Crazy looking dude,’ his friend added.
And then the elf began to sing, it was an elven ballad by the sounds of it, but he jazzed it up to go with the music provided by the band, and though his voice was as beautiful as a gentle rain in summer, to my ears the whole effect was truly awful.
‘Oh, pale lady of the waterfall,’ he crooned, smiling over at Alice the whole time.
Yet almost everyone else in the room became caught up in his spell, and the crowd yelled out for more. It might be a long night, for elves were well known for going on and on with
their endless songs, even without encouragement from a drunken crowd.
Jack was the only person in the room who wasn’t entranced. He hid it well, his lean body stoic and barely moving as he played bass, but I could tell by the way his eyes shifted to the elf and then to his band mates that he was puzzled that they allowed this interloper to interrupt their set. Jack did not feel the magic Brin had spread across the room.
I considered darting back into Alt in order to grab the medallion hidden in the cellar, but I didn’t know if Willem was still over there or not, and didn’t want to take the chance.
14
WHEN WE FINALLY GOT HOME that evening, I convinced Brin to let Edna give him a haircut. I told him it was so he’d look good for Alice, and he didn’t see me place the sweepings in the zip lock bag afterward.
He actually did look much better all cleaned up. With his hair soft and gleaming and neatened up on the edges, and the layer of coal dust scrubbed off his face so you could see his natural skin tone and his eyes all shiny with his newfound happiness, Brin could even be called beautiful.
The elf spent the next day helping Edna with the decorating, his height allowing him to easily put the star on the tree and affix the old-fashioned paper accordion streamers from the corners of the room. These were getting sadly tattered over the years but my aunt refused to toss them, claiming that they were irreplaceable and a necessary part of Christmas.
She was delighted by Brin, needless to say, and he’d even charmed Mark eventually after the cop saw there was absolutely no evil intent in my new friend’s mind. The elf’s soul was as clean as the driven snow, which made me feel even shittier for what I had to do.
While on the bus back from university, I received a text from Willem.
Do you have the elf’s hair?
Yes. I texted back reluctantly. Even I had to admit Brin was really growing on me, and if it wasn’t for the fact that his presence in real time had the potential to totally screw up my future plans, I would have let him stay on. Even Maundy was okay with him, and she could usually only tolerate family.
Good. Leave the elf in the bar while you meet me in Zeta’s.
What are you going to do?
He didn’t reply.
I let Alice know to meet us in the bar again later on, and I would have to steel myself to tell her the bad news. My heart broke for her, it really did. She finally found the one person she might be able to have a deep meaningful relationship with, and I had to send him back to his own dimension. I comforted myself with the idea that his return to Alt was in fact only temporary, and I would stress to her the need for her to devote her time at her studies. Alice had her heart set on a PhD eventually, so spending all her spare hours in bars watching her boyfriend sing in a band wasn’t going to help her on her path, was it?
Brin was having the time of his life over here. As we made our way downtown, he skipped in circles all around me with his long legs. The passing cars slowed to gawp at this strange sight but I didn’t hold him back as I figured he wasn’t going to be this happy again for a long, long time.
I dropped him off in the bar where the guys were just setting up again. The rest of the band was happy enough to welcome Brin back, so I don’t know if they had any recollection of his music the previous night - the enchantment of the elf spell may have wiped their memories. However, I caught Jack giving us an odd look.
‘Who is this guy anyway?’ he asked me in an aside.
‘A friend of Alice’s,’ I said. ‘A cousin or something. He’s only visiting for a short while.’
‘Oh,’ Jack said, not meeting my eye.
‘Why?’
‘It’s just that he’s... weird,’ he said.
‘Tell me about it,’ I said. It came out pretty vehemently. ‘To make matters worse, he’s staying with me.’
I wished I could tell him the whole story, but Jack didn’t even know about my witch blood yet so the whole ‘Elf from Alt’ business had to stay under wraps for now.
‘It’s just ... I know it’s going to sound like I’m jealous or something,’ he said. ‘But I’m not! Not at all. I love jamming with all kinds of folk up on the stage. And I know everyone likes his music.’
‘But?’
‘Well.... he’s not actually very good,’ Jack said, his clear eyes finally meeting mine. ‘Is he?’
Brin had the power to take all eyes upon himself when he sang on the stage, and his voice was like an angel’s as he wove the spell up and down and in through people’s hearts with the threads of his elven song. But Jack was right, he really didn’t fit the grunge vibe, and he sang to the beat of a different drummer. He wasn’t a great fit for Jack’s band.
And Jack was unenchantable.
‘Not for a band where he has to play with other people,’ I said. ‘You’re right. But can I ask a favour? Let him play with you guys for a bit again tonight. Please? I have to go off, but I’ll be back really soon, and I can’t have him wander off.’
He sighed and looked away. ‘He’s a little simple, isn’t he, this guy Brin?’
‘Simple is a good word for him.’ Not that the elf was simple in the usual way the term was applied, but it worked for now.
‘So you want me to babysit him.’
‘Yeah,’ I replied, then turned my most beseeching look on him. ‘Please? I’ll only be a couple of minutes, I promise, and Alice will probably be here before then.’
I left the bar to take the concrete steps up to Zeta’s shop. As I huffed up those stairs, I thought about Jack being totally immune to the spell of the elf’s song and wondered how it bode for our future relationship, if we ever got so far as to have one. I wouldn’t be able to pull any shit over him, no confusing him with mind games or witchery. It was a comforting thought.
The heavy drapes were over the store’s windows again. I let myself in. The room was fairly dark, lit only by a couple of candles on the counter.
‘You have the hair?’ Willem was on top of me the moment I walked into Zeta’s. There was no one else around, just me and the sorcerer. He was looking almost feverish with excitement with high colour in his cheeks and eyes bright, but as he spoke his glance darted all around the room as if he searched for shadows within the shadows.
‘Calm down,’ I said, and handed him the plastic bag. ‘Where’s the coven?’
‘We don’t need them,’ he replied absently. ‘You and me, we are enough.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Those women – useless. Now that I have you on board.’ Willem turned to me finally and forced himself to smile. He let out a laugh that held no humour, and patted the pocket of his back robe. ‘Their homage has been liquidated into gold and jewels. Interdimensional coinage, you might say.’
Discomfort was spreading through me at being alone with him here, with his frenzied manner. The small room was crowding in.
‘Okay, so you and me together, we can send Brin back?’
He shrugged, but I could see the tension in his whole body as he turned back to the counter.
‘We’re sending Brin back to Alt, right?’ I pushed again, determined to get a straight answer from this slippery sorcerer.
‘Why do you care so much about the elf? He is a minor player!’ He exploded and whirled to look at me. His pale eyes looked a little crazed. ‘In the face of... ‘
He paused and his gaze turned suspicious. ‘In the face of all that has happened today.’
‘What’s going on?’
‘You don’t know?’
I shook my head, and his face remained doubting. He stared at me as if looking past my face, trying to see my very aura for signs of deception.
Finally Willem breathed. ‘I received my deportation orders. From your beloved father, no less.’ His forehead was lined with stress, and he stared at me accusingly.
I stepped back, my hands raised in defence. ‘It had nothing to do with me,’ I said. ‘We’re not on speaking terms, me and Dad.’
His eyes narrowed in distrust
as he sized up my words.
‘They’re sending you out of the country?’ The Kin had the power to do that, I had no doubt, mixed up as they were with every government in power.
He let out a puff of air and flicked his hand as if brushing away a noisome fly. ‘Some trouble in South America. All trumped up charges. Why they would bother with occurrences in that far away backwater, I don’t know.’
He was right, they wouldn’t exert themselves over another countries problems. The Kin must fear something from him here. The sooner my whole business with this sorcerer was finished, the better.
‘So you did not betray me? Did not tell them what I plan?’
‘I’m the one who wants you to toss the elf back into Alt! My life is on the line here, why the hell would I tell them anything?’
His face said he remained unconvinced.
‘Why would I – you’re the only one who can help me...’ The conviction and the pleading in my voice must have satisfied him that I was telling the truth.
‘Witch Kin,’ he mumbled as he turned back to his task, his shoulders still fraught with tension. ‘They think they rule the world, they believe they are the only power. I will show them they cannot trifle with me.’
He looked up again with his particularly nasty grin. ‘We will show them, eh, Dara? You and me together, we will show them.’
I started in alarm. Involving the Kin was not, and had never been, part of my plan. I needed the opposite, in fact, I needed to not draw their attention to me, and I told him that.
He brushed my objections aside. ‘We will pay them back for all the hurt, all the rejection over the years,’ he said. ‘Do you not have a desire to see them fail, to see them fall flat on their beautiful faces? To watch them helpless in our hands?’
His eyes were lit by an eerie glow, and his face almost beautiful in the candlelight which lent a warmth to his features.
‘I... I understand how you feel,’ I said. My mind was racing, tripping up in itself as I tried to reach an argument to stop him. I didn’t know what he had planned, but my heart knew instinctively there would be trouble in it for me. ‘But do you really think this is the appropriate time to do anything drastic? Besides, your coven – you can still milk them for loads more money, some of them are uber-rich...’
