They approached the village in a roundabout way, avoiding streets and shops Munro knew would have CCTV. Eilidh didn’t quite understand how they created pictures of people and played them back later without using magic, but she did appreciate Munro’s insistence on caution. The three climbed through back gardens. In one, they attracted the notice of a large black dog, who whined and eyed them curiously, clearly confused at their scent.
When they were at a house near the one where Tràth had disappeared, Munro made a call on his mobile. “We’re here,” he said quietly into the small black device. He disconnected and said to Eilidh and Griogair, “Wait here. I’ll check the perimeter and confirm with Hallward, then you two climb up when it’s clear.”
Griogair nodded. “Thank you,” he said.
Munro looked wary. “Don’t thank me yet.” With deft movements he could not have managed a few short weeks ago, he scaled the fence dividing the two gardens. Eilidh heard his feet hit the ground on the other side with a thud. “Sarge,” Munro said.
Eilidh reached out and took Griogair’s hand. He seemed surprised, but grateful. “He can do this,” she whispered. “We’ll find your son.”
They listened as Munro talked to Sergeant Hallward. It had been at Munro’s insistence that they allow the human policeman to help. The house would be watched, Munro explained, and it would be easier to work with the police than to try and hide from them or circumvent their investigation. Hallward could ensure they were not disturbed.
“We have a group of four others coming,” Munro explained. “Humans. Druids, like me. We’ll need them to help in the event we do see Prince Tràth. They’ll arrive by car in a little while.”
“You can have the property for an hour to do what you need. Have them pull up in a driveway two streets over,” Hallward said quietly. “It’ll look strange to see cars coming and going on this road. With the disappearances, no one is home. We’ve managed to keep most of the area inside the cordon clear, but we aren’t the only ones watching. With the press, well, you know how it is. Have you seen the reports on the news?” He paused, but Eilidh couldn’t hear Munro’s answer. “Count yourself lucky. We’re getting hammered this time. One hour. That’s what I can give you.” Another pause. “You think this will work?” Eilidh recognised the scepticism in his voice.
“I think if it doesn’t, we’re never going to see any of those missing people again,” Munro said. “Eilidh and another friend are here to help. I’ll go signal them in.”
“All right. I’ll be out front. And Munro?”
“Yes, Sarge?”
“We need to talk. Find me when you’re done here.” Eilidh couldn’t read what he meant by his tone, and she couldn’t hear Munro’s reply, but it was only a moment before Munro whispered through the fence that it was clear to come over.
The plan was simple. Griogair would use his earth magic to track Tràth, and Eilidh would use her limited psychic abilities as a second locator, the thinking being that she might be able to sense a mind out of sync. Everyone else was much more confident in her abilities than she was. People talked about her talents and vast potential, but she didn’t see it. Her efforts were always stymied by a century of trying to stifle her forbidden abilities. She couldn’t turn off those instincts overnight. But everyone was counting on her, so she had to try.
Munro had a part to play as well. If more natural means failed, he and Griogair would use the star talisman Munro had crafted. She had an intuition that it amplified Griogair’s essence, and guessed that it could help attract Tràth’s attention. No one knew if it would work, and Eilidh worried their combined power would only attract the attention of the rafta, who might be nearby. The other druids, once they arrived, were the line of last resort. If one of them was compatible with the crown prince, she knew from experience it would be a powerful inducement for him to reveal himself.
Munro sat in a white plastic chair on the patio. Eilidh still hadn’t had a chance to speak to him alone since he’d come back from Portree with the others. His calm focus centred her, though. She didn’t know if they would get back to the sweet, comfortable relationship they had before, but she drew strength from him now. As she thought about him, he looked up and smiled. She felt reassured, and had a new confidence that everything would be all right.
While Griogair paced around the back garden, speaking to the paving stones and touching individual blades of grass, she opened herself to the astral plane. Her vision shifted, and she saw them all from above. Her senses grew sharp, and she noticed what appeared to be a blue bubble that extended over several houses. Slowly and methodically, she investigated it. She couldn’t help but wonder if all the humans within this area had been the ones who disappeared. It couldn’t be a coincidence.
After some time, she opened her eyes to find Griogair standing in front of her, pacing back and forth. Munro was gone. “What happened?” she asked.
“The earth,” Griogair said bitterly, “for the first time in my life, it’s lying to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“The stones, the earth, the drops of water. every natural voice in this place has told me Tràth is here . They say he never left this place.”
Eilidh, although powerful in the Ways of Earth since she bonded with Munro, was inexperienced. She put her hand to the ground and listened. She shook her head with frustration. “The bubble won’t let me hear him.”
“Bubble?” Griogair stopped pacing and looked at her.
She opened her mouth to explain what she’d seen, but just then, Munro came through the front gate, leading the four druids. “Any luck?” he asked.
As best she could, she described what she’d seen.
Munro nodded. “It does sound like it covers the area where the people disappeared.” He turned to Griogair, “So, you think none of them actually left?”
“How is that possible?” the prince asked with frustration. “Unless…” His face showed his concern.
“We can’t assume the worst. Not yet,” Munro said. “Rory had an idea, and I think we should give it a shot.”
Rory stepped forward. “The guys and I are always messing about with our talismans, right?” When no one answered, he pressed on. “So, we talked on the way down. We’re all water druids, except Munro, of course. That’s not going to be much help, but we can sort of link. I don’t know how to explain it. The effect isn’t much, but maybe we can clear things out.”
“Here,” Aaron said, pulling a small wooden ship out of his pocket. “Let’s just show them.” The four water druids stood facing each other, all holding a talisman of wood.
Eilidh watched, fascinated. She and Munro had practised their connection with each other, but it never occurred to either of them that druids could unite without a faerie. As the four concentrated, she sensed a ripple in the astral plane. “By faith,” she swore quietly. It grieved her how much druidic lore was lost because of her people’s fear of humans. “Do you see it?” she asked Munro and Griogair.
“No,” they both said at the same time.
She went to the druids and guided them each backward, touching their minds briefly to help solidify their concentration. As they stepped away from each other, the ripple grew. Eilidh had an idea. She motioned to Griogair. “Come stand in the centre.”
He entered the circle and stood close to where Tràth had appeared.
“What does the earth tell you now?” she asked as she continued to guide the druids further apart, until they were standing at the furthest corners of the fenced-in garden.
He breathed in deeply, then his eyes snapped up. “The earth tells me he is here. Right here.” He pointed to the exact location where she’d seen Tràth before.
Eilidh closed her eyes and again tapped into the astral flows. “Think of him. Give me his essence,” she said to Griogair. He seemed not to understand at first, but he let down his defences and relaxed, letting her guide his thoughts until he focused completely on his son.
Then a shimmer app
eared. The shimmer turned to a form, although it was indistinct. An echo sounded. “Time?” a voice said distantly, as though speaking to someone they couldn’t see. “It’s all I’ve got.”
“Tràth!” Griogair shouted. “Son, where are you?”
The figure turned toward his father, and he smiled sadly. It was him. Eilidh could feel his presence clearly, but it faded in and out.
Griogair stepped forward, but Tràth seemed to dissolve before their eyes. “No!” his father shouted.
“Eilidh,” Munro said, jogging over to her. “Use me. Take my strength.”
Waving Munro off, she concentrated on Tràth, his mind, his thought patterns. This wasn’t going to require Munro’s earth powers, but rather her own astral training. With all of her abilities, she called to Tràth’s awareness and made a connection. Elated, she fought to communicate with him. Words failed her in this state, where thought and abstraction held so much more power. “The star,” she said to Griogair. She feared her communication was disjointed, but she had to work to hold this together. If she slipped, she knew they’d lose Tràth.
Griogair took the star out of his pouch and let it hover.
“Send it higher,” Munro said.
Griogair obeyed, and the star lifted above their heads.
Eilidh reached for Munro’s hand. “Touch your power to the star.”
He reached toward the star as though caressing the air. She knew the instant he’d accomplished the connection. Through him, she could access the well of power within it, and through Griogair’s mental image of his son’s essence, she could create a beacon. Sending her voice through it, she whispered, “Tràth. Your father needs you.” Using images and abstractions, she poured everything she had witnessed Griogair going through to find his son, the fear, the need, the unashamed emotion.
Tràth returned, his eyes focused upward on the blazing blue star. Eilidh was so connected to both of their emotions that she had to fight back tears.
Griogair reached out for his son, and the instant their hands touched, Tràth became solid and collapsed into his father’s embrace.
A loud explosion sounded a few feet away, and everyone spun toward the house. A startled human woman in a housecoat stood in the darkness. A man, also in pyjamas, held the barrel of her shotgun as though he’d just redirected it into the air.
The woman looked dazed. “Who are you people?” She turned and blinked at the man in the doorway behind her.
Munro stepped forward, retrieved his ID card from his wallet, then showed it to her. “PC Munro, madam. Tayside Police. We got a call about a disturbance.” He pulled out his mobile and dialled Sergeant Hallward. “I’m with Sarah and Hamish McBride. I could use some backup.” He paused. “Everyone seems to be fine.”
He turned to Eilidh and said quietly, “I’ll stay and take care of this. You get them out of here before someone notices Griogair and Tràth aren’t from around here.”
The human couple stared upward at the floating blue star that lit their back garden. Their mouths were agape, and they leaned into one another for support. Eilidh signalled for Griogair to lower the star, and she motioned for the four druids to follow. They helped spirit Tràth over the fence, and they slipped quietly into the night, leaving Munro behind.
* * *
Police swarmed the neighbourhood, checking in with each of the houses that had reported disappearances, while trying to keep reporters at bay. It was tightly controlled chaos. Munro did his best to stay in the shadows. He waited for Sergeant Hallward to come have a word with him. He had no idea how the police media office would explain the reappearances. It was probably going to turn into one of those Unexplained Mystery documentaries on the Discovery Channel. And no conspiracy theory would be as strange as the truth.
He felt Eilidh’s progress back to Skye, and he worried that she might encounter the rafta . He’d have to remember to tell Hallward to be on the lookout, but he also knew even faerie assassins would stay away from a loud, busy group of humans like the ones here now. Safety in numbers.
After an hour or so, Hallward sought him out, striding with that authoritative walk, like always. “Munro,” he said as he approached. He leaned with his back against a tree, and he breathed in the night air. After a moment, he looked up. “Jesus,” he muttered. “What a clusterfuck.” He motioned to the end of the street where several officers were keeping the press back. At least one helicopter hovered over the village. “Start at the beginning.”
Trying not to spend too much time framing the story to sound less crazy, Munro detailed as much as he could about what had happened. In the end, it was an inexperienced kid messing around with time. Just a magical accident, he explained.
Hallward didn’t ask any follow-up questions. Instead, he peered toward the street. “So they won’t remember being gone.”
Munro shook his head. “Seems like, in their minds, they weren’t gone. They blinked, and suddenly here we all were. With perhaps a bit of overlap.”
“That squares with what they’re getting from the house-to-house. Most of the people who disappeared were sleeping. They didn’t even notice having a nightmare, and one sod actually yelled at PC Janey for waking him up.” Hallward chuckled.
“Sarge,” Munro began, “I can’t stay on with the police.”
Hallward looked him in the eye. “When did you decide this?”
“Tonight. I know it seems sudden, but it’s the only thing that makes sense. I just don’t fit in here anymore. I could never imagine being anything other than a copper, but now, well…” He didn’t want to bring up the obvious, that the subtle changes in his appearance and abilities might grow even less subtle, making him stand out in human society in a way that wouldn’t be good for anyone.
He knew Hallward could see it plainly. It was written all over his expression as he stared at Munro’s glowing eyes. “Going to Skye then?”
“For now,” he said. “Eilidh and I both have a lot to learn from her people up there.”
Hallward nodded. “You’re a good copper.”
“Thanks, Sarge. I feel like I’m cutting and running, but I can’t see any other way.”
With a wave toward the street, Hallward said, “Can we expect shit like this to happen more often? Is something going on with them?”
“I hope not. Believe it or not, last year’s murders and this were unrelated. The fae have been executing their own people for having certain forbidden abilities for years. If the Skye conclave has anything to say about it, that will stop. If they succeed, you won’t keep getting faeries who are running away from death orders or oppression. They’ll always be around, the fae. They need to be a part of the human realm. But we’re more of a threat to them than they are to us.”
Hallward chuckled, obviously not quite agreeing with that statement. “I wish you and your friends good luck then,” he said. “Let’s put you on an indefinite leave of absence. Don’t hang up your baton and handcuffs for good. If I see anything strange crop up, yours will be the first number I call.” He stuck out his hand, and Munro clasped it firmly and shook it.
“I’m good at explaining strange events,” Hallward continued. “Most were surprised you didn’t take more time after being attacked by a serial killer last year, so a cover story wouldn’t be difficult to sketch out. It won’t even have to be too far from the truth.”
“Thanks.” Munro appreciated the offer, but he didn’t think he’d be back. Of course, with everything on Skye being in such upheaval, it was good to have options. But he knew that one important order of business in the next few days was to call an estate agent to put his house in Perth on the market. He’d work things out with Eilidh. They needed each other, and he wasn’t ready to give up. But even if that didn’t happen the way he hoped, his place was with the fae.
Chapter 16
There was much debate about how to get Tràth to Skye, and the druids provided the best solution. Eilidh led Griogair, who carried Tràth to Perth, where the druids had driven and pi
cked up another one of their cars. Although the two faeries could have carried Tràth all the way to Skye, and Griogair certainly had the will to do so, that journey would have taken days and been far too treacherous.
Griogair was even more uncomfortable safety-belted into the smelly machine than she had been her first time. He seemed not to trust the vehicle’s movement, and he watched other cars on the road with a mixture of awe and horror.
Eilidh turned around from her position in the front passenger seat and looked at the crown prince, who rested his head on his father’s shoulder. She smiled at Griogair, who mouthed the words, “Thank you.”
When she faced forward again, she caught Douglas staring at the crown prince in the rear-view mirror. “What is it?” she asked him.
Douglas frowned. “I’m not sure exactly. I’m just worried about him. Is he going to be all right?”
Azuri Fae - Urban Fantasy (Caledonia Fae) Page 16
