Dark of Winter: A Between the Worlds novel

by Morgan Daimler

  “You’re welcome,” Syn said, rolling her eyes.

  “What made you think to give me this?” Allie asked.

  “Two things,” Syn said, leaning her elbows on the table. “Firstly we all have our addictions and yours is definitely coffee – keep that in mind later by the way if you’re feeling really judgey about other people struggling with their own personal demons.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t worry about it right now,” Syn said gesturing in a circle with her beer can, “not important. But I was thinking that being held prisoner by elves who probably have no idea what a coffee machine is – or even a French Press – you must be desperate for a good cup. Secondly I’ve been wondering for a while if you can taste things here like I can. So two birds with one stone.”

  “You know I’m not a prisoner anymore right?” Allie said, trying to follow all of that, and taking a long swig of her coffee.

  “Well, I know you’re lost in the woods,” Syndra said, leaning back in her chair. “I’ll agree you aren’t a prisoner when you actually get yourself home again.”

  “I’m trying,” Allie said, frowning. “I got out of that house didn’t I? Out of Dark Court control.”

  “You walked out the back door,” Syn said drily.

  “I escaped,” Allie corrected. “It doesn’t matter how exactly.”

  “Speaking of that, care to explain this whole Dark Court thing to your dead bestie?” Syndra said, taking another long drink. “Because I’m really confused on the details here. Although I totally get now why you never talked much about your mom. She’s kind of a homicidal bitch, huh?”

  “Syn, I can’t really explain much about this…it’s….complicated,” Allie tried to hedge.

  “You mean it’s some dumb fucking elf secret shit,” she said. “Great. Who the fuck am I going to tell? I’m dead. You’re about the extent of my social circle at this point.”

  Allie made a face, but she knew her friend had a point. The biggest reason for keeping the Dark Court secret from humans, especially human police which Syndra had been when she was alive, was because of the possible significant political implications. But who was Syndra going to tell? “Okay, fine. Basically there’s two – I guess you’d call them factions – among elves. One, the Light Court or Bright Court believes in allying with humans to further a joint agenda. Kind of a let’s all be friends deal. Okay? And they are the ones who are in power, for the most part, and have been since the Wars.”

  “Oh my fucking God, the assholes in charge who walk around acting like humans are a lesser species and their own shit doesn’t stink are the ones who like us the most?” Syndra cut in, almost choking on her last mouthful of beer.

  “Basically yes,” Allie said, sighing and taking another drink of coffee. The diminished taste wasn’t so bad once you got used to it. “Focus Syn. The other, er, faction are the Dark Court. They think humans are basically useless and should be taken over and ruled with an iron fist. Well maybe not iron but you know what I mean.”

  “And the Dark ones wanted your grandmother’s death magic book, that you burned. So now they want you?”

  “Something like that,” Allie said. “But the differences aren’t quite that cut and dried either. That’s why I said its complicated. The Light Court is very bound in the Law and the proper order of things. The Dark is all about power. They run a lot of the illegal things that go on in Fairy since the Wars, smuggling, especially, but also other types of illegal trade, drugs, theft, pressuring people to pay them to go away, assassinations. You move up by proving your loyalty to people above you but also by killing them. It’s all very cut-throat, no pun intended.”

  “Huh,” Syndra said thoughtfully. “Sounds a lot like human mafia.”

  “Kind of,” Allie agreed. “If the human mafias were more ubiquitous and trying to actively take over the whole society.”

  “Don’t underestimate human criminal organizations,” Syndra said, cocking an eyebrow. “So you’re mom’s a mafia boss, that’s trippy.”

  “No, she isn’t,” Allie sighed. “It’s more like she’s…kind of someone’s lieutenant. She worked her way up to a point where a lot of people fear her but it also means she’s a big target for the ones beneath her that don’t figure loyalty’s going to get them anywhere. And she’s still answering to someone else, someone higher in her clan.”

  “Where does that leave you?”

  “Not wanting any part of any of it,” Allie said decisively.

  “Does it work that way?” Syndra said, her expression cynical.

  Allie finished her coffee. “It does this time.”

  ****************

  She was pulled out of the conversation abruptly when Sal was shaking her awake again. Squinting up she mumbled “What?” trying not to sound as annoyed and disoriented as she felt.

  “I gave you an hour,” he said, apologetic.

  She groaned but climbed to her feet. “Okay. Your turn.”

  “I’m fine,” he said shaking his head and pulling his cloak closer. “I slept last night, more than you did at least.”

  She hesitated again, struggling to decide what was the best course of action. “Alright, if you’re sure, we’ll get going again. Um, I need to tell you a few things.”

  He looked at her expectantly as she gathered her thoughts. “I told you I was an empath, and you know I’m married. What I didn’t tell you was that I have a way of communicating with my husbands.”

  Now he looked alarmed, no doubt thinking back to the period she was his prisoner, and what that could have meant for him. “You mean you had a way to speak to your husband, who is in the Elven Guard, this entire time?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Don’t ask me to explain what it is exactly or how it works. What matters now is that I’ve been talking to them and they’ve been heading towards us just like we’ve been heading towards them.”

  Sal was trembling now his emotions a painful blend of fear and anger. “And what happens when they arrive here? You hand me over to them?”

  “No,” she said emphatically. “Definitely not. I wouldn’t have gotten you out of that house just to hand you over to the Guard.”

  He relaxed slightly, his expression still tense. “And they will just take your word that I am to be left alone?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, rubbing her forehead. “But one way or another I won’t let them hurt you. I’ll think of something. One of my husband’s is in the guard but the other isn’t and he’s with them, looking for me. Maybe he can help. In the meantime, I was warned that there’s a pretty dangerous creature ahead of us, that we need to avoid.”

  “What is it?”

  “They called it a ‘Pesht’ I think,” she said.

  He shook his head slightly, “I don’t know what that is.”

  “Yes, I didn’t either, but they said it was in a river up ahead and that it was very dangerous,” Allie said, chewing her lip. “So I’ve been trying to think of what we should do.”

  “Turning back doesn’t seem to be an option.”

  “No, I didn’t think so,” she agreed. “And diverting west towards the border could be risky too, especially since neither one of us can pierce the barrier.”

  “Do you have any ideas?” he asked, his emotions still unsettled.

  “I do actually. Jess – er Jessilaen – said that the native Fey had been around them as well, but had disappeared when they got close to where this being lived. And I was thinking, obviously the Fey who live here know this area the best. So I think we should ask them for help.”

  “Ask them for help,” he echoed. “And what will we offer them in exchange?”

  “We’ll have to see what they want from us first.”

  Sal studied their surroundings carefully, then slowly nodded. “If you think that’s our best option, I’ll leave it to you.”

  Allie took a few steps forward, “I think it’s better than blindly heading into danger.”

  Sal dropped back as A
llie walked out from under the trees into a slight clearing. She could still sense the clear presence of the other Fey around them and racked her brain for a way to reach out to them. Well she thought to herself I guess I should just ask for their help. We’re kind of between a rock and hard place here, and I know they are watching us. They can hear me. I don’t speak their language…and I don’t know if they speak Elvish of any variety. The elves have been here for a hundred years, but that may not mean anything. English though should be a safer bet. I mean Europeans came here 400 years ago, and I know there are stories of the native Fey interacting with people here, not just the local tribes before and after the Sundering but the colonists and other cultures too. Of course I don’t know how angry they are about any of that or about the Sundering itself, but they haven’t attacked us yet, that’s a good sign, right?

  She stepped further into the clearing, trying to gather her courage, consciously switching to what she had thought of as her primary language for her entire adult life, “Hello?”

  Silence. The figures darting among the trees stilled.

  “I know you’re there,” she said. “We don’t mean you any harm, we just want to talk to you.”

  She felt the emotions around them shifting from suspicion to curiosity and decided to play her last card. “We need your help.”

  “That’s obvious,” a voice said from her right. She turned and saw a man stepping out from behind a clump of shrubs and fallen trees. He was perhaps three and a half feet tall, clearly an adult, looking exactly like any of the local human tribal members except his eyes were all pupil with no iris. He wore tan work boots and jeans under a heavy fur cloak. His black hair was pulled into a ponytail and his dark eyes regarded her skeptically.

  She took a deep breath, “Hello.”

  “You said that already,” he pointed out, looking deeply unimpressed. There was faint snickering from the trees and then several more Makiawisug appeared, ranging around Allie in a rough half circle.

  “I was trying to be polite,” she said. “My name’s Allie and this is Salarius.”

  “Sounds like an elf name,” the one who come out to talk to her first said. She was guessing he was the leader, in some fashion. Among elves or those lesser Fey who were part of elven culture not giving a name in return for a name was extremely rude, but Allie had no idea what rules these Fey played by. She decided not to assume anything and just let things play out.

  “It is an elven name,” she said. “He’s an elf.”

  “We aren’t big fans of the elves,” he said, with a sneer.

  “Because they’re asshole,” one of the others muttered.

  “Yeah pretty much everyone but the elves would agree with you,” Allie said, feeling suddenly tired.

  The leader looked at her in surprise, as if he’d expected her to say something else. “Strange words from someone traveling with an elf and who smells like an elf, sort of.”

  “Sort of,” Allie said with more confidence, “but not entirely. My mother’s an elf. My father was human.”

  “Huh,” he said giving her a closer look, as the rest of the group shifted uncertainly. “Sucks for you, eh?”

  “Often,” she agreed.

  He laughed, the sound loud and genuine. “So what’s a halfbreed doing wandering the Wilds with an elf who looks like he’s barely old enough to cut his own food?”

  “We’re lost,” she said, hoping that was the right thing to say and not a huge mistake. At least it was true. “We’re just trying to find our way back to Ashwood.”

  “He’s trying to find his way back to the human settlement?” the Makiawisug leader said skeptically.

  “Yeah,” she said, thinking quickly. “He has a human lover there. Long story. His father tried to force him to return to Fairy.”

  Some muttering at that among the group, but not in a bad way. She could feel sympathy from many of them and curiosity from others. Behind her the tension was radiating off of Sal like heat waves off asphalt in the summer. It was getting really annoying and she struggled to try to read so many people’s diverse emotions at once.

  “Okay, so that explains him, what about you?”

  “Also a long story,” Allie said, trying to restrain her urge to babble when she was nervous, “but his father wanted me as a prisoner and I didn’t feel like being a prisoner. I also didn’t feel like getting taken back to my mother’s home when she showed up to sort things out. So I decided we should liberate ourselves and try to get back home on our own. Which isn’t working out so well, but it’s still an improvement on where we were, all things considered.”

  “You got a lover back in town too?” he asked gesturing at her abdomen. Some of the others behind him laughed.

  She ignored the laughter. “Couple husbands actually. I live in Ashwood, have most of my life, and they live with me, but they are here too in the Wilds, looking for me. We’re hoping to reach them.”

  Some of the gathered Makiawisug joked about her having two husbands but the leader frowned, “Out here looking for you huh? They wouldn’t be in the Elven Guard would they?”

  “One of them is,” Allie said, knowing that wasn’t likely to go over well. “I’m sorry that their presence here, trying to find me, means they are in your territory.”

  He grunted, “Yeah well, I’m not glad they’re here, ever, but I am glad to know why they’re here. It’s been bothering us, trying to figure out why the Guard was suddenly marching through the Wilds. Last time that happened it got real ugly. Nothing good comes with armed elves.”

  “I’d be more than happy to get to them as quickly as possible and have them turn around and get out of your area,” Allie said. “But we may need some help with that.”

  “It’s easier said than done,” he said but she could feel his emotions easing into something like happiness. “You’ve been lucky so far on your own of course, but the Wilds aren’t safe especially for a pregnant woman and a boy with no woods experience. To get to them, you’d need more than just a map.”

  “I imagine we’d need a guide,” she said carefully. Then added. “They said they ran into a problem at a river, a dangerous water Fey? They were badly hurt by it.”

  The group fell completely silent. The leader looked at her puzzled, “How can you know that? Do you have magical means of speaking with them or are you a seer?”

  “No,” Allie said, and fought the urge to say it was a long story again. “I have a way of speaking to the two men I’m married to. A kind of psychic bond. I spoke to them and they warned me to turn back or turn aside, to avoid this creature.”

  “But you didn’t. You’re still going on.”

  “I’ve come this far – we’ve come this far,” Allie said, Sal a silent shadow at her back. “I can’t give up now. And if they are hurt…I can’t just leave them here injured any more than they could leave me someone’s prisoner. We have to help each other.”

  He gave her another long considering look, “You’re either very brave or very stupid.”

  “At this point I don’t think it has to be one or the other,” she said, shrugging one shoulder. “Pretty sure I’ve managed to combine the two.”

  Several of the Makiawisug laughed again and the leader smiled. “So you want our help halfbreed, what do we get out of it?”

  “What do you want?”

  “What can you give us?” he shot back.

  Allie racked her brain for ideas but she honestly didn’t know what would be appropriate to offer. Finally she blurted out, “I don’t suppose you’d be interested in any books?”

  “What books?” he asked, curious.

  “What books would you want?” she said, her hope rising. “I own a bookstore in town. I have my limits but if there’s something specific you’re interested in, I can tell you if I have it or can get it.”

  “Huh,” he said looking back at the others then at her again. “Maybe we can make a deal. Do you have any books on sustainable architecture or off-grid renewable energy?”
>
  “I do actually, and a couple on maximizing recyclable resources that might interest you.”

  “I’d be more interested in anything relating to making tech work in Fairy to be honest,” he said.

  “There’s not too much out there, but I have some and I can get more,” she said.

  “And we could keep them?”

  “If you will give us a guide to get us as safely as possible to where the Elven Guard are camped, yes.”

  “Awesome. It’s been a bitch to try to get access through the library in town and what the library has isn’t exactly cutting edge, you know?” he said.

  “Yeah, I know,” Allie said relaxing. “Their budget isn’t very much. I donate books to them every year, but mostly fiction stuff.”

  “What’s the name of your store?” he asked.

  “Between the Worlds.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

  “I inherited it from my grandmother,” she said, trying not to let him see how much it bothered her that he was picking on the store’s name. Sure it was a bit corny, but it was also perfect and punny and clever if you had the right perspective.

  “Okay,” he said, “Here’s the deal you give us say $500 in credit for books. There’s a local tribal member Josh Smith, he does us favors, he’ll come in with a list in a couple weeks. You get him set up, give him whatever you got on hand, let him know what you need to order and he’ll get it back to us. Promise to do that and I’ll have Kisusq show you the way to your people. He’ll take you around any big dangers and on the fastest route.”

  “I can agree to those terms,” Allie said, wanting to throw her arms around the other Fey. “$500 credit in books to be chosen off a list you’ll send in with a messenger. I’ll order as much as I can that I don’t have and the messenger will bring you the books.”

  “You’ll have to camp tonight,” he warned her. “It’s only about 10 miles but you don’t want to be crossing near the river in the dark. The Nupináhtiá – what you called the ‘dangerous water Fey’ – is a lot more active at night going up and down the waterway. During the day it mostly rests at the wider section, where your men were ambushed. It’s safe enough to cross at the ford a few miles up as long as the sun’s up, but I wouldn’t chance it at night.”