I was heartened to hear that the kitsune’s death had had some purpose, then.
“We won’t stay but a night. I need to talk to Raven.”
Which would be more complicated. There were no doors from Underhill to Raven’s territory, something I would think about more, another time.
“Raven.” Jao leaned back and steepled his fingertips. “Will he be a... problem?”
“No. And leave him alone. He may not look like much, but he will likely take any threat to him very seriously. He’s got a family, and that is what’s important to him.” And I had married into that family.
“He’s not likely to move across the sea?” I heard what Jao was asking. If Raven was a threat to the Eastern Court.
“Not for anything, I don’t think. Or he would have come when Daniken called for him. He was pretty pissed at her.”
Jao winced slightly. “Then I will worry about dangers closer to home.”
I grunted as I levered myself up and out of the tub. Clean, relaxed, but still a bit sore. “Call us if you have problems, eh? Only...” I wrapped the towel around my waist and flashed a grin at him. “The next time, usual rates apply.”
He laughed, and I left him there, still quietly chuckling, and went to find my Bella, and clothes.
Bella’s new haircut was what I think is called a pixie style in human realms, close to her skull and feathered. I found I missed the heavy, silken weight of it in my hands when I kissed her. But the lips and arms around me were still the same. I lost track of time, and was only brought back to it by an exclamation.
“Ew!” I turned my head to see Dorothy, her hands on her hips, and Chong, grinning over her shoulder. Bella buried her face in my chest to hide her laughter. I could just make out what she was saying.
“Isn’t she a little old to be grossed out?”
“No, Fae develop slowly, and she’s led a sheltered childhood.”
Dorothy made a face at me. “I was sent to tell you two to come to a meal, but if you would rather I come back later...”
“We’re coming.” Bella pulled away from me. She had been dressed in a kimono, again, and she looked very beautiful, with the deep purple bruise on her cheek, highlighted by the cut on the upper edge of it. Something had walloped her good last night.
We all walked into the big room, and a mass of people, who parted before us with a soft murmur. I couldn’t make out words, just lots of smiles. I felt awkwardly on display. We took our seats, and people parted in the other direction to reveal Jao, carrying a tray and beaming. He reached us and bent, lowering the tray with a thud to the tabletop.
He pulled the cover off it with a flourish, revealing a small gold statue. It was very much like Beaker, in gold, with huge ruby eyes. The workmanship was exquisite.
“From the Emperor, with his deepest gratitude. This ancient talisman is a symbol of our appreciation for your service, and,” Jao winked slightly, “May be of assistance with your new friend.”
“Thank you,” I told him. “We are... overwhelmed with his generosity.”
The rest of the feast was mercifully brief. Eating was good, as both of us were still recovering from our exertions. Chong sat beside me and translated for his mother, on his other side, who wanted to let us know how deeply she was grateful for the return of her only child, safe. I asked him at one point, “You ok?”
He nodded. “It was a terrific adventure! I will never forget it, and Uncle Jao says I am to have samurai training.”
I chuckled. The differences between Dorothy, who had been frantic, and his boyish enthusiasm, were funny. After dinner, Jao clapped his hands twice, and all the people left quietly.
“Sleep, my friend...” He took me by the shoulders, and I may have winced. I’d bruised one badly in a fall at some point the day before. I had no idea what time it was, any longer, but sleep sounded good.
Heading Home
The next day, morning, I think, early enough there was still a bit of dew on the grass, we bubbled out for the Seattle Underhill door, and a trip to Alaska. Bella called Raven as soon as we arrived above, and I could hear him on the phone, giving her directions.
“Is he sending us to the airport?” I asked, confused. She nodded.
Once she was off the phone, she looked at her watch. “He must have had this all set up in advance. Maybe Daniken communicated with him? Anyway, we are to wait, a car is coming within the hour, and then we go to the airport, with a driver, and we will be taken from there.”
“I’m not going to argue. Not having to drive for three days sounds like a winning plan to me right now.”
Even walking out from the door, which was something like a 30-minute hike, sounded unpleasant, but it was necessary.
Tex was lounging against the hood of a car when we emerged from the hiking trail. He beamed at us. Bella laughed.
“I am so glad to see you!” she told him, delivering a hug. I shook his hand, and he stooped to shake with the petite Dorothy, who was no taller than Bella, above. Next to his lanky height, she looked like the pixie I was.
“What happened to your hair, girl?” He frowned down at Bella, having processed her appearance. The way he looked from her bruise to me, frowning, did not bode well for his trust of me.
“I’ll tell you the whole story in the car.” Bella promised.
She climbed in the front seat, as I nodded to her to go on, and I got in the back, with Dorothy on the other side, and put my head back, promptly falling asleep. I woke when the car stopped again. Tex glanced over his shoulder at me. His smirk meant she had explained it all away. Good.
“Almost there. Wait until you see the new plane.”
“New plane?” Bella asked.
“I done tol’ you about it before,” Tex chuckled. “You were a mite worried about the ogres at the time, though. That’s how we got to Longview so fast. Raven’s got me on retainer, and a plane. Says it’s your wedding gift, that you will need a fast get away from time to time, and a team transport.”
In the backseat, he couldn’t see me gape. He was laughing, though, as we pulled up to a small terminal. “There...” He pointed. “Ain’t she purdy?”
She was, indeed. The sleek jet, we discovered when we boarded, had seats to carry six in luxury, with plenty of cargo space. Tex busied himself in the cockpit, and after a few minutes, popped his head back out. “Dor’thy?”
“Yes?” She looked up from the seat belt she was trying to figure out.
“I reck’n you haven’t flown before.”
She nodded. I smiled, guessing where he was going with this.
“Want to come up and sit in the co-pilot’s seat?”
She nodded, hard, and Bella went up to help her get settled and buckled in. When she came back, she was grinning. “She’s like a cat in cream. I think I will make arrangements for her to take lessons while she’s staying in Alaska.”
She sat next to me and buckled. I took her hand. “Are we staying with her?”
Bella shook her head. “No, we will be wanted back home. I want to leave her for a couple of months at least.”
“Home?”
She looked at me and smiled, then kissed me. “Home is where you are.”
The End
Mumblings from the Future
The two men sat on the rough porch, admiring the stand of birch that had turned bright gold, almost overnight.
“Pretty,” the raven offered, taking a slug out of his coffee cup. “Ah...”
The tall man swung his feet up on the porch railing and leaned back against the log wall behind him. He contemplated his own mug.
“They all right, you think?” The dragon would have given his horde to take care of the girl, and still wasn’t ready to trust her new husband. He was uneasy, with her so far from home and help.
“Will be. Girl is a glutton for punishment. No time at all, and she’s startin’ off with two.”
“Two?” The dragon was startled. “How did that happen... Nevermind, I know.” He settled back
into quiet, shaking his head. Two at a time was unheard of in his family.
They looked up, a movement in the sky catching their attention. Raven clucked his tongue, sounding very much like his bird form. “That boy... He ain’t right. Worries me.”
Beaker swam closer, then landed delicately, for him, the slim teen on his back sliding off gracefully at the same time. The two men could barely see ripples in their coffee cups.
“Mroop.”
“Yep. Going to be a long winter.” The tall man agreed. He scratched his balding head. It might be time for him to pay his ancestral home a visit. And he could check on the girl while he was down there.
Author Bio
Cedar Sanderson is a writer, blogger, and businesswoman who can be found in her office pounding the keyboard when she isn't out walking the dog. Her work has been published by Stonycroft Publishing, Naked Reader Press, and Something Wicked. She is the author of the young adult novel Vulcan's Kittens, and her second novel, Pixie Noir, will be released late 2013. She writes regular blog columns at Mad Genius Club, in addition to her own writing blog, where she posts almost daily. She prefers science fiction, mostly writes fantasy, and dabbles in non-fiction when her passion is stirred.
Other Titles by Author
Short Stories and Novellas
Voyageur's Cap (Published by Naked Reader Press) - Space Pirates and the return of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Memories of the Abyss - She may be crazy, but she knows her only friend was murdered.
Stargazer - Science fiction short story of a mother’s love.
The Twisted Breath of God - A story of second contact with aliens.
Little Red-Hood and the Wolf-Man - Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? Not little Red with her shotgun!
Dwarf’s Dryad - Who rescues whom from the Witch and her rapunzel?
Plant Life - Exploration of a new planet and first contact.
Snow Angel - A mother’s love can defy any power, even that of angels.
Sugar Skull - what would you do to keep your job?
Novels
Pixie Noir - book one in the Pixie for Hire series. Lom must bring Bella Underhill. Nothing personal, it’s just his job.
Vulcan’s Kittens - Vulcan’s granddaughter is kitten-sitting when an old war comes to them. She must protect them at all costs, because they aren’t just kittens.
The Eternity Symbiote - the aliens came in peace, bearing gifts. What could go wrong?
Excerpt from The Eternity Symbiote
Gabrielle McGregor ran her fingers through her hair, stretching upwards onto her toes, and yawned. It had been a long flight, with only the prospect of another long one ahead of her. A quiet one, too. She had never seen her charter passengers before, and they had not introduced themselves when they arrived at the little airport she worked out of. The tiny Tok airport was the last jumping-off point for much of the bush country in Alaska, and she was used to charters for Fairbanks or Anchorage, but this was a unusual one for her - all the way out into the Forty-Mile area, to a small lake the size of a pocket-handkerchief. The passengers were unusual too - the military ordinarily found it cheaper to fly their own people to out-of the-way places in the Alaskan wilderness than to charter a bush pilot.
Only minutes before she had landed neatly on her pontoons and helped her passengers out. Now she stood on the rickety dock while her two passengers made their way to the shore and argued about something. Well, when they made up their minds she’d help them unload, and then head for town. The deal was, she would drop off, and then when their three days were up, they would be picked up. Probably not by her, as there were three other pilots who also worked for the air ferry service, and that was fine with her. She was not a gregarious woman, but it was unnerving to fly for four hours and not have one of them say a word. One had slept, mostly, while the other had pulled out a PDA and tapped away at it the whole trip.
She was just contemplating climbing back into the plane for a quick nap when one of the men came down the dock to her.
“Er, sorry about that. But we thought we had come to the wrong lake.”
“Oh?” she asked cooly, feeling her navigational skills slighted.
“Oh, no, you got us where we wanted to be,” he assured her hastily. “But there was supposed to be someone here waiting for us.”
That confused her. How would this person have gotten out here? As far as she knew, no-one had gotten a flight out here in a very long time. Shrugging, she offered to help with their luggage.
“Thank you, ma’am. I do appreciate this,” he took the first bags from her - mostly camping gear, she noted - and set them on the dock.
He was not a prepossessing man, average height and build, which meant she stood nose-to-nose with him, as she was tall for a woman. Brown hair, and pale brown eyes, she observed now. His partner, still staring out into the wood, no doubt hoping for the arrival of their missing person, was shorter, and stocky, with close-cut black hair that he had run his fingers through, and which now stood on end. They looked capable enough, she thought, running her eyes over the camping gear they had brought, which was not new. She didn’t think she needed to worry about leaving them on their own out here.
“The bears out here aren’t shy,” she did finally warn. “They probably haven’t seen a person, and likely they’ll just hightail it if they see you, but they just might get curious and decide to poke around.”
He smiled. “Thank you. We hopefully will not be here long.”
Her curiosity piqued, she asked, “Aren’t you camping?”
“Only if necessary. Really, we’re just here to pick something up. Our missing member of the team was to have located it, and we were to merely help him retrieve it.”
“And what would that be? We don’t fly live animals, and it is out of season for most everything.” Her steely eyes warned him that she, personally, did not care to look the other way if they were poaching.
“No, no, nothing like that.” He looked startled. “No, we are trying to find a meteor.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Isn’t that unlikely, in all this?” she gestured around them at the vast, empty wilderness.
“Well,” he hefted up two of the bags and set off toward shore with her following. “It was a very unusual meteor.”
She could tell he was hedging, but at least he was talking, and her overactive curiosity bump wanted scratching. “So, what is it that you do?”
“Well, they are with NASA, I am a consultant.” He dropped the bags on the ground as they stepped off the dock, and when she followed suit, stuck out his hand to be shaken. “Paul Monroe is my name - er, there is a doctorate involved, but I don’t use it. Confusing you know,” his eyes twinkled at her.
She laughed, a singular, low laugh that she knew men loved to hear, and shook hands.
“Gabrielle McGregor, nice to meet you.”
She turned to see the other man striding back out of the woods, looking frustrated.
“I can’t think where he is.” The shorter man growled at Paul without ceremony.
“Major Dexter Guptill, meet Ms. McGregor.” said Paul calmly.
The man glared at Paul, then reluctantly shook her hand. “Thank you for the ride,” he said brusquely. “We will be fine from here.” he finished, dismissing her.
“All right then.” she inclined her head gracefully. “When you call, someone will be back to get you.”
She was folding herself into the plane when she heard a shout. Looking out the still-open door, she saw Paul racing up the dock, waving his hand.
“Wait!” he called.
She stepped back onto the dock.
Puffing slightly, he grinned. “No need to call - he’s here and with the rock!”
She turned to see Major Guptill and another man bent over a bundle wrapped in olive green cloth - parachute silk, if she guessed correctly. She shrugged. They were paying, she was just their ride.
"Are we headed back to town, then?"
He nodded
.
“All right, grab your bags.”
Paul trotted back down the dock with her, saying breathlessly, “I’m sorry he was rude. They have some idea this needed to be a secret.” He snorted. “I could have told them there was no need. I mean, I love to get a look at meteors when I can, but we already know what most of them are composed of. The probability of something previously unknown coming in is so small as to be vanishing. I have no idea why they wanted me along for this, but it pays well, and was definitely a break from the daily grind, so here I am!”
She helped him load the bags in, and then climbed back in herself and began to run her checklist. The rude major had not bothered her, and the flirtatious consultant was charming enough. She just wanted to get home.
She was absorbed in her task and did not look up for the two men as they walked down the dock. She could hear them settling their burden in the back and realized with slight annoyance that one of them meant to sit beside her. She looked up and her eyes widened. She emitted a slight squeak of surprise, and the tall man sliding into the seat next to her grinned and said,
“I love that sound, Gabi! Oh, God, such an undignified noise to make and at such a time!”
Quickly, she recovered herself and replied acerbically, “Anyone would make a noise if they looked up into that mug looming over them!”
Lieutenant Colonel Jedediah McGregor - the penultimate tall, dark, and handsome man - buckled himself in and leaned over to peck her on the cheek. “How are you, cherie?”
Paul leaned forward, fascinated at their by-play. “Do you two - ah - know one another?”
Jed turned his head, raising one dark eyebrow and laughing, as Gabi taxied out into the lake.
“Why, Paul, she’s my wife.”
The other man blinked in surprise. “Er, oh.”
Once they were airborne, Jed spoke softly to Gabi. “Sorry I didn’t give you a call while I was in town, but I needed to get this little job done.”
Trickster Noir (Pixie for Hire Book 2) Page 30
