Dreams of the Forgotten Dead

by Eric Asher

  “Yes, much of the city is buried under rubble and lost in the shelf of the trench itself. I do not know how stable it is, but in theory, they would be able to harvest more beneath the stone.”

  I walked around the register and looked at the list over Nixie’s shoulder. “If this is what they are willing to trade, couldn’t anyone strike the bargain?”

  “No. Fae merchants are not to be trusted. They have magicks of their own, and while most are harmless compulsions, you can imagine the effect that might have on a trade. A journeyman is immune.”

  It hadn’t been until that moment that all the pieces really fit together in my mind. I understood the Fae knew Frank was a good negotiator, but there was more to it. And I wondered if that same resistance to Fae magic gave Frank that same skill in bargaining with our suppliers. So I asked Nixie that same question.

  “It is possible. There are few journeymen who have befriended the Fae. Or at least not that came from commoners. We are often hostile toward those who can resist our wiles.”

  “Wiles,” I said with a chuckle. “Is it only compulsions he would be resistant to?”

  “Perhaps, but perhaps not. And that skill may not manifest in the ways you expect. Where the mere presence of a power may disorient you, it may have no effect on Frank, or a diminished effect. The few journeymen I have known over the centuries have all been quite different.”

  Movement outside drew my eye. I thought it might be Edgar until I realized there were two. They were staring through the window until they noticed me looking. One offered a nod before they turned back to the street, and I caught the outline of wings poorly hidden by a glamour.

  “That’s odd.” I gestured to the window when Nixie looked up.

  She frowned at the two Fae standing on the sidewalk. “Why bother with glamour at this point? We are already exposed.”

  I didn’t recognize them, but I felt like something was off. Like I should have known them, but the memory wouldn’t surface. That may have been the last round of drinks from the night before.

  One pointed up into the air, and I started to the front.

  Edgar was doing his best magical nanny impression, drifting down with his umbrella held high. The glamour on the fairies flickered again, and I caught the dark outline of their wings around translucent segments.

  “Unseelie,” Nixie hissed. “Foster!”

  We didn’t wait to hear if anyone responded. We charged at the door as the Unseelie Fae drew swords, and their glamour fell. They were disheveled, wearing dented and broken armor. Nothing like the polished ranks of those I’d seen at the end of the battle in Falias.

  I hurried through the door after Nixie.

  “Stop! By order of the Queen of the Undines.”

  The nearest Fae spared us a glance. “We answer to the King of Murias and no other.”

  “Stand down, or I’ll put you down,” I growled. If they weren’t going to listen to reason, we’d have to be less reasonable.

  “You can’t face a mage solis alone,” Nixie said. “You don’t have that kind of power.”

  The second Fae turned on Nixie. “Then he kills us. We die with honor. There is little more we can ask.”

  “Nudd is gone. There is much more you can ask.”

  The fairy hesitated before shaking his head. “You’re wrong. We failed. To return to Murias now is to return to an execution. And I won’t do that. I won’t make my family watch before they themselves are put to the ax.”

  The first nodded. “We go home as victors, or we die to protect our families.”

  I wasn’t sure if Edgar had heard the conversation, but by the time he landed in front of the bedraggled fairies, gauntlets of blinding light lined his hands.

  “What is this?” the Watcher asked.

  “Unseelie from Murias.” Nixie’s words grew quieter. “They intend to kill you, or die themselves.”

  “There are less painful ways to die,” Edgar said.

  Edgar’s words gave the fairies pause before the first of them stood a little straighter and shouted at the mage solis. “The pawn of the Morrigan must fall!”

  The first launched himself at Edgar as the other turned on us, lashing out with his sword.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “Impadda!” I roared, and the shield that rose between us crackled and sparked with a ferocious blue lightning. I’d never seen my shield so dense or so bright, but it didn’t slow the attacker down.

  His sword crashed into it, rebounding with a thunderclap.

  Nixie lunged to her right, crossing to the other side of the shield, where two quick strikes of a dagger crippled one of the Unseelie’s wings. I dropped the shield and reached for my pepperbox, which I realized in short order was still in the canvas backpack upstairs.

  The Unseelie’s sword flashed black, as if the dull glow of the blade had been snuffed out, but instead, a bolt lanced from its tip and blew apart brick and mortar, narrowly missing Nixie’s head.

  Edgar’s opponent crashed to the ground a moment later, screaming as the skin of his arm charred and blistered as I watched.

  “Enough!” Edgar roared. “You fight a war that is done. If you cannot return to Murias, seek a new home.”

  It felt like the sting of a bee. I looked down and found a slender blade lodged in my shoulder.

  “Poison,” the Fae said between gritted teeth. “You’ll be dead in minutes.”

  “Can you take care of this?” I asked Nixie.

  Her middle and index fingers curled back as she pulled the blade out. It didn’t hurt much more than a needle, but I didn’t miss the dark blue fluid dripping from it. The drip stopped, joined by my blood as Nixie drew the poison out.

  The second Fae lunged.

  “Modus Ignatto.”

  A flame more intense than any I’d ever conjured flashed forward like the snap of a whip, followed by a wave of destruction, golden and brilliant like a star pulled down from the Abyss. There were no screams. No sound but the seared cobblestones and blistered paint on the side of my car.

  Edgar stepped up beside me and studied the drifting ash and melted slag of the Unseelie armor.

  Nixie let the poison fall onto the superheated stone, where it boiled away. “Well, that’s new.”

  I looked at my hand. I hadn’t channeled that power through a staff or wand or any kind of focus. It shouldn’t have been possible. It should have burned me alive. “What the fuck?”

  “Wonderful,” Edgar muttered before pinching the bridge of his nose. “Your shield appeared different as well.”

  “I noticed that,” Nixie said. “I kept away in case, well.” She gestured to the remains on the sidewalk. The armor flowed into the crevices of the cobblestones, where it cooled into something like a metal mortar between the rocks.

  I turned to my car. “Damn. Guess it’s a good thing we have to go back to Samir’s.”

  Edgar looked up to the sky. “They weren’t alone.”

  It was only a glimpse, but I caught sight of a terrified face and translucent wings before the Unseelie Fae vanished over the rooftops.

  “Great.”

  “What happened?” Nixie asked. “That was … I’ve never seen you do that before.”

  “I don’t know. It was just a Modus incantation. It shouldn’t have done … that.” I stared at the puddle of hardening metal.

  “Titan magic,” Edgar muttered. “As if you weren’t dangerous enough as it was. I was going to tell you Koda thinks you should try to enlist Gaia to battle the basilisk. Now I think you should talk to Gaia to find out what other surprises might be lurking in your bond.”

  “Am I bound to her? Like Vicky was to me?”

  Edgar shook his head. “Perhaps bond is the wrong word for it. She gifted some of her strength to you, severing herself from it for all time. When you die, it will die with you, but regardless of that sacrifice, she walks the earth once more.”

  “I could ask her about the basilisk.”

  Nixie reached out and squeezed m
y arm. “She is not the same as the innkeeper. Gaia is something else now, and we cannot know how she will respond.”

  I knew Nixie was right, but I still wanted to talk to the Titan about my powers. Even if she couldn’t help us with the basilisk, Edgar’s idea was a good one.

  “Walk with me.” Edgar led us back to the shop, where we had a modicum of privacy. Of course, after that display of power on the street, even the tourists kept their distance.

  Edgar locked the door once we were all inside and faced me. “I’ve told you how to engage the basilisk, but after watching you just now, I think it’s more important than ever you talk to Gaia. If you unleash that power in the wrong place, you could collapse streets or bridges or worse. Find her in the wastes.”

  Nixie crossed her arms. “Edgar, you know it is not so simple as that. The wastelands are being remade by magic from Faerie. It is hard to navigate without …” Her words trailed off and she turned to the counter where Frank was going over his notes from Shamus.

  “Exactly.” Edgar started toward Frank.

  “You intend to visit the wastes?” a voice asked from the shelf beside me. I turned to find Aideen, looking more like herself in silver armor and a pale cloak.

  “We need to talk to Gaia. I need to talk to Gaia.”

  Aideen glanced between Frank and Edgar as the former took note of our approaching group. Frank closed his book and raised an eyebrow.

  Aideen glided down to land on the tablet. She turned back to face me. “You will need a journeyman. The wastes are home to Fae merchants and scavengers. It takes a keen mind to walk away with your life intact.”

  Frank straightened on his stool as he caught more of the conversation. “You’re going to the wastelands? That’s where Shamus needs me. I’ll go with you.”

  I held up a finger to ask for a moment. “Frank doesn’t have experience negotiating with the Fae. Are you sure it’s safe for him?”

  “That’s not really your choice to make, Damian,” Frank said. “Shamus has asked me to find the merchants in the wastes and negotiate on behalf of Atlantis. And I’m going to do that, whether you’re with me or not.”

  “Have you told Sam?” I asked.

  Frank cringed at the question, which was all the answer I needed. But there was more to it than that, as he started to explain. “She’s not happy about it, but I already told her I’m going. Honestly, Damian, I think her main concern is that she can’t go with me because she’s taking care of Vik. But I told her I’ll go with friends, and she seemed okay with it.”

  I blew out a breath. “It’s your ass.”

  “It’s all of our asses,” Nixie said. “I feel it’s better to risk the wastes with an inexperienced journeyman than go alone.”

  “Agreed.” Edgar held his hand out to Frank. “May I see one of your notebooks?”

  Frank handed over the gray hardcover notebook that had Shamus’s looping scroll. Edgar flipped through some of the pages, nodding as he read the requests from the old undine.

  “Of all the things you could do in Atlantis, why restart the forges?” He glanced up at Nixie. “There was always such beauty there, such knowledge. Why waste it on weapons?”

  Nixie bristled at Edgar’s question. “As if you need an answer to that.”

  Shamus stepped closer to Edgar. “Do you not remember what happened to your clans and worshipers when they were no longer able to defend themselves? What happened to their great works? Relegated to museums for the commoners, lost to the sands, and now even their blades are considered great works of art.”

  “That wasn’t the same, Shamus,” Edgar said. “Empires fall. It is the way of things.”

  “And sometimes they rise again,” Nixie said.

  Edgar sighed and handed the notebook back to Frank. “Promise me one thing, Queen of the Undines. You will not forget the history of the best of your people. There has always been more to the Atlanteans than violence. Not all those who remain in the trench are warriors. Spare a light for their forges as well.”

  When Nixie didn’t answer, I turned to face her, surprised to see a glistening in her eyes before she closed them and gave Edgar a single nod.

  “I will. They will not be lost.”

  “Good. Then I need to tell you the rest of what Koda had to say. And I fear it is not all good news.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  I almost stopped at the Formica table, but instead continued past and took the group upstairs. There were still cardboard boxes everywhere, and I knew I’d need to spend some time unpacking, but the overstuffed leather chairs stood empty, save for Hess and her companion on the heavy coffee table.

  Nugget tilted his head and studied us as we approached down the floor to ceiling aisle of books. Foster and Aideen landed on the opposite side of the table from the bird. It wasn’t until the peacock saw Edgar that his tail flashed out, and golden light raced across the eyes of his tail.

  “Oh, he’s beautiful,” Edgar said, slipping around me and sitting in a chair beside the peacock.

  The bird hopped to the table’s edge, his neck moving in jerky motions as he studied Edgar from one side and then another before leaping over to the Watcher and settling onto his lap. Edgar slowly ran a finger over the base of Nugget’s neck, and the bird made a sound that was far closer to a song than the ferocious honk I was growing used to.

  “Show off,” I muttered as I sat down.

  Nixie flopped into the chair beside me as Hess shut her book in the ghost circle.

  As Frank took a seat closest to the wall, Edgar adjusted the bird so he could see around the tail that hadn’t fully closed yet.

  “Hess, I think you know Edgar.”

  “He is known to me.”

  “Hess, I am sorry for your … situation.”

  The ghost shrugged. It was an odd gesture on an Utukku, her shoulders rising at an angle as if the joints weren’t quite made for the motion. “Death comes to all in time. But it is not all who are rewarded with a Spirit Hunt. And I must say, it is not all who are rewarded with time in a circle such as this.”

  I’d never really thought of the ghost circle as a reward, but I guess it was kind of an amazing thing for a ghost to have physical form once more. And enough to peruse the books left in the circle.

  “Ward made that circle,” I said. “Zola had him do it a long time ago.”

  “I saw his works in the tunnels below Falias. The Warded Man is skilled in his trade. He would be formidable against a basilisk.”

  “He has fought one before,” Edgar said. “Even he could not best it without the help of a reaper.”

  “He did not have Damian Vesik, Ra, and the Queen of the Undines at his side.”

  “That doesn’t always help,” Frank said with a laugh.

  I narrowed my eyes for a moment before chuckling at Frank’s observation.

  Nixie leaned forward, resting her elbows on her thighs. “So what’s the bad news, Edgar?”

  “I will start with a small amount of good news. Koda had more knowledge of the basilisks than I had hoped. It should give us a better chance of going up against the beast, though I fear that does bring me to the bad news, as you say.”

  “Are you going to help us fight?” Nixie asked.

  “I may not have a choice.”

  “What you mean?”

  “Koda has informed me that a single basilisk, even one of the greater beasts, will not extend their lair more than three square miles beneath the ground.”

  I could feel my expression falling as Edgar spoke. Before he uttered the next sentence, I already had a rising dread that I knew what he was about to say.

  “And the lair you saw beneath Samir’s is far larger. Even if you narrowed it, stretched out that three square miles into a rectangular shape, it would not reach from that far south to the shores of the river. It is a nest, home to more than a single basilisk.”

  “Those are not small animals,” Hess said. “How could an entire nest remain hidden?”

  “The a
rea is riddled with caves. It is likely they have not gone undetected, instead mistaken for strange cavern formations. And I would not be surprised if the basilisks are responsible for more than a few missing hikers in the past years.”

  “Years?” Aideen said. “How long do you think that lair has been beneath the earth?”

  “At least since Gettysburg.”

  “The first one, or the one where Falias was pulled through?” Foster asked.

  “Falias. I’ve discussed the presence of Gorias fragments beneath Saint Charles with Koda. We believe there was more than Falias transferred in the cataclysm at Gettysburg. Another layer of Nudd’s plan. Should his gambit in Falias fail, enough patience would bring the basilisks to the surface.”

  Foster bowed his head. “Mom couldn’t have known. She would’ve stopped him.”

  Aideen reached out and took his hand.

  Edgar stroked the bird’s neck. “But whether you believe this magnificent bird to be the eyes of Hera, or to have been created from the feathers of Garuda, you will not go into the darkness alone.”

  “Have you ever asked Mike the demon about that?” Frank asked. “I mean, if he was the Smith, maybe he knew Hera.”

  “I’ve little doubt he did,” Edgar said. “But I’ve always wondered if the more powerful birds were somehow related. If what gave the thunderbirds their power gave power to other creatures across the world.”

  “Gifts of the Titans,” Hess said. “There are legends that tie to many others, though some of their patterns have been lost to the ages.”

  “My personal favorite is that manatees are where the legend of mermaids come from.” Foster’s lips curled up in a wicked smile as he spoke and looked at Nixie.

  Nixie extended a finger at Foster. “Bug. I will drown you.”

  “And I’ll watch,” Aideen said with a hard slap to Foster’s arm.

  “Besides,” Nixie muttered, “if the mermaid legends come from anyone, it’s most assuredly Pace.”

  Edgar burst into laughter. “Truly? The blue men of the Minch? Mermaids? My god, Nixie. That is the best thing I have heard all day.”

  Aideen crossed her arms. “If any of you have issues with floaty sea potatoes, you can remove yourself from my life right now.”