by brett hicks
‘How did we even cross over to England, from our house?”
Maris gave me a stern look.
“No not tell anyone about that tree, or how far we traveled in a single doorway. All the hidden ways to the colonies were supposed to have been closed or destroyed during the rise of the Imperium. That doorway is only hidden now, due to the most spectacular glamour to ever be cast on this mortal realm. Every now and again, I have to feed my energy into the glamour to keep it strong.”
I blinked and nodded, trying to absorb his words and not forget any of them. Part of me was totally wigged out right now, but somehow I was moving and laughing as if my world had not just been tipped upside down. I had a feeling that the shock would catch up to me with a vengeance later.
My eyes seemed to be drawn to the reverse-flowing traffic.
“My god, how do they not crash?!”
I exclaimed and a lady walking her dog looked at me with what must have been her best withering glare. Maris chortled at this then he shrugged.
“Sometimes they do, but often they don’t, just like back home in America.”
I bit my lip and read the subtext to his statement loud and clear.
“It’s just so confusing! I keep expecting to see the cars coming the other way on this side of the road!”
He nodded sagely and sighed.
“That was how I felt when I moved to America, granted I did not really enjoy automobiles. You must avoid high iron content, my child. While you can ride in a car safely, if you are stabbed with iron, it can poison you, even kill you. Next to beheading and exsanguination, that is about the only way for our kind to die. The Moch Sidhe are higher faereys and are very hard to kill.”
I nipped at my lip and I felt like my world was spinning.
“Daddy, are you staying with me?”
The randomness of my change in topic threw my father and he suddenly looked much sadder. I had my answer long before the words tumbled free from his mouth.
“How I wish that were possible, my little angel child. You will be staying in the dorms with all the other supernatural teens. Cambridge Academy is a boarding school, besides; I am not exactly allowed to stay here for extended durations.”
Everything he told me seemed to mutate and spawn thirty new questions to replace every answer!
After we had watched a dozen or so cabs pass, my father whistled to the oldest and most rickety of the cabs. My eyes widened and I gestured to the nineteen-fifties-era cab.
“Dad, why did you let all the other cabs go by? I thought we were walking there.”
He smiled and his eyes danced with mischief.
The cab came to a stop at the corner and Maris held the door open for me. I was instantly ready to bolt once I sat down and saw who—or what—was driving the cab. He had one massive unblinking eye in the center of his head and only a few stray curly brown locks on his otherwise shiny bald head. He was stocky and built like a tank.
“Greeting Gentry Barns, how fares the ride business?”
If it was possible, that huge eye bulged wider still as my father sank into the seat and moved me further into the cab. Gentry Barns swung his head around as if his one eye was deceiving him. His voice was like a rock-slide it was so rough and deep.
“That can’t be you, Maris! How the bloody hell did you get off the Empress’ radar?!”
He looked over, as if just now noticing me for the first time.
“Who’s this little beauty? Can’t be yours, she’s too pretty, smells too much of power.”
Maris tensed slightly; anyone besides me would have missed this reaction to Gentry’s comment. Maris shut the door and he gestured to me with a flowery showmanship worthy of an actor.
“This is my only daughter, Amelia Edwards. As a parent, I am entitled to the same rights of neutrality as anyone else while in Cambridge.”
Maris shrugged as if this were no big deal.
“Her Majesty can just suckle on a toad for all I am concerned.”
You might have expected shock or anger at such a statement, but the cab driver just threw his head back and roared in laughter.
“Blimey, I’ve missed you old chap! Cambridge just isn’t the same without you romping around the place.”
Maris lived in Cambridge?!
Maris shrugged and sighed.
“I miss it here, but America has proven to be a surprisingly interesting place for a man of my talents.”
The booming laughter was back again and the cabby snorted derisively.
“I’ll spare the little lady from hearing any of the more explicit of your deeds, but you must come for a pint before you ship off for the colonies again!”
Maris nodded curtly and his smile was warmer.
“Deal, but you’re paying.”
“Some things never change, it seems. I hadn’t heard of you having a kid though. Which maiden did you finally sully and bear child with?”
My cringe was instantaneous and I made a gagging sound.
That is something a girl never needs to hear!
Gentry smiled sheepishly at me and wiped the line of drool forming at the corner of his mouth with his meaty hand.
“Sorry there little miss, I meant no offense. I’m just a bit… straightforward.”
Maris snorted and muttered, “That’s one word for it.”
“Hey!” Gentry exclaimed in faux-offense. Then he seemed to remember the road as another car behind us beeped several times.
“Where am I taking you, Maris?”
Maris nodded to me and said, “We are heading to Cambridge Academy for the Supernaturally Inclined.”
Gentry nodded and he made a masculine sound of approval at this choice in schools.
“Best school money can buy. While I did enjoy my days at Buckford Academy, Cambridge is always the best.”
I looked over at my dad and asked, “What is Buckford Academy?”
He looked at me and shrugged.
“It is the other school for supernaturals in Cambridge City.”
Gentry shot off the curb throwing me back into my seat. I yelped in surprise and we took the first left at a dizzying pace. Both men were now laughing loudly at my surprise.
“Buckford and Cambridge are like rivals. They compete against each other in everything. Despite that, Maris and I became good friends. Birds of a feather and all that, yeah?”
“Eyes on the road!”
I hollered and Gentry roared in renewed laughter.
“Maris, this kid’s a riot! I’m going to have to see her reaction when I really open her up!”
Maris looked at me and I scowled at my father.
“It’s her first day as a faerey, Gentry. I raised her as human for fifteen years.”
Gentry whistled and tilted his head to the side.
“Then she’s much braver than I gave her credit for. Most little girls would have peed themselves by now.”
Maris snorted and added in, “Most would have wet themselves at the sight of you, my dear friend.”
Gentry roared in laughter.
“It’s good to have you home, Maris!”
My father smiled brightly and nodded at the huge eye looking back at us through the rear mirror.
Five:
We were approaching the beautiful Cambridge College Botanic Gardens when Gentry pressed a large button above his visor.
“We’re going into the Faerey Dimension.”
I didn’t have time to ask before a golden light enveloped the cab and suddenly we were entering the guest parking of a massive grey stone castle that looked both ancient and also brand-new. Six massive spires seemed to pierce into the low-hanging clouds.
The thing most jarring was the seeming abrupt changes in seasons in the four major sections of the castle. Snow poured down in the back northern quarter. The sun was blaring and the humidity was harsher on the approach than what August in the rest of Cambridge had felt like.
I looked over to the western quarter and the trees were orange and bro
wn with falling leaves. The right quarter of the land shown fresh blooms and light rainfall. My jaw seemed to be unhinged as I took in the bizarre beauty.
My shock was interrupted by the excited and gravely tone of our cabby.
“Hey, Amelia Edwards.”
I spun and I sucked down a deep breath when I saw just how bulky Gentry was outside his cab. The laws of physics as I knew them, shouldn’t have allowed the nearly eight-feet giant Cyclops to sit so comfortably in his cab. The earth boomed under his foot-falls.
He fished something from around his neck. It was blue-silver and was about eight inches long. It had looked like some type of large pendant on him, but he held out his hand and I realized what he was presenting me. A silver-blue dagger, he fumbled in his back pocket and produced a blue scabbard to cover the six-inch blade.
“A gift freely given to the only child of my good friend. Faereys are beautiful creatures, but they are perilous, this will not be detected by any security measures. Keep it safe on your person at all times. This was a gift from my father, it has kept me safe and it will protect you, too.”
My eyes bulged and I felt my father tapped his fingers against my back, urging me to act. I took the blade from the large man and he smiled up at me and wiped at the corner of his mouth again. I felt the coolness of the metal, but it was almost liquid. I felt like I was holding the power of a tidal-force in my hand.
“That is the blade Poseidon gifted to his youngest son when he ventured off to his own magic academy,”
My father said and I felt my eyes widen further still.
“You can’t be talking about the Greek God!?”
Gentry rumbled a deep laugh and his belly shook with the force of his rumbling humor. My father looked like he was about to start cracking up at my expense too.
“Hide the blade now.”
My father instructed me in haste. He plastered on his brightest smile and turned towards the huge silver and gold gates. Gentry pointed to my pocket.
“It will shrink to fit your needs, much like I can shrink to fit my cab. You can keep it on you always. Stay safe, little Amelia.”
I smiled brightly and said, “Thank you Gentry, and call me Amy, that’s what my friends call me.”
The large Cyclop’s eye widened and his smile was wider still.
“Friends.”
He reached out and surprisingly gently, he squeezed my left hand.
“You owe me nothing for the thanks, so don’t feel the weight of debt my little friend. Call me if you need a ride, I’m in the phone book. I also have a Twitter for my cab business.”
My eyes bulged further then hearing his father’s name, considering I was more shocked at the large man talking about his Twitter account.
I smiled brightly and I couldn’t feel freaked out about the large Cyclop’s hand on mine. Gentry seemed like a truly gentle soul and he had given me something beautiful and precious, despite the fact that he had just met me.
“I’ll definitely call you for a ride sometime. I don’t know my arm from my leg in this city!”
He chuckled deeply and bobbed his giant head. I stuffed the large dagger into my pocket and it shrank to the size of a very large and strangely- shaped pen in the process. This whole new world was going to wreck my nerves and my sense of what was and was not possible.
“I must go now, but I will wait outside the border for your father’s return. Keep both those tiny eyes of yours open and only sleep with eye half-shut little Moch Sidhe.”
I nipped my lip and nodded dumbly to his advice.
This place can’t be that bad! Right?!
“By Summer’s rose!”
I heard a shrill feminine tone ahead and Gentry seemed to shiver involuntarily and he quickly made his retreat to his cab. Never had I imagined such a huge man could move so deftly or soundlessly in all my life! Heck, I didn’t think men could be that big before I met Gentry. My world was thoroughly and wholly turned on its ear today!
I saw my father stiffen and his spine was ramrod straight now. His own nerves and guard were raised high I waved to Gentry, and then I spun to see what the fuss was about. A lightly silver-blonde and silvery-pink haired woman strode forward in a long silken gown of deep-blues with many sparkling silver rings and bracelets. Her ears were longer than and as pointy as my own. She was someone whom the mists around us seemed to crowd as if they could sense something more different about her than others.
She laid eyes on me now and her pale-blue gaze was analytical and assessing. She looked like she was about five-nine or five-ten, yet she gave two tall magical men pause. I wasn’t sure what she was, or why they would act this way towards her, but I didn’t like the look she gave me. There was something duplicitous about her eyes and the way her smile never reached them.
I might not be much of a girly-type, but I was female enough to know when I was faced with a feminine shark in my proverbial waters. I found myself eyeing her wearily and my brain seemed to refuse to let me disconnect my own gaze from her. Like my mind and my subconscious seemed to know that I needed this woman squarely locked in and focused upon at all times.
“Madam Headmistress, may I present my daughter Amelia Edwards, Amy, this is Headmistress Audrey Picket.”
“Dear heavens child, you look naught a thing like this mischievous fellow. You failed to mention to whom she was born to Mr. Edwards.”
My father waved casually and said, “That is because it is of no consequence of yours whom she was born to. Besides, it was the mortal realm and she was delivered into the hands of a mortal. I am sure the mortal has since passed on.”
I sucked down a deep breath. Maris didn’t even bother to look at me as he so brazenly spoke of my mother as if she didn’t matter, or the fact that she was dead or dying! I was now simmering with a new fury.
His words were odd and they didn’t make any sense to me! Maris had never once seemed cold to me, not even when I asked about my mom! He had a softened gaze when he spoke the very few cryptic words I could pry from him! What the hell was this?!
My mind was reeling and I could not resolve the man I knew, from the one I had met since waking up this morning.
“A Halfling?”
Maris shrugged as if this didn’t matter one way or the other to him.
“She hardly has the look of a Halfling, except those mortal-looking eyes of hers of course.”
“Keep your eyes hidden at all times!”
He words came rushing back to me and I felt my heart thump in my chest.
Is this all an act? He and Gentry both seemed to stiffen and change demeanor when she approached. Who was this woman and why is my dad so worried about her knowing anything about me?
A string of less than pleasant four-letter-words ran through my head. My life had just gone from boring and mundane to five-hundred in the time it took my father to wake me at that ungodly hour!
“Well, fine, keep your secrets. You always did have a way of holding yourself apart from the rest of us Maris Edwards.”
Maris shrugged as if he could care less, but I could sense something else in my father’s behavior. There was a guardedness and a calculated ease to his behavior, but he looked like a panther stalking a rival predator.
This is all an act! My dad does love me, right? This is all for her benefit, isn’t it?
The problem with asking yourself questions comes when you expect answers. The woman looked me over and seemed to dismiss me as if I was hardly worthy of any further attention.
“You know Her Majesty will not be pleased that I am forced to accept your daughter to Cambridge Academy. She is only half Moch Sidhe. You know how Halflings are looked upon in proper society.”
Maris shrugged again and he flicked his fingers out.
“Look, off with her, before she misses her first day of school. The girl is of no use to me, if she doesn’t have an education. Tell me why else would a man of my standing have raised the child?”
My father’s words cut to the quick and my heart
was at my feet flopping on the ground like a fish out of water. I was about to rip the magic covering my eyes just to spite my father when his hand caught mine and he fixed me with a very firm look of gold-green. His head twitched to the sides almost imperceptibly.
His fins tapped my pulse on my right wrist twice and I frowned, confused despite the tears surging out, bidding for release.
“Very well, Amelia, come with me and do try to keep up. I will lead you inside and get you sorted into your first class. Your belongings arrived this morning so you will have time to unpack later.”
My eyes widened again at this and I fought back the tears. Maris held my arm in his firm grip for a moment longer and I saw just a flicker of the usual man I knew inside his eyes, but it was gone in the facade of arrogance once more. I jerked my arm free and I glared at my father with a seething look of hatred. I wasn’t sure I believed anything he told me anymore!
He said faereys couldn’t outright lie, so did that mean he really didn’t care? Were the first fifteen-years just an act to make me loyal to him? What if I had a real mom out there who had been looking for me for the past fifteen-years?!
“Take care and tend to your studies, my child.”
He said it in a cool tone that was so unlike the man I knew. I gritted my teeth and I nodded slightly before I turned to the huffy woman who gave me a look that was very nearly a sneer. She didn’t seem to like being this close to me, as if human DNA could jump off of me and latch itself onto her, and make her less special, or whatever it was she thought.
I tightly managed a, “Bye.”
It might have been my imagination, but I could have sworn I saw Maris flinch slightly at my tightly guarded tone and my barely controlled wrath.
Six:
Razor thorns barred passage out the gates and the Headmistress said nothing but approached them and she pointed to me.
“You must offer them some of your blood to attune yourself to the perimeter defenses. Come on, hurry up, we don’t have all day little Halfling.”
How was it possible to sound both civilized and yet hostile at the same time? She managed to do both and I was still pissed with my father, but I stepped up and the Headmistress pressed my thumb to one of the sharp barbs and I yelped as it cut into my finger, drawing an angry red bead of blood. The plant greedily began to lap up my blood as mists of green and gold swirled around the Headmistress. She stepped forward as the barbs retracted from our path and the silver and gold mixed gates opened silently, no creaking metal here in the faerey land.
