Ehriad
A Novella of the Otherworld
by
Jenna Elizabeth Johnson
Copyrighted Material
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. All material in connection with Celtic myth has been borrowed and interpreted for use in the plot of the story only. Cover image is the sole property of the author. The Faelorehn font on the cover image and interior of this book was created by P.A. Vannucci (www.alphabetype.it) to be used in the Otherworld Series. Any resemblance to actual persons is entirely coincidental.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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Ehriad
Copyright © 2012 by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson
All rights reserved.
No part of this book or its cover may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from its creator.
For more information and to contact the author, visit:
www.jennaelizabethjohnson.com
Contents
A Single Thread of Magic
The Morrigan’s Game
Broken Geis
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Other Books by this Author
Connect with me Online
Sneak Peek at Faelorehn, Book One of the Otherworld Trilogy
Ehriad
A Single Thread of Magic
The sharp snap of a twig and a low, almost imperceptible growl informed me that the creature I hunted was now only a few yards away. I assumed his snarl of frustration was aimed towards the branch he’d broken, giving away his presence, and not by any means meant to intimidate me. No matter. I had planned it this way. I had known he’d been following me for a good fifteen minutes now. It helped when you had another pair of eyes, and a good nose, to lend a hand.
How close? I sent to my spirit guide.
Ten feet, to the right, Fergus answered.
His mind was sharp; focused on the hunt. Even better.
I let my body ease out of the tense stance it had taken at hearing the sound of the snapped twig. One more minute Fergus. I’d let the creature stalk me for sixty seconds more.
The thing about faelah is despite their vicious, blood-thirsty tendencies, they aren’t very smart. I was only a few feet from the dolmarehn now, boxed in on most sides by the steep walls of the culvert, and the faelah was somewhere above me, close to the edge but remaining out of sight.
What exactly are we dealing with? I asked my spirit guide.
About my size, dark, no hair. Small eyes, big teeth, sharp, thin claws and a tail like a rat.
I nodded to myself. This particular monster resembled most other faelah: the grotesque, zombie-like imitations of animals created from the long-dead body parts of many others. If the people of the mortal world could see it, they would be cursed with a lifetime of nightmares to disrupt their sleep.
Fortunately for them, the faelah’s glamour kept it invisible from sight. No, only my people, the Faelorehn, could see the faelah. At least until they were destroyed and a small window between the time their glamour faded from their bodies and their flesh turned to ash did the mere mortals get a chance to catch a glimpse. This was one of the main reasons I lured as many as I could back into the Otherworld, or at least deep enough into the woods to kill them where they wouldn’t be seen by anyone.
The crunch of dead leaves met my ears again, along with Fergus’s words: Get ready.
I slipped my hand into my boot, pulling out a long knife, pressing the dull side against my forearm so that I could stab if necessary.
In the next breath, the faelah leapt from the edge of the ravine and used the trunks of dead trees crisscrossing my path like ladder rungs to make its way down. The faelah came to rest only fifteen feet in front of me, a monster looking very much like a partially decomposed mountain lion. It growled at me, showing several long teeth, and twitched its reedy tail. Just as I had suspected, this one wasn’t going to let me lead it back into the Otherworld. Looks like it would have to be a kill. Not that I regretted it much. Most of the faelah had been alive at one time, but not anymore, not really. I bared my teeth in a grimace, hoping to intimidate the beast.
A flash of white caught the corner of my eye and a giant wolfhound joined us, using the same method the faelah had to reach the gully floor. He landed behind the creature, bearing his teeth and laying his rusty ears flat against his skull.
Kill? he sent to me.
Yes, this one will have to be a kill.
The beast howled and snapped its jaws before hunkering down on its hindquarters.
Here goes . . .
With preternatural speed the faelah leapt, mouth gaping open, massive paws tipped with needle-thin claws outstretched. I froze for a fraction of a second, then with one swift movement, jerked my hand diagonally across my body, swiping the sharp edge of my blade against leathery skin.
The yowl in the monster’s throat died and I quickly sidestepped, letting the body hurtle past me. It landed in a tangled heap in the dirt, the head nearly severed from the rest of the body. Its limbs twitched a few times as black, putrid blood spilled from the open wound. I wrinkled my nose at the smell, but didn’t gag. I was used to the stench.
As I cleaned my blade I felt the faelah’s glamour swell like a bubble, growing larger and larger until it burst. There was nothing to see really, but my own well of magic felt it all the same. If there had been mortals around, they would now be gaping, dumbfounded at the atrocity lying at their feet. I didn’t even stay to make sure it turned to dust.
“Come on Fergus, time to go,” I said to the wolfhound.
Wounds? he sent to me.
No, not even a scratch. I was, after all, very good at my job.
We hiked out of the woods and through the small swamp that rested behind a sparse neighborhood. I often patrolled this area because my home resided just on the other side of the dolmarehn hidden at the end of the ravine. I longed to head home, back to Eile, but I needed to return my car to the small garage I used as storage when spending any extended amount of time in the mortal world.
I crossed over the lowest part of the swamp and headed up the trail that veered off from the one the local horse owners often used. Five minutes later I found my car, a classic black Trans Am complete with a silver Phoenix emblem emblazoned on the hood. I grinned. I wasn’t a big fan of the machinery and technology of the mortal world, but I had a soft spot for this car. As I approached, I ran my hand along the hood, petting it as if it were a dog.
Fergus snorted next to me and I gave him a look over my shoulder. He returned it with a canine grin, his tongue falling out of his mouth in a pant.
“We all have our indulgences, Fergus,” I murmured, smiling as I dug the keys out of my trench coat pocket.
Teaching myself how to drive had been quite an adventure, and I had to be careful because being from the Otherworld the only driver’s license I owned was a fake one. This was the main reason I never took the Trans Am out to test its racing capabilities; couldn’t risk getting pulled over and questioned.
I unlocked the door and swung it open, but before I so much as set a single foot into the car, something familiar brushed against my senses. My well of glamour flared and I drew
in a sharp breath, clutching a hand to the middle of my chest.
What in Eile . . . ?
I shot a look at Fergus, but he only back-stepped a few paces and whined.
My breath was coming in short bursts and it took a while for the sensation to burn off. It wasn’t unpleasant really, just unexpected. I glanced up and gazed down into the small valley dominated by the acres of eucalyptus trees and swampland. That burst of sensation hadn’t come from any faelah I’d ever encountered, and I’ve encountered more than most. Yet, it had felt so familiar.
I shook my head to get rid of the feeling, gritting my teeth as I sunk into the driver’s seat of my car. I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles showed white; until the feeling faded away and my heartbeat returned to normal. Fergus whined again and I leaned over to open the passenger side door for him.
I turned the key in the ignition and the car rumbled to life. As I pulled onto the highway, my mind was completely occupied with the small burst of power that had slammed into my own glamour like a raging bull. What was it, and would I be able to find its source? Taking a deep breath, I made a mental note to seek it out the next time I was in the swamp.
* * *
The wheels of the Trans Am crunched over gravel and the rumble of the engine set the dogs in the junkyard beside my place into a fit of barking. I hit the button to open the garage door and glided in onto smooth concrete. I had purchased this small place several years ago, when it became apparent that the faelah wouldn’t stop visiting this particular area on the Central Coast. It wasn’t much: a garage large enough to fit my car with a studio above it. I didn’t stay here more than a few days at a time, but it served well as my headquarters when I needed to track down renegade Otherworldly monsters.
Before closing the garage door, I stepped out onto the asphalt and scooped up the newspapers from the past several days. I had been gone a week in the Otherworld and now I needed to check the headlines for any ‘strange sightings’ while I was away. Humans couldn’t see faelah because of their glamour, but sometimes the little beasts stayed longer in the mortal world than they should and that glamour started to fade away. Any time I picked up the paper and read reports of odd things happening, I knew there were some Otherworldly creatures that had to be dealt with. I didn’t particularly enjoy my job, but because of the geis, or curse, set upon me several years ago in Eile, I was now Ehriad, a faelah bounty hunter with no true connections to anyone. My occupation was simple, really: I would enter the mortal world and round up anything Otherworldly. Then I would either send it back to where it came from or destroy it if it proved difficult, like the creature today.
Fergus barked at me as I reentered the garage, carrying several rolls of newspaper with me. I opened the door and let him out just before hitting the button to close the garage door. My place wasn’t in the best part of town, but it suited my purposes. The neighbors on one side ran a welding shop and those on the other, a wrecking yard. Let’s just say it was seldom quiet. Luckily, this wasn’t my permanent home.
Whistling to Fergus, I jogged up the stairs and the single room studio greeted me in its usual fashion. A couch hiding a fold out bed, a small kitchen, a bathroom with a shower, and a single, broad window that looked out over the street and the storage center beyond it.
I walked over to an old beat up desk and threw the newspapers on top, then stepped towards the tiny kitchen. Hunting down deadly faelah had a way of working up one’s appetite. I checked Fergus’s bowl and quickly poured in some dog food as I pulled out a frozen dinner from the freezer. Fergus sniffed at the food and huffed.
I glanced at the frozen dinner and nearly mimicked him.
“I know, but we won’t be going back to Eile until tomorrow, so you had best eat it.”
A half an hour later we were both enjoying the mortal world’s food to the best of our abilities. I poured myself a glass of water and sat down at the desk, flipping open a laptop, my latest investment. Yes, I wasn’t a fan of technology, but having a computer in the mortal world was more useful than having an umbrella in the rain. I opened a file from my desktop and a detailed map of the area took up the screen. I scanned it, taking note of all the dolmarehn I knew of. Only the one in the swamp was big enough for someone my size to fit through. The rest were small. And that is where the problem lay. The faelah normally didn’t sneak through the big dolmarehn because I kept a pretty close eye on it, but when the entire Central Coast area was riddled with smaller portals to the Otherworld, then someone had to visit this world every now and again to keep the vermin under control. For some reason, faelah enjoyed hunting in this world more than their own, and more often than not, they grew accustomed to the taste of small rodents and house pets.
Sighing, I flipped through the newspapers, searching the pages for anything out of the ordinary. Local pets gone missing, coyotes suspected . . . Okay, that might be a lead. I scanned the paragraphs. Nope. No remains ever found. Coyotes often ate most of what they caught. Keep reading. Burglaries, aggravated assault, a string of car thefts . . .
My eyes skidded to a halt when I turned the page. The headline read: Chupacabra Sighting in Santa Maria. Bingo. I read the first few lines of the article and felt my mouth tugging into a small smile. Horrendous looking creature, puncture wounds in the necks of the cattle, attacked at night . . . Yes, all the signs pointed towards something Otherworldly. I took note of the location, Costa Robles Ranch, and searched the internet for directions. I shut down the computer and went to take a shower. When I came out ten minutes later, I found Fergus lying on the couch. He perked his rusty ears forward and cocked his head to the side.
“Off the couch Fergus. We need to get some rest if we’re to go out hunting tonight.”
Fergus jumped off the couch so I could pull out the bed. Five minutes later I had my arm flung over my eyes as I tried to block out the crashing of metal in the junkyard and the familiar crack-pop of welding next door. Despite the noise and the light streaming through the cracks in the blinds, I managed to doze off into a half sleep.
* * *
Sneaking onto the ranch was not an issue. Located just north of the Santa Maria river and just off the main highway, the Costa Robles Ranch covered several acres of rolling land scattered with oak trees and the occasional dry gully cutting between the hills. I wasn’t too worried about being spotted since it was, after all, the middle of the night. The moon provided just enough light to see by, and what I couldn’t detect myself Fergus helped with his canine senses.
I pulled my car off the highway and onto a side road, killing the engine and turning off the lights. Fergus and I climbed through a heavy ranch-style gate and began our trek across the fields. I moved as silently as the broken earth would allow, trying not to startle the cattle I could sense dozing in the distance, their black shapes barely standing out against the pale moonlight. Fergus loped ahead of me, disappearing over the hilltop crowned with a copse of oak trees.
Death, he sent.
A chill ran down my spine. How fresh?
Very.
I gritted my teeth and crouched even lower, but kept my forward movement smooth. The odor of cow dung and dried grass was soon obliterated by the sharp metallic scent of hot blood. I maneuvered through the low oaks, drawing my broadsword from its sheath on my back. In the daylight, I’d be comfortable with my single edged blade, but in the darkness I needed something larger; something a little more lethal. When eliminating faelah, hawthorn worked the best, but any weapon forged in the Otherworld would also do the job. A white shape appearing against the darkness and a low growl informed me that I’d found Fergus. I wrinkled my nose as the smell of blood grew stronger.
In front of us lay a calf, the dark stains on its pale hide all that remained of its blood. Wonderful. A bloodsucking faelah. Those were the worst kind of Otherworldly aberrations because they let their desire for blood rule them. No fear, no caution. If you were warm and full of blood, then you might as well be a walking all-you-can-eat buffet.
/> The sharp cry of cattle and a low hiss drew my attention from the dead calf.
Fergus growled more loudly, his hackles rising along the ridge of his spine.
Twenty feet. Faelah draining one of the herd.
Go around wide, I sent back to my spirit guide, there may be more than one.
I lifted my sword into a front guard, not wanting to be unprepared in case the monster lost interest in the cattle.
The herd slept in a small clearing, the moon shedding just enough light for me to see that something wasn’t right about the cow closest to me. An odd shape protruded from behind its neck. The shape moved, like a snake striking, and the cow bellowed out a sound of pain before falling onto its knees. No more time to hesitate. I swept my sword wide, bringing the blade down, biting into the back of the faelah. The creature squealed in pain, but it had been too distracted by its warm meal to realize I was there.
The creature slumped off the dying cow and I kicked it with my foot so that it landed in a patch of moonlight. About the size of a fox, it had a round head with large, bat-like ears and a nose like a pug. Short forearms ended with three fingers tipped with long, sharp claws. The hind legs were a different story. They’d be several feet long if fully extended. This thing was meant for jumping. A hide resembling that of a dried up frog and a short, hairless tail completed the grotesque ensemble.
Letting out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding, I used the tip of my sword to peel back the thing’s lips. I blanched. Four long, wicked canines crowded out the other teeth in the front of its jaw.
Fergus whimpered behind me. There are more!
Before I had a chance to turn back around, something hit me with enough force to knock the air from my lungs. Unfortunately, whatever it was also clung to me like a leech. I tried to gain my balance and shake it off, but the cloak I had decided to wear for this hunt only tangled with the monster and gave it something to hang on to.
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