“Which way?” Felicity asked.
All I could see in both directions was darkness and trees. “Left,” I said. “If we don’t find anything after a couple of minutes and the faces are still pointing in the same direction, we’ll come back to the trail and go the other way.”
We stepped off the trail and made our way through the undergrowth, twigs snapping and leaves crackling beneath our boots.
“You think there are faeries in these woods?” Leon asked me in a whisper. His eyes scanned the darkness beyond the glow of my sword.
“Did your grandma ever tell you that faeries sometimes trap humans in their realm, a place known as Faerie?”
“Yeah,” he said. “That’s their basic trick, isn’t it?”
“You could say that.” I silently thanked Leon’s grandmother for giving her grandson an understanding of the preternatural world. It made what I was about to say easier. “That’s what I think happened to James and Sarah.”
“They were taken by faeries? But we saw them. They went home.”
“What you saw were two faeries pretending to be James and Sarah.”
He went quiet, letting that sink in for a moment. Then he whispered, “Holy fuck.”
“I’m going to get them back,” I said.
Felicity stopped and pointed into the trees. “Alec, is that it? Janus is pointing right at it.”
I followed the direction of her pointing finger, using the sword’s enchanted blue glow to illuminate the area. We had come to a rocky bluff and in the face of the rock, a narrow cave entrance stretched up from the ground to the height of my head. I knew that faerie doorways were usually situated at the same locations of doorways and portals in our realm, so this was probably the place. There was only one way to find out.
“Felicity, put Janus on the ground in the cave entrance, one head facing inside, the other facing out.” She did as I asked and the cave entrance began to glow with a pale green luminescence. Beyond the glow, instead of the dark interior of the cave, I could see another forest, this one lit by sunlight. The Janus statue had opened the door to Faerie.
I went over to Felicity and said, “Listen carefully. Come here at twilight, before dawn and before nightfall, every day, and put the Janus statue in that exact place and position to open the doorway for me. There are many ways in and out of Faerie, but at least I’ll know that this way is open if I can’t find another way out.”
She nodded. “I’ll do it exactly as you said. Please be careful. Safe journey.” She raised her head and kissed my cheek.
“I’ll be fine,” I assured her with a smile. I turned to tell Leon that I was going to bring his friend back alive and well, but he wasn’t there. “Where’s Leon?” I asked Michael, already feeling a cold dread at the pit of my stomach.
He nodded at the glowing open doorway to Faerie. “He said he was going to find his friend, sir, and he went through the portal.”
The portal flickered for a moment, as if it were unstable. Twilight was ending and the night was about to fall. When that happened, the Janus statue would stop working and the portal would close until the next twilight before dawn.
There was no time for hesitation. I stepped through the portal and into Faerie.
14
Ten seconds after I stepped through the portal, it vanished. I was standing in front of a cave entrance similar to the one in my own realm, but there was no pale green glow or a vision of my own world beyond, simply a dark fissure in the rock face.
The day was bright, the forest seemingly alive with birds singing and small woodland creatures that I couldn’t see, but could hear moving about in the undergrowth. There was a sweet smell of wildflowers hanging in the air that was so strong it was intoxicating.
That was the problem with Faerie; everything here was intoxicating to humans, making us want to stay here forever. There were strict rules for visiting Faerie and getting out again, and the golden rule was not to eat or drink anything here. If you did that, you might as well kiss goodbye to any thoughts of going home, because it was never going to happen.
I looked on the ground for tracks that Leon might have left, telling me which direction he’d taken, but the grass and roots looked undisturbed. At least I had a general idea of which way he’d gone, because behind me was the rock face. He definitely hadn’t gone that way, so I strode forward, keeping my vision sharp and the sword tightly gripped in my hand.
Leon couldn’t have gone far; I’d arrived through the portal a few seconds after he had. I called his name, the sound of my voice making the birds and animals halt their song and movement. The forest became silent.
There was no answer from Leon. He couldn’t be out of earshot already, but for some reason, he wasn’t responding to my voice. That was bad. I quickened my pace, striding through the forest as fast as I could while still looking for any kind of trail Leon might have left. But I saw no broken branches on the trees or snapped twigs on the ground where he might have stepped. The undergrowth seemed undisturbed. I turned around and checked the area behind me. There was no evidence that I had passed this way. It was as if the forest were closing behind me. It was too damned easy to get lost here.
Ahead, I saw a clearing, and I could hear the song-like tinkling of running water. I could also see Leon, his back to me, looking down at something in front of him. “Leon!” I shouted, running toward him.
He didn’t turn around. He didn’t move at all.
The trees gave way to the clearing, where a rocky pool glistened in the sunlight. Frolicking in the shimmering water were two naked female faeries. They had long blonde hair that clung to the tempting curves of their bodies and spread out along the surface of the pool. Their eyes were completely pale blue with no white at all. Despite their otherworldly appearance, or maybe because of it, the faerie women were stunning, exotic creatures and their appearance caused my mind to imagine sexual scenarios involving them and me. But they didn’t only stimulate my sex drive; my heart ached as I looked at their beauty.
I knew now why Leon was standing there staring at the women in the pool. What else was there to do? What possible purpose in life could have a man have other than to gaze upon such wonderful creatures? I approached the pool, my eyes fixed on the two faerie women as they swam and played in the silvery water. When I reached Leon, I looked at him and said, “I wondered why you didn’t reply to my call, but now I know.”
He nodded slowly, his gaze following the occupants of the pool as they swam in sensuous circles. “Yeah, I just want to look at them forever.”
So did I. The pattern of their movements seemed to speak to some deep part of my mind, as if their perfect bodies were describing symbols of some forgotten language that a primal part of my being recognized from aeons past. It was mesmerizing.
A sudden burning sensation along my ribs made me grimace with pain and brought me to my senses. My head cleared, as if a strong wind had blown away a dense fog that was obscuring my thoughts. I pulled up my shirt, seeking the source of the pain in my side, and found that one of my protection tattoos was glowing an angry red. As I felt the glamor I had been under vanish, the tattoo returned to its normal black color.
What the hell had I been thinking, standing here watching the faeries in the pool? I knew how easy it was to be trapped in this enticing realm yet I’d fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. I had to be more careful; the tattoos couldn’t protect me from every type of magic or glamor.
I grabbed Leon’s shoulders and shook them. “Hey, Leon, look away. Come on, we’re leaving here.”
He continued to stare at the faeries in the pool. I had to physically drag him away and even then, he fought against me to go back to the water’s edge. I slapped him across the face hard, wondering if that might snap him out of it. It didn’t. He kept fighting against me, but me was only half-hearted about it because his attention was focused on the pool.
It wasn’t until I dragged him into the trees, out of sight of the clearing, that he regained his sen
ses. “What happened?” he asked. “I was looking at those women in the pool.”
“You were under a glamor,” I told him. “This place is dangerous, which is why I told you to stay away.”
He shrugged. “I just want to help James.”
“I can’t do anything about the fact that you’re here now,” I said. “But listen closely to what I tell you. Stay close to me at all times. Don’t eat or drink anything. If anyone offers you anything … food, drink, sex … refuse. Don’t even think about it, just say no. And if anyone wants to make a bargain with you, even one that sounds great, say no.”
“Sex?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes. “The faeries will do anything to trap you here. Sex is the oldest trick in their book. Look, just stick close to me and refuse anything and everything that is offered to you.”
“Okay, man.” He looked at the forest around us. “How the hell are we going to find James here? It’s all just trees and more trees.”
I dug into my pocket and pulled out a silver Saint Anthony medallion. “We’re going to use this.” I held it up to show him. “Saint Anthony is the patron saint of lost things and people.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Dude, that’s Catholic. You use that stuff as well as Janus and all that?”
“I use whatever works. I’ve found missing people with this before. It was blessed by seven Catholic priests in Ireland in the seventeenth century. I’d have used it to find you if I hadn’t seen you at the pool.” I recited the prayer that activated the medallion and added James’s name at the end. If he was in this area, the medallion would lead us to him.
But the medallion did nothing. It hung from its chain and did not move.
“What does that mean?” Leon asked.
“I don’t know. It usually moves, pointing the way to the lost person.”
“Try it again.”
I recited the prayer again, this time saying Sarah’s name. The result was the same. The medallion didn’t move.
“Do you think it means they’re dead?” Leon asked, a worried look passing across his face.
“No, I’m sure it doesn’t mean that.”
“But if that thing can’t pick up their life force or whatever, maybe it’s because they’re dead.”
“They’re not dead,” I assured him. “Faeries don’t kill their victims; they trap them here. Unless….” I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Maybe I was looking at this all wrong. I had assumed that a couple of faeries had gone through the portal from here to our realm, lured James and Sarah here, and used a glamor to assume their identities. That was the usual way faeries took on the guise of humans, but there was another, more sinister, way that was the modus operandi of a much darker faerie being.
“Leon, when I asked you if there was a full moon that night at the lake, you said there wasn’t. You said you couldn’t remember any moon in the night sky, is that right?”
“Yeah, that’s right, there were stars but no moon.”
At the time, I had thought that there might be a new moon, the phase of the moon when it appears totally black. I should have followed that train of thought, because the new moon might have been a clue to what actually happened to James and Sarah.
“And James and Sarah brought something back from the woods with them. Something heavy.”
“Yeah, man, whatever they found that turned them crazy.”
“No, it wasn’t that,” I said. “It wasn’t that at all. We need to get back home. James and Sarah are in even more danger than I thought.”
Leon was looking at something behind me. “They’re not the only ones.”
I turned to face two faerie warriors. They were tall and slender, wearing bone and leather armor. They each held a long spear tipped with a deadly-looking stone point that was pointed at us. Their features and bearing were beautiful but their manner was hostile. “What are you doing in this forest, human?” one of them asked me. His voice was light and airy, but it held a menace in its tone.
“We’re leaving,” I said. “Right now.”
The other faerie shook his head, the bone and bead decorations in his long hair rattling as he did so. “You are coming with us. The Lady of the Forest will decide what to do with you.”
I lifted the sword in my hand slightly. “Look, I don’t want to hurt anyone. Like I said, we’re leaving.”
“You are not leaving,” the warrior closest to me said, jabbing my shirt with the point of his spear. It looked like I was going to have to fight my way out of here. I tightened my grip on the hilt of the sword and prepared to attack.
“What is going on here?” said a soft, feminine voice from my left. I turned my head that way to see a long-legged female faerie seated on a wooden throne carved with intricate knot designs and bird and animal motifs. She wore a circlet of ivy leaves around her head and had brightly-colored flowers decorating her long blonde hair. Her clothing was a simple white dress that clung diaphanously to her bountiful figure. The throne upon which she sat was mounted on wooden cross bars and being carried by humans wearing brown tunics and vine collars around their necks.
Escorting the throne were at least a dozen warriors in armor similar to the two scouts who had found Leon and me.
The faerie who had prodded my chest with his spear bowed slightly to the throne. “Humans, my lady. We found them wandering the forest.”
She turned her ice blue eyes toward me. “What are you doing here, mortal?”
I sighed. This was obviously the Lady of the Forest and we were in her territory. Getting out of here wasn’t going to be as easy as I’d thought.
15
The Lady of the Forest gestured to us with one slender hand. “Bring them to me.”
The scouts led us at spear-point to the throne.
“Your names?” the Lady asked us.
“Leon, ma’am,” Leon said in a low voice. “Leon Smith.”
“Alec Harbinger, P.I.,” I said levelly. I knew that our best chance to get out of here in one piece was to not show any weakness that the faeries could exploit.
“P.I.?” she asked. Her voice was soft and low and her words seemed to melt into my mind.
“Preternatural Investigator.”
She frowned momentarily. “You work for that wretched society. What are you doing in my forest?”
“We weren’t aware that this was your forest, my lady,” I said, knowing how much faeries loved custom and societal niceties, “otherwise we would have sought you out to inform you of our visit. As I was telling your soldier, we were just about to leave here and return to our own realm.”
“I will ask you one more time, Alec Harbinger. Why are you here?”
“We were looking for two friends of ours, thinking that they might be in this realm, but now I know that they aren’t.”
“More humans?”
I nodded.
“Apart from my slaves,” she said, indicating the throne-bearers, “there have not been any humans in this part of Faerie for quite a while. Why did you believe you would find them here in my forest?”
“I thought they had been trapped here while two faeries took their place in the human world. I now know that isn’t true. They’ve been in the human world the entire time.”
“Intriguing,” she said, leaning forward, her flower hair decorations blooming slightly. “Tell me of this human drama.”
I told her what I had recently figured out. “Our friends were taken by changelings.”
Her face screwed up, but it was still pretty. “Ugh, those vile creatures.” She turned to one of the warriors, a faerie who wore a thick armband of bones on his left arm. “I thought those things had been banished from my forest.”
“Yes, my lady, they were,” he said with a bow of his head. “What the human is talking about happened in the human world after we banished them.”
The Lady of the Forest looked at me again. “I want nothing to do with those disgusting monsters.”
“Then we’ll be on our way
,” I suggested, hoping that her revulsion at the changelings that had once lived in this forest would make her want to let us leave. If we reminded her of something that was abhorrent to her, wasn’t it better for her to just let us go and forget about us?
“You know it isn’t that simple, mortal,” she said. “I require an exchange.”
I groaned inwardly. This was exactly what I’d been hoping to avoid. But now I knew that James and Sarah had been taken by changelings, I also knew that the clock was ticking before they were killed and the changelings assumed their identities permanently. I didn’t have time to haggle with the Lady of the Forest, but I couldn’t just agree to anything. Faeries knew when they had an advantage and they loved to exploit it.
“What sort of exchange?” I asked her.
“Don’t sound so downtrodden,” she said lightly. “Is it really so bad to strike a bargain with the Lady of the Forest? Maybe I can think of something that is beneficial to both of us. Tell me what you want, Alec, and you can have it.”
“I want to get out of here.”
A smile lit her face. “Something so simple?”
“Yes, a simple thing that won’t require much in return.”
The Lady of the Forest pouted slightly. “You’re taking all the fun out of it. Let me think what would be a suitable exchange for safe passage out of Faerie.”
“We don’t need safe passage,” I said. “Just show us the door and we’re gone.” I wanted to keep my end of the deal as basic as possible so she couldn’t ask too much in return. She would suggest an escort of armed faerie guards all the way back to our world and then from Dark Rock Lake to Dearmont if she thought it meant she could ask for more from me in the exchange.
“Very well. In exchange for what you ask, I will require a simple thing in return. At some time in the future, I may require your services. I shall send an envoy to you in your world and ask that you do something for me.”
The Harbinger PI Box Set Page 12
