“Jessamiene?” Uncle Henry called from below. “Where the farthe knockers is she?”
Amie thought to respond, to keep him from worrying, but all she could do was stare at the old man dangling from the apple tree branches in front of her. “Who are you?” she asked him in so soft a tone, she was sure he couldn’t hear her.
“I know your face, enchantress,” was his warm-hearted reply. His passion and virility was evident, even in his tone.
“Jessamiene?” a feminine voice echoed Henry’s, jolting Amie from her reverie. “Papa has had a trying night! It was all I could do to keep him from climbing the roof again,” she said.
“Where are they? I know I heard Hawkeye there at the top of this tree only a moment ago.”
The woman laughed, and the sound struck a chord deep inside Amie. “Oh Henry, you know where she is, just as well as I.”
“How could I forget?” he answered after a weighty pause.
Amie, meanwhile, was watching the old man narrow his gaze on the couple wandering below them. Observing them as if they were really outlaws waiting to pounce, he drew his sword to a practiced steady point. She grinned when he met her gaze and brought his finger up to cover his lips. With great skill and precision, they slipped from high to lower branches, until their feet were dangling inches below the leaves. Looking up at the white-bearded coot, she waited for his signal.
One, two, oh crap!
Amie lost her footing and couldn’t grasp the tree in time.
“Charge!” the old man called, leaping after her.
So much for helpful plants!
She collided with a small yet surprisingly sturdy figure waiting below them. They were all a tangle of limbs and broken branches, laughter and groans. The woman, who was the man’s daughter, Amie presumed, helped her up. After wiping away invisible dust, she chanced a glance and saw the same billowing cloak, the same pale figure with the whimsical blue eyes.
“You!” she exclaimed.
Dameri smiled brightly. “Why, Jessamiene Wenderdowne, it does not suit you to catch bugs with your mouth.”
Henry spoke up, his voice sounding oddly strangled. “You know each other then?”
Ignoring him completely, Dameri kept her crystal blues on Amie and said, “Surprises are in store for you though, far more than you can possibly imagine. They were telling the truth when they told you that.”
“Easy now, Arthur, try not to overexert yourself,” Henry said to the older man.
“Bloodthirsty dragon almost had us!” Arthur growled while slashing his sword at the air.
Satisfied the men were preoccupied for the moment, the gremlin-hunting mystery woman turned her attention back to their guest. “So, how about a nice spot of tea, dear? I should love to learn more of your education.”
Amie glanced back to find Henry ducking from each of Arthur’s wide swings and parrying his own. Where the metal staff in her uncle’s hand had appeared from, she was too jaded to care. Facing Dameri, she sighed and tried not to dissect why the woman’s presence unnerved her so. “Sounds great.”
Chapter 33
Creepy Crawlies
Dameri ushered her into a flower-coated room where their tea waited on its tray. Amie never saw the servants of this house, though the Lady assured her their brownie Elise was the best in the county.
Once they were properly settled Dameri began what Amie assumed to be her first lesson in proper etiquette. She watched carefully how the woman broke biscuits and stirred her tea and tried to emulate her. But because Amie was not quite human, simple tasks she had done before with ease were now complex.
In the light of day the Lady of Xcalibure was no less mysterious, but she could tell a bit more of her without the oversized cloak. She was still almost a foot shorter with Amie’s recently added height, her eyes a strange starburst of pale green fringed and streaked with blue. Her features were pointed and round and despite the vigor in her manner it was plain to see she was closer to Henry’s age than his niece’s.
The lesson was conducted without speaking a word and not until the second cup was done did the lady speak again. The clash of metal echoed from the orchard, occasionally broken by strange laughter and Henry’s boisterous bellow. Yet Amie could not escape the peace that had washed over her the moment she arrived.
“I have requested your company this day, Jessamiene Wenderdowne, because I want to help you.” With a secret smile, Dameri added, “This time, without the aid of a certain Myrddin Emrys.”
“Fine by me, I’d rather keep him locked away.”
Dameri’s laughter was unexpected, as were the tears in her eyes and the pretty hand to cover her face. “But that will not do at all. I am afraid he has been locked away before, once for over two hundred years! Forgive me, but you clearly have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
“Enlighten me,” Amie deadpanned.
Dameri’s lips twitched to a smirk. “Instead, let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, before most men bothered to tell time apart from seasons or festivals, my father owned a very vast kingdom.”
Amie’s gaze drifted out the window to see Uncle Henry and the white-bearded senile old coot dancing the sword dance.
How did they go from Braveheart to Brigadoon in less than five minutes?
“Father was unprepared to lead the army of course,” Dameri said, “so he hired someone who knew the art of warfare better than he, who was rumored to have fought more battles far longer than any man had been alive.”
“Wait a sec, you’re human?”
“Yes,” she said. Dameri’s smile warmed considerably, so her resemblance to her aged father was obvious. “But I do not think those outside would agree. Living over eight of your centuries has changed us.”
“Excuse me? I could have sworn you said centuries…”
“Let us return to our tale, and perhaps I shall answer your questions another day. Now the one they hired to aid them required a heavy price most men were not willing to pay. When the time came and their enemies had been defeated by these strange warriors, they captured Myrddin. Fortunately for them, he tends to forget himself every turn of the century.”
“Um, who are we talking about here?”
“Focus, Jessamiene! Learn to listen here.” She pointed to her chest and Amie arched an eyebrow.
“O—okay…”
“My father’s kingdom changed after Myrddin disappeared. No one seemed to know where he was, not even his true love Nimue. Some say she was the one who saved him later. My father was offered a place here to retire after the wars, because he helped the Tuatha. I was just a child when we came. Mother had disappeared a long time before but father never told me what happened to her. I was the reason he came, he says. We soon found everything runs differently here than in the outside. This is why those trapped outside the Vale try to get in. It is why humans are not often invited to stay anymore.” Her eyes turned soft as she watched Henry and Arthur call a truce in the orchard. “Henry has helped us more than anyone else, he and Drustan in fact. And it is for your father I have agreed to ally with Wenderdowne one last time.”
Drawn back into her story, trying not to think of the implications of Dameri’s story, Amie smiled and sank back into her chair, forgetting not to slouch. “Well, thanks. I mean, I don’t even know what we’re up against. But it’s good to know we’ve got friends.”
Dameri’s grin hardened as she said, “They have not told you, yet you dare not ask the right questions. Think hard on this, Jessamiene. Emrys will not confess his past to you because he secretly fears the future. Henry will not impose on you to live here because he fears his own happiness. Both these things can only be secured and answered by you.”
“But why is everyone so worried about what I do and don’t do? It doesn’t make any sense!”
“That is exactly the question your father already answered.”
Amie frowned, tried to school her expression into a more neutral zone. They studied one another between bites of sc
ones, until Amie thought of one question she knew Dameri wouldn’t expect. “Why were you in the woods the night you found me? Why even risk your life hunting gremlins, whatever they are?”
For a human, the older woman’s face turned so vicious Amie wondered if she too had mixed blood. With her words Amie understood the value of having Xcalibure for an ally.
“Someone has to keep the infestation in check. Why the curiosity? Care to try something a bit more daring, Lady Wenderdowne?”
…
Which was how Amie found herself stuck at Xcalibure manor the rest of the evening, dressed in Dameri’s battle clothes and watching the rain pour in copious amounts outside the open window, waiting for Henry to give her a lasting reason for what she was about to do.
“Are you crazy?” she pleaded. “In this rain? Are you trying to get me sick before the ball? Not that I’m complaining if you are.”
Henry paused in the midst of his and Arthur’s chess game long enough to silently impose his opinion. Clearly, the answer was going to be yes.
Arthur commented with glee, “A party! What mischief is this usurper? Traitor in gryphon’s fur!”
Shaking a curious head at his sedated companion, Henry quirked a brow her direction. “And how did you uncover my master plans?”
“I don’t know, because you’re actually crazy enough to let her talk me into this? What is all this for, anyhow? Why am I such a big bloody deal?”
Arthur’s interruption was sudden and unexpected, his clear gray eyes softened as he spoke. “None other is lovelier than you, Nimue. For no one so fair exists in the Vale besides my Gwen.”
“I quite agree, Hawkeye.” Henry smiled brightly and the lightning flashed to brighten the chessboard. None of the windows and doors had been shut against the oncoming storm. Rather, the inhabitants of the strange cottage welcomed it. Elise, the brownie, danced a jig in the halls now, ecstatic, she said, that their flowers might catch an extra bit of water. Dameri had disappeared the moment she left Amie to change. Amie tugged at the black corset-thingy their hostess had thrown at her earlier. It kept everything together certainly but it was too kinky-looking for her.
I look like Selene from Underworld. Oh, please tell me gremlins don’t look like Lycans.
Convinced that arguing with Henry was getting her nowhere, she turned and walked out of the firelit rainy room and into the hall.
“There ye are! Ah, I see the clothes nixed to fit you. It must be marvelous to possess such gifts, Jessamiene!” Dameri stood between orchard and manor, hands at her hips, dressed in similar battle gear.
Except she gets to wear a skirt and I have to wear this!
Amie was referring to the tight breeches and knee-high boots. How she was expected to nix anyone in this was beyond her. Why did the little human princess get to wear something sensible?
And modest...
“Well, do not stand there, Jessamiene, come! I have acquired the trapper and we have only to depart! He is gathering our supplies as we speak.” Rubbing her hands together greedily, Dameri added, “And soon those black-hearted devils shall have met their match.”
“Trapper?” Amie asked with trepidation.
Please let this be some Paul Bunyan type and not him!
Following Dameri into the stormy night, Amie found her speaking from within the folds of her voluminous cloak to a tall hooded figure beside her. Making a bee line for them, she misjudged the distance and, trying to compensate, ran straight into a strong pair of arms. A low chuckle surrounded and penetrated her and Amie froze, her skin tingling at the sound mingling dread with his words.
“Oh yes, ’tis I, Jessamiene. Not expecting my company this evening? What a pity they forgot to warn ye.”
“Yeah, thanks for this, Dameri. You might have mentioned.” Amie lingered in Emrys’ arms because she was tired from fighting him and whatever she thought about him it felt good. But this did not stop her from grumbling while he pulled back to give her the once-over.
“Might I remind you I am your protector? I know how things work in your world but here a blood oath has a far more binding effect.”
“Great. You’re the one person in the entire world I wish most not to be stuck with. You’re the one,” she jabbed him in the chest with a finger, “who not only has made my experience here miserable since your arrival, but tried to kill me in the same woods you’re dragging us into!”
“You finished yet, love?”
“Don’t call me that! You don’t have the right to call me that!” Amie barked imperiously.
Emrys laughed and called over the top of her head, “Dameri, perhaps we should depart, before the rains stop again.”
The smaller woman slung a crossbow over her shoulder and began to check the other weaponry Emrys calmly handed to her.
Amie frowned. “Where are my weapons?”
Emrys chuckled but Dameri answered for them both. “You are not like me, Jessamiene. Remember your blood is only half human. Would be too simple for you to trust a sword if you knew how to wield one. As you do not, I have chosen to trust in your other abilities. I hear you are quite exceptional.” She winked at Emrys and he ducked his head with a side glance for Amie’s scrutiny.
Finally putting two and two together, Amie said, “You two are friends?” Dameri’s laughter began with a snort and was full of human warmth. Emrys only smiled his usual cocky, sharp-toothed grin while his eyes raked over her get-up with male appreciation.
“Friends, are we, Myrddin? I was unaware.”
“The word friend has less meaning than it once did, Dameri.”
…
The forest was wet, black as pitch and even with her heightened senses impossible to tread without Emrys’ constant watch over her. She envied Dameri’s practiced walk in front of them. For a human she had the natural grace Amie was only now coming into.
Wouldn’t mind getting my hands on her crossbow either.
Gremlins, creatures that continually brought images of the Eighties movie and its title character Gizmo, were not fond of sunlight apparently. Dameri had gone on and on about dipping each of her arrows in the dawn before the night of a big hunt. She had forced Amie to help her prepare, while she wondered how leaving the steel tips in the grass all day made any difference.
And it’s not like we’re on the Mexican border here either! This place is about as hot as the North Pole.
And here she was now, in the wilderness, with a crazy woman and a man she wished meant so little to her, trudging through the woods on a cold rainy night.
This is all part of the experience, Jess.
Why shouldn’t they hunt gremlins? Back home the folks outside of town often invited them to deer hunt. Amie supposed this was some rite of passage in the Hollow.
Kill a Gremlin, become a woman!
“You aren’t taking this seriously,” Emrys whispered in her ear.
Amie fought the urge to mash her fist into his face. “Neither of you told me how I’m supposed to fight and I’ve never seen a real Gremlin, so what do you expect?”
His hands settled on her hips to keep her from shifting away from him. “Just be on your guard, lass. Nasty devils these be and they are not the worst thing out there.”
Dameri’s patience wore thin. Whipping round, she hissed, “Keep it down! Want the whole forest to know we’re here?”
Emrys chuckled low and said, “Humans are so clumsy they’ll know we’re there before were within ten meters of them.”
Amie couldn’t keep her eyes off the trees on either side of them, expecting whatever was watching them to pounce. It was what the panthers did in East Texas, after all, waited until the prey walked right under their tree before striking. Her gaze flickered up to the lowest branches hanging overhead and she tensed when she heard the disturbed undergrowth. The sound seemed to come from all sides.
Dameri paused and held up a fist to signal their stop. She only needed to glance at Emrys over her shoulder and he nodded before slipping away. Amie tried not to
panic once he melded with the blackness, rubbed her thumb over her ring until it burned a cool fire in her palm. The tiny black clearing in front of them was devoid of faerie lights or anything else comforting. Even the trees and roots twisted more thickly, sharply to ward unwanted guests away.
When Dameri gave Amie the signal and slipped behind a nearby tree trunk the situation became even more real.
Lure them out…yeah, sure, no problem.
She shivered because she was wet and had forgotten Dameri’s little thermal mind trick. So she took in a deep breath, ignored the deep guttural sounds emitting from the black burrow breathing foul air in front of them, and walked into the clearing.
When a stray acorn plopped roughly off her shoulder blade she shot a dark glare where she knew Emrys was now hiding.
Yeah, I get the message, I’m hurrying here, Rambo.
Shutting her eyes tightly, Amie waited a rain-soaking moment before striking her palms together in a loud clap. Hopefully she got this right. Purple sparks of energy escaped her fingertips, pulsed through her veins and back again in the craziest light show Amie had ever seen. It was a trippy moment to know this was coming from her.
“Again!” Emrys called from his night watch.
Rolling her eyes Amie clapped again and spread her hands wide. Silver ripples of light created a dome over them all, brought fresh life to the decaying thicket, flowers and vines sprouting everywhere in a mad frenzy. Amie felt a little like a DC superhero, until the squatty dark creatures emerged from their pit. Amie had watched every movie from every genre invented. She knew what goblins, ghouls, zombies and other foul creatures were supposed to look like. But she wasn’t prepared for this.
Some wore clothing and carried crude weapons while others moved on already maimed limbs in a freaky zombie crawl. All had glowing ruby red eyes and hatred spitting in some foul tongue from rows of rotting teeth. And right now their gaze was fixed on her, this obvious faerie friend and powerful enchantress in her own right. They smelled that her tasty human flesh was riddled with Sidhe blood and surrounded her as closely as they dared step into her light. Their threats carried in a garbled nightmare chorus so Amie saw what an infestation meant here in the Hollow.
Silver Hollow Page 25
