by Scott Duff
“Ready for lunch?” he asked, smiling brightly. He hadn’t hit the ground once this morning.
“Actually, yeah,” I said, surprising myself. Breakfast wasn’t um, wasn’t a good idea at the time. I think Peter managed dry toast and coffee.
Kieran pulled smoothly across the highway into a steak house with an often-renovated look, to whatever the big chain of the year was. The dash clock read ten fifty as Kieran parked the car near the back of the lot. We piled out of the car, stretching cramped muscles. Shrank shot out of the car before everybody, all but invisible, to conduct some sort of business in the trees around us. I wasn’t privy to whatever it was but for all I knew he had to pee really bad.
We sauntered through the doors right at eleven, the first patrons of the day, and were greeted by a stereotype. I swear it was a stereotype from beginning to end: the mid-forties door greeter and waitress, the steak house with buffet and dark wood paneling, the partitioned off areas with sliding walls, two different salad bars, and a dessert bar with soft serve machines. I was horrified by it. My one earlier experience was not good—it involved a tribe of twenty unsupervised children who had apparently been visiting an influenza ward. Since then, anything with the word “Mega” in the title has been taboo. My tough luck, though, as it turned out that’s all the menu was.
“You boys with the group out at Langdon’s farm?” the waitress asked when she brought drinks back to the table. Her accent was thickly Southern, but different from what I was used to. Her interest was both polite and eager for gossip and she had an edge of loneliness to her. I don’t think I liked being able to read people’s aura better. It just made me want to “fix” them more. For some reason, that felt wrong, “fixing” people.
“No,” answered Kieran. “But we are looking for a man who might be in that group. What are they doing out there?”
“You ain’t no bounty hunters, are ya?” she asked suspiciously, eyeing Kieran as he cut his steak.
“No,” he answered before taking a bite.
“We’re looking for my grandfather,” I said to belay her fears. “He’s training a few men that might be here.” Not a lie exactly. Maybe. I hoped I was convincing. It calmed her worries down a little.
“We really don’t know what they’re doing up there,” she said. “Langdon’s a scary old fart. Came down off his mountain about six months ago throwing some serious money around, buying neighboring land, fencing it up. ‘Bout two months ago, he started makin’ ‘rangements with businesses and the Sheriff ‘bout this here get-together. Says its para-military but its all fer show. Town stands to make a lotta money an’ we can use it. They’re a mean lot, though.”
Well, wasn’t she a fountain of information, I thought, then I saw Kieran’s mild influence waft away and understood. He just bolstered her natural proclivity for gossip.
“Y’all need anything right now?” she asked smiling brightly. We declined. “Then I’ll check back in a few minutes. Enjoy your lunch.”
“We’re pretty close then,” Peter said quietly once she was out of range. He dug into his lunch with vigor.
“Seems so,” agreed Kieran, eating with equal gusto.
“If it’s that close, the pixie should be able to find it,” said Ethan.
Now I knew what Shrank was shooting off to the trees to do, hunt for the location of the fights. I knew if I was patient, I’d find out. I started eating and conversation went by the wayside as all four of us concentrated on filling our bellies. Ethan ate incredibly fast but not overly much and was contented to sit and look around the restaurant. We’d barely gotten halfway through our meals when the waitress reappeared. She’d changed clothes, from the unnatural shade of beige polyester smock and skirt to a pair of jeans and a baggy sweatshirt with her nametag pinned to it.
“Y’all doin’ awright?” she asked us as she came up, reaching for Ethan’s plate.
“Oh, yes, quite well,” said Ethan, smiling and taking the lead since everyone else was still eating. “Why’d you change clothes?” I was curious about that myself.
“Oh, we just heard from the Sheriff,” she said. “The first wave should be here in a few minutes and the boss thought this might be easier on us with yesterday’s ruckus and all.”
I froze. Swallowing, I asked, “Yesterday’s ruckus?”
“Oh, nothing to worry about, Sweetie,” she said, eyes out the window, searching the road. “Bruiser slipped his hand up underneath Janey’s skirt, unexpected like, and Janey screamed. Her boyfriend was here, though, and he ain’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. He came running and jumped the guy, ninety-eight pounds a nut’n ‘ginst three hunert a solid muscle. The guy rared back to hit ‘im one an’ this skinny guy in a monkey suit an’a cane just appeared outta nowhere behind Janey and just stared at ‘im. The guy ‘pologized to Eddie and Janey, and left. Lucky for Eddie, too, ‘cuz that guy’s arm was bigger’n him. If he’da connected…,” her grimace told the story of her supposition of Eddie’s condition after the conclusion of the conflict. It wasn’t pretty. “Sheriff’s asked the locals just to stay outta their way for a day or two, just to be safe.” She shook her head sadly to clear the thoughts. “If y’all are going back for seconds, now would be a good time. Looks like they’re pulling in now.”
We all turned to look out the window. A convoy of pickup trucks and vans pulled into the parking lot and disgorged large volumes of men and a few women into the parking lot. It was a variety of different men, to say the least, large and small, from thin and wiry to big and muscular. To a man, everyone was human and everyone was magically active, strongly magically active. Something about them all together like this made me queasy. If I wasn’t through with lunch before, I was then. I slid my plate forward a few inches and leaned on the table, still looking out the window as the trucks unloaded and the men coalesced into groups, eyeing one another but remaining stoic and unconcerned. There were about twenty-five vehicles in all with a total of a hundred and four men. The choice of clothing differed as much as the men themselves, some in partial military fatigues, some in leathers or denim. Some in leather dusters right out of the movies.
“Should we leave now or wait till they come in?” Peter asked. It was the question I was wondering, too. He’d pushed his plate forward as well. His aura showed signs of nervousness and fear that he was trying to calm. I couldn’t blame him—those men scared me too.
“Let’s just see how this unfolds here,” said Kieran softly, stacking the three plates together in the center of the table. “It looks like we’ll get caught in the middle of them anyway.”
At some unheard signal, the group closest to the door headed into the restaurant. Instantly the noise level inside increased and we were no longer the only customers in the restaurant. They started on the food bars immediately, eschewing seating first. Once they’d piled plates high with food and headed toward a table, the next group entered and followed suit. It was all quite well timed and orderly. And loud. Oh so very loud. My parents taught me table manners early in life. When I was twelve, Mom spent a few days teaching me different cultural habits on cutlery and plates and such. Europeans hold their knives and forks differently than I was taught, for example. I’d seen livestock that had better manners than most of these men. Seriously, livestock.
The parking lot was empty of people now and the restaurant full. Glancing at the food bars, it looked like every employee the restaurant had was out and running between the kitchen and the bars refilling everything as fast as they could run. The meat carvers, though, seemed to take the men in stride, carving off big hunks of ham and rare to mid-rare roasted beef for each man who walked up. When they ran out, they calmly walked to the back and came out with another huge slab of still-cooking meat on a trolley. They must’ve pulled twelve out already. The men lined up and waited for the carvers to come back, quiet as lambs. It was eerie the control the meat carvers had over them.
I heard the slap over the din and my waitress say loudly, “Those goods ain’t for sa
le!” I stood up immediately, getting defensive over her. A roar of laughter from the table she was standing at centered my attention and I was there before I realized I was moving.
“You should apologize to the lady then leave,” I said to the man rubbing his face and laughing heartily. I was calm but commanding. The laughter died away quickly and silence started crashing around me like a tidal wave as other tables watched. They didn’t stop eating, but they watched.
“Run along, pup,” the man rumbled. His dark eyes implied a pit deep within his barrel of a chest. I began to think I was rash in demanding anything. “I’ve a right to a little fun.”
“And she has a right to not be accosted while doing her job,” I said, putting as much venom as I could behind the statement. I don’t think he was too impressed. “Now apologize to her and leave.”
The man stood up from the table, forcing the waitress and me a step back from the table. He was big, wearing camo pants and a black sweat shirt with the sleeves ripped off. His arms were as thick as my legs and were covered in ink, ink that seemed to move when I looked at it. Creepy. I considered briefly pulling one of the Swords out but recalled her story from earlier. Yesterday, the man had avoided violence with Eddie because of the elf. They were peace bonded for some reason. So instead, I decided to use the Stone. I slid a shield around the waitress and me just to be safe, then a very thin tiling of shielding onto the floor as he stepped toward me. I slowly raised us an inch off the ground as he centered his aggravation on me.
“Look, pup,” he said, poking me in the chest with his forefinger. “I’m just havin’ a bit of fun and nobody’s getting’ hurt, so back off!” I looked down at his finger where he struck my shield about a half-inch off my chest and wondered if he noticed that. He was in full intimidation mode and thought I was another Eddie. It must have been my accent. It was time to clear up that little misunderstanding.
I splayed the fingers of my right hand and shoved him in the chest hard while at the same time pulling the shield tile he was standing on in the opposite direction really fast. Surprised, he shot his arms out trying to catch himself as he fell backward, but he hit hard against the concrete floor, momentarily stunned. The cheap carpeting didn’t buffer his fall at all. I sent another layer of the Stone’s shielding out over the man and over the floor where others where gathering in a circle around us to watch, hoping for a fight. I used their weight to hold the man in place on the floor. I took a few steps to him and calmly sat on his chest, arms crossed over my knees, looking directly into his eyes. He was having difficulty breathing under the weight of so many men and his eyes were wide and panicked.
“I am not happy with way you are treating this nice lady,” I said to him. “It is disrespectful and mean. And while I may be a ‘pup,’ I am more than enough to take out a mutt like you. So I will tell you one more time to apologize to the lady and leave. Am I clear here?” He nodded his head slightly. I’m pretty sure that was because that’s all he could move. I stood up and evaporated the tiles around him. He coughed hard a few times, keeping his dark eyes glued on me while he scrambled to his feet, one hand on the back of his head where he’d hit the concrete. I smiled at him slightly.
“I do apologize, ma’am,” he said, looking over my shoulder at the waitress. “It was rude and uncalled for and it won’t happen again.” I knew she was there since I was still shielding her. I knew where everybody within thirty feet was actually, including the elf standing a full head taller than everyone else watching in the aisle twenty feet back. It was somewhat comforting knowledge at that moment.
“Thank you,” she said meekly to the man as I turned to her. He scurried out behind me to jeers and laughter of everyone else in the building as they returned to their food. As I walked back to the table, I could feel everyone’s eyes boring holes into my back. Kieran had an odd look on his face, but Peter was smiling broadly. Ethan was watching out the window. I glanced out as I sat down to see the man who’d just left climbing into a van. The van rocked violently for a few minutes then a torn and battered bench seat came flying out one of the sliding doors into the lot, narrowly missing the hood of a nearby truck. I guess he was upset. Ethan started laughing, reaching back blindly for me and pointing out the window.
“That was nicely done, Seth,” said Kieran, still surveying the room. “A power play without showing one iota of power. Now we just have to decide whether to leave now or wait till they leave.”
“You should wait,” said the waitress, kissing me on the cheek. “Thank you, Honey, that was really sweet of you and amazing to watch, but that guy and his friends’ll kill you now if they get the chance. Y’all just stay here until they all leave. It’ll be safer.” She smiled and tousled my hair and slipping the check off the end of the table, like I wouldn’t see. I still blushed and ducked my head, embarrassed.
“Thank you, ma’am, but I’m not sure staying would be the better idea,” I said. “We’ll talk it over.”
“Whatever you decide, be careful,” she said, smiled again, and left for the fray.
“Staying means we can’t follow them,” I said.
“Assuming we can follow them,” said Peter.
“And assuming we need to,” said Kieran. “We have a general direction already and a fair approximation of distance. A trip out to the county assessor’s office or even the Sheriff that’s down by the highway and we’ll have Langdon’s farm. Or, we could ask anybody here. Not everything has to be hard, guys.”
I nodded, accepting Kieran’s advice. It was simple and it made sense.
“How did we find them so quickly?” I asked.
“Shrank,” said Ethan, mildly. “He felt the presence of the Faery realm from a hundred miles away. MacNamara pulls on a pretty big chunk of it to create the rift that he controls. Still, knowing where it is and knowing how to get in are two very different things.”
“Like not knowing where the head of a coiled snake is,” offered Peter. “It could still strike at any moment.”
“So who are these people?” I asked, standing.
“Cannon fodder, most likely,” said Kieran sullenly, standing up with me. “Hired muscle and lackeys that have a much higher opinion of themselves than their masters have of them. A few are of high enough caliber to be good fighters, I suppose.”
Ethan and Peter threaded their way through the crowd so we followed, taking the stares by staring back without remorse, confident in our lack of visibility. Well, Kieran and Ethan were confident. I was able to fake it. I hoped. We didn’t see the elf again, though. Outside we turned to the back of the restaurant, away from the other vehicles and to my car. The noon heat was oppressive, but at least there was a breeze. Kieran dangled the keys out to his side and I snatched them up quickly.
“What? I get to drive my own car?” I asked with mock indignation. Kieran chuckled as Ethan and Peter switched sides so that Ethan would sit behind Kieran so he could slide the seat back further. I started the car, turning the air on full blast and waited for it to cool.
“Do we wait for Shrank?” I asked.
“Wait for me to do what?” Shrank asked, flying up through my knees to land atop the steering wheel in a puff of golden dust. I jumped a little, startled. “Good day, Master Seth. You are in better spirits now.”
“Yes, I am, thank you,” I said to the pixie.
“Did you find the entrance, Shrank?” asked Kieran.
“Yes, Master Kieran,” piped the pixie. “It was not challenging at all, not in the slightest. I believe you can see it from here once you clear these trees.”
I pulled through the parking lot and out onto the highway. “Shrank, is that the right direction?” I asked, pointing out to the northeast. The bright blue sky was cloudless except over one small patch of ground between a small mountain and the river. There were dark blue, black, and pink striations of power running through the clouds to the ground, thin and pale against the clouds. The pink made the blue and black stand out because it was on either side, probabl
y surrounding it.
“Uh, Seth?” said Kieran, softly as the car jolted off the shoulder of the road.
Jerking my attention back to the road, I slowly turned the wheel so that we jumped the shoulder, jarring us without tearing out the front end. “Sorry about that,” I said. “Maybe you should do the sightseeing and I’ll drive.”
“Sounds good to us,” volunteered Ethan from the back seat. “The pixie’s right, though. He’s not hiding that at all. I’m surprised we didn’t see it earlier, really.”
“Don’t be,” squeaked Shrank. “I was watching when the veil dropped, shortly before all those men went into the building. It was quite a dramatic change, even knowing it was there.”
“Turn north at the next highway, Seth,” said Kieran, reviewing a folded map against the road signs.
The car quieted as we navigated our way toward what appeared to be a huge storm of energy in the sky, rapidly moving from four-lane to two-lane roads, then to narrower county roads. Farmland surrounded us on both sides, but I couldn’t tell what was being farmed. As we got closer to the aerial disturbance, the farmland became less and less tended and more open pastures. A lot more hills and windbreaks filled the landscape.
Shrank jumped up onto the dashboard and said, “We’re close to the entrance now, Master Seth.”
As we crested the top of the hill, the road turned sharply to the left, but there was a gravel drive to the right that lead to a large and new steel building with a small brick facing on the front where the doors were. I slowed to a stop at the drive and looked at the building. From where we sat, there wasn’t much to see except the concentration of power lines leaping upward into the sky at the rear of the building. I wasn’t even sure that was coming from the building, just near it. No cars or trucks sat outside it. It looked perfectly empty from here.
“What do you think?” I asked. “Do we go in?”
“May as well,” said Kieran. “We’ll have to try something.”
He wasn’t enthusiastic about it. Couldn’t say I was either. I pulled slowly into the gravel lot, watching for holes. I parked close to the building, angled enough to pull out fast if I needed to. We all piled out.
