Red Solstice (Alfheim Book 1)

by Unknown

  I place the jacket on a side table near the front door and hang my cloak on a hall stand nearby. Hilda is returning from the kitchen area with a tray of what looks like glasses of warm chocolate, which luckily I can drink as I can only managed milk that has been heated, and a small plate of cookies. My stomach growls in thanks for this addition.

  “Don't leave it there,”she says indicating the jacket “bring it back into the living room”.

  I gather it back up and take it in with me. There is a tired looking sofa where Aylsa

  is now sitting and I join her, placing the jacket in front of me on the floor. A grey striped cat appears from behind the sofa and sniffs at the jacket before hissing and running from the room. I take it that the scent is not to his satisfaction. I grab a cookie off the tray which Hilda has placed on a coffee table and nibble appreciatively.

  Hilda stares at the jacket for what seems like ages and I almost expect it to get up and dance around the room or something else amazing from the intensity with which she is looking at it. Then she reaches down to a side pocket and gingerly opens this using a spoon from the tray. Nothing rushes out and I do not hear the snap of a mouse trap, to be honest this all seems a bit hyped and silly. I try not to smirk as she declares that pocket to be empty. Then she repeats the whole thing on the other side but here she spoons out a scrap of card or paper and written on this is the word Solstice. This obviously has meaning to her and she seems to relax more. Odd but until she let go I had not noticed how tense I was. Still we have a jacket with no identification belonging to its owner so Red remained Red and the mystery remains just that. Aylsa got up and pulled the curtains across the window, pausing a moment to check on the outside view of the road. She seemed satisfied that no one was lurking out there and then she went out of the room and I heard the bolt drawn on the front door. I wondered if they thought we stood in danger of Red making an appearance here, but he did not seem to have been following us along the main road so how would he know where they lived. Or maybe he did know and they were in some way connected. Then she came back into the room and offered to show us to their spare bedroom. I am pleased to agree with this as I am now feeling extremely tired. There is no class on tomorrow morning but both Truthy and I are due into one in the afternoon. A nice long sleep certainly looks good at the moment. Hilda looks up as we leave the room and says that she will tell us a bit more about tonight’s events in the morning.

  I wake up around six am with sunlight streaming in from any angle that can make it past the curtains. This is an odd time of year, some parts of it cold and others bidding to be sweltering. Truthy is still gently snoring. My throat is very dry and I feel odd like I have had too many beers the night before. Now I come to think of it I was rather inclined to giggle at things last night. I pull my jeans on and head for the bathroom where I splash cold water on my face. This helps to an extent but I really need some water to drink as well so I head down to the kitchen. Hilda is already down there, although she looks as if she has not slept yet. She gestures to a coffee pot in the corner and I gratefully pour myself some. There is a large wooden table with six chairs set against one wall and I slide one out and sit down.

  “Well,” she says, looking me full in the face so I can see the dark smudges under her eyes and the beginning of crows feet. “I suppose you will want to know what is going on with that young man”.

  “It would help”, I mutter although I am not certain that I want to know anything about him apart from maybe he has left the planet.

  She has that look that older people get when they are trying to work out how to say something and they are not certain if you are old enough to understand it. I wonder if I should tell her about my sex life and put her mind at rest but hold myself back after all she has put herself out for me which is more than most would have done.

  “I do not know how much you learned from your mother”, she continues, “and this is making things a bit difficult”. I nod as if I understand whilst still turning the words over in my head in case I can make some sense of them.

  “The one that you call Red is not exactly like other people”

  I eye her quizzically. “In what way?” I query Part of me is going to laugh because this is all so cloak and dagger meets science fiction. I think of that diagram on his chest and ponder the possibility that he is some cross breed demon android.

  She sighs,”He comes from a different reality”, she says.

  So okay he may be a cross bred demon android but “why was he after me”, I interject.

  “I am not certain if it is you he seeks or something in your possession”

  I hold out my arm to show the bracelet around my wrist. “Could it be this”

  She reaches across and runs her fingers lightly over the stone which glows as she touches it. “Ah yes”, she said, “This would definitely draw him to you.

  So great I am now a magnet for cross bred demon androids. “So if I give him the bracelet he will just go away”, I ask hopefully.

  “I think that he was drawn by the bracelet but now he has identified you, he will want to take you with him”, she replied. “However I cannot swear to that but it feels right, or rather it fits, particularly with Solstice drawing closer”.

  Okay we are back with the witchy thing and this time it is not because she wear cloaks and long dresses.

  “How do you know all this”, I ask hoping against hope that she may be just a little unhinged as it would be better than finding myself in some freaky story.

  “You could call me a Psychic,” she says, “but that is not quite it, as I can do things that most psychics cannot and part of that is what many would call magic”.

  Damn I was right all along, she is a witch. I look around briefly in case I can see a cauldron but it is all rather prosaic and very tidy. Even the curtains are chintz. China cups hang in neat rows from a display cabinet and well stocked preserves line a top shelf, so almost a perfect kitchen.

  “So,” I begin again, “I have to avoid Red until after the Solstice, which is just under seven days from now?”

  “I believe so” she replies,

  I start mentally calculating. “That is three gig nights”, I shake my head, ”There is no way I can sell that one to my brother. Added to that we have almost a week left of college”. Sheesh the thought of all that ducking and diving to stay out of the way just to continue with my nice comfy life style. I am starting to get just a little annoyed with Mr cross breed demon android and his stupid red hair.

  Hilda gets up and refills her cup from the coffee jug. “I know this is all very far fetched to you, or at least strange so I won't be angry if you reject the whole thing but I do feel that I owe it to your mother to help you out at this time so, if you are willing I will do my best to do just that.”

  She is sincere it shows on every line of her face and part of me knows that there is more to this than hormones, or some guy with a rape kink. Part of me knows that I am really in a dangerous place but I don't have the tools to deal with it. The obstinate bit of me, that likes to think she knows how to handle everything, tries to butt in to my thoughts, but I don't have time it would seem to deal with what I can and cannot handle. I do need help and if she can give me a defence against what ever then I am more than willing to go along with that.

  So I start of my day with a lesson on meditation so that I can shift my mind into another state of awareness in which I should be able to pick out true from false. You have to take it in short bursts as everyday things try and take over so it turns out to be really difficult but I find a little trick using an old tune that my mother used to sing to me that seems to quiet the normal part of my brain, if you want to look at it that way, well I do as it is so difficult to put into words, and then you sort of do a side step so that you are here and not here. Anyway, in the not here you can see things that you cannot see when you are here. Honest you have to try it to get it or maybe I just have a some sort of gift for doing it. Whatever. I learn to see things and
the first thing of any importance that I see is that jacket is more than it seems. It's a nice jacket and the colour may be not my thing but it is a soft, supple leather and would look great in a sky blue or black even but there is more to the jacket than what appears at first. There seem to be lines of some strange symbols or writing across its surface and they appear to move. It is all quite fascinating but then that is what it is meant to be; fascinating. Designed to trap the unwary as she had told me last night “A trap of sorts”, and yes it had affected me so much so that I was mildly intoxicated by the scent of the thing. I have a burning desire now and that is to kick his ass.

  Truthy finally surfaces and by the way she swans into the kitchen she is very much at home here. I have not heard her talk about knowing these people before but then she does have a secretive side. I learn that she has been taking lessons from Hilda but that she does not seem to be as advanced as she would have liked and I have actually passed her in just the few hours I have been here. That is another odd thing as she is bright and far more eager than myself to get along with Hilda's teachings. Aylsa joins us from the back garden and she has a basket of eggs fresh from their chicken run. She sets to whipping these up to scramble with some butter and then cuts some large slices of fresh bread to go with them. I am just thinking ham would go down a treat with this and out comes a bacon joint from their fridge from which slices are cut. People often comment that it is a wonder that I am so slim considering the amount of food I consume but I do like a feast particularly if it is this fresh and in large quantities. Truthy sets another jug of coffee to brew and we all sit around the table and enjoy our breakfast.

  I am trying to be polite and not talk with my mouth full but it is hard when I have so many questions that need answering. Hilda comments that I have a naturally high metabolism and the others start to bemoan the fact that they don't. I have never thought about it before but yes I do burn off a lot of calories with surprising ease, but then so do my brothers. Maybe Ben more than John but that could be an age related thing. My mother used to eat a lot as far as I can remember and she was very slim but I don't think my father was that way inclined so maybe Ben and I take after mother whilst John is more like my father. It is all a little hazy looking back through the years and trying to remember. What I do have to remember is more pressing and that is to let John know what has happened. He will not be too worried about my staying out all night as he knows I am a bit like an alley cat, and normally I can take care of myself. Not to mention that I am well known in the town. Also there is the matter of classes this afternoon and I am suddenly loathe to leave this place of sanctuary, after all the cross bred demon android may be waiting at the college gates, or worse still a constable maybe looking for me and that jacket, if he reported it stolen.

  I have a few words with Truthy about the classes and she agreed to see my tutors and tell them I had some family problems to sort out. I have been doing well in Music and also the Creative Writing class so I did not think there would be too much of a problem there. However, I did enjoy both subjects so it was hard to be missing them. Hilda said she would spend the afternoon showing me how to put up barriers against any further act from Red. She called it a geas which is something I had not heard of before but I gather it is much the same as putting a spell on someone . There is a good song about that but hey it is out of my register, otherwise he might get an earful of it if he shows at the Docks again. Truthy will also speak to Ben at college and let him know where I am so John will be able to drop by and collect me. Sheesh they are making me feel and sound like a kid again. I want to stomp out of here and definitely kick ass.

  So I spend the afternoon in mental combat rather than physical. It is hard at first wrapping my head around this geas thing and putting up mental blocks to try and stop anyone getting into my head. I have to admit that Hilda is good at getting into heads and it does take a lot of energy to stop her. It has been an amazing trip so far and I am completely blown away by so much of it. I had no idea that people could do things to other people like this. I know I hear it in the old song lyrics and well even Shakespeare and the “Midsummer Nights Dream” has some of it with the poppy juice that Puck is so good at dishing out but now to see and feel it in action and know it is real. Well it is a little mind blowing. Apart from the mind blocks she also teaches me to make a protective circle around myself but I am not so sure in this so I guess I will have to practice.

  It is after six in the evening before Truthy reappears. She has seen Red outside the college and was frightened that he might try to make contact with her. Luckily she was with Ben at the time and his friends kept her well tight in their circle to dissuade him. Although I am not convinced that he did try for her attention because it feels more like she wants to be part of my supposed adventure as if to her it is all some romantic teenage romp. I used to feel safe in the town now I have that creepy feeling along my spine yet again. I share a meal of pot roast lamb with Hilda and Aylsa before my brother John turns up at seven. He looks worried and Hilda and he go off into the back yard for a talk. He looks even more worried when he returns. This is not turning out so good but at least I am going home. Hilda says I will be okay for the night and that I should get back to her in the morning. John promises to drop me off before his shift at the library so it is all settled and we are off back home.

  I have a lot of questions that I have been politely putting off but now is the perfect opportunity to throw some of them at my beloved brother starting with what had Hilda told him. This is not the easiest information to get out of him but I am determined and I have a few hours to badger him. He does protest that he cannot tell me without breaking a promise and it turns out this was made to our mother on the day she left. I pointed out that I needed to know certain things now as I have to see clearly where all this was going and why. We argued back and forth through the town square and then half way along the Street. Finally he agreed that he would tell me as much as he could and see if I made sense of it.

  Seems mother came from a different country and that her people were great travellers, which is how she ended up meeting our father who worked in wood, mostly making musical instruments but also carving quite beautiful designs and frescos in the stuff. This I knew, well the bit about father anyway. I was surprised that mother was once a keen traveller as she seemed to love being at home with us, but then she had been gone all these years and we had not received word back about her or our father. They had moved to the town from some distance away as she needed to get away from her people who wanted her to stay with them. It appears that she had a talent that they felt should be used to enrich them rather than strangers. So okay they went into hiding of sorts. Having moved around a lot in their early years together they felt that this town provided them with a safe haven to raise us children . Times had not been easy for them and they had spent a great deal of their money so he would take any work that came along. Then word had been sent through the traders about someone who had need of my fathers abilities with wood and he had gone to take up what should have been a very lucrative commission. When he did not return after a month, mother was worried enough to go and look for him. She seemed to think that her people had got hold of him and he was being used to lure her back but she had no choice. She knew that we had a similar talent to hers but that it was stronger in myself and potentially Ben than in John, for which I gather he was grateful. Part of the promise he had made to mother was that I should not be encouraged to develop my talent as she felt that only her guidance would be best suited to this. Hence he had spent a lot of time channelling me into directions that would take up my time and discourage any sudden flights of fancy unless they revolved around writing lyrics and playing music. The money that we had in savings had come from her selling jewellery before her departure, something that our father had always stopped her from doing in the past.

  I was still trying to grab a perspective on this when I went to bed. I thought it through and I often had hunches about people and
situations, but then that could be just an ability to read body language. It was all a little too vague so I slept on it.

  Friday Sixteenth

  I get up early and although the day starts crisp and cool you can feel the build up of another early summer storm heading our way. The tension in the air reflects the tension in my head which means I will soon have a full scale headache so I am rather tetchy and inclined to monosyllabic communication. I think John is actually grateful for this. We go down through the town, passed the church in the square. The library where John works is in the town hall but they are not open yet. I had not thought of it before, as everything had seemed so normal, that it was an odd place for my brother to work, but I suppose they did have a decent music section in the library. Our town square also boasts a fountain at its centre where many of the young people hang out in the evenings. It is quiet at the moment but tomorrow there will be stalls set up with bright coloured awnings and the place will be alive with the bustle of traders and shoppers. We set off along Abalone road and then turn the left and then right ending up at Hilda's house.

  I have a change of clothes with me as I intend to be there until my set is due at the Docks. Meanwhile I am going to work at becoming immune to people from other Realities. When and wherever they appear, hopefully. I am also going to take that jacket back and leave it with the doorman at the Docks so at least that is one thing I do not have to worry about.