“Kafir, just because I don’t like what you do doesn’t mean that…”
“Doesn’t mean that I can’t continue to help you? Do you have any idea how I feel about you, what I envisioned for our future? Now it’s gone and looking at you only prolongs the pain. As soon as I deliver the animal I’m taking you back to Fell.”
I moved backward, finding my way to the ladder to head down. I was shocked by his speech but also deeply ashamed. I had expected to go on as though nothing had happened—to use Kafir and his boat for my own selfish purposes. By the time I reached the saloon I was sobbing. I didn’t look at Brandubh, only heading to the cabin and banging the door shut behind me.
The Otherworld-2011
“Arianrhod also believes Gertrude is in the future somewhere. She mentioned a person she met a long long time agao, a sailor who traded here and could travel through time on his boat called Gypsy.” MacCuill ran a hand over his face, his eyes on the ground.”Time loops back and forth but how to figure out what part of the loop she’s on is nearly impossible.”
“Do you think that’s where Brandubh goes when he disappears?” Maeve asked. “And according to Dagda, Adair has also disappeared for weeks at a time, taking the baby with her. And who are all those women you mentioned who she’s locked up?”
“If Adair leaves, perhaps we can question them. Other than that I’m at a loss.”
“When Harold and Dagda raided the settlement there was no sign of them. She must have known they were coming. If we can’t find Gertrude I’m determined to get that poor baby away from the sorceress. Think what she’ll do to him!”
“I wish I could help you but my allegiance lies in the north. This is no longer my fight.”
Maeve was shocked to hear this admission from the prescient druid. Queen Druantia must have him on a short tether. “Would the boatman be able to help us?”
Chapter Eighteen
Far Isle-2451
It was a silent and sad trip, Kafir up top until we sailed into the protected cove of Antigone Island. Once he’d thrown the anchor over he came down the ladder, heading into the back of the boat to retrieve the animal.
“Do you need help?” I asked, but he ignored me, picking up the large cage and struggling to drag it behind him up the ladder. I followed him up to the deck, grabbing hold of one end of it. He had covered it with heavy canvas to avoid the claws that the leopard extended our way. It was snarling now, the furious growls and hissing loud in my ears. Kafir glanced at me as he jumped off the deck into the pram, waiting until I pushed the heavy cage toward him before grabbing it and placing it in the middle of the little boat.
“I don’t think you should come along—you will not like what you see.”
I had already climbed over the gunwale and was lowering myself into the pram. “What do you mean?”
“Sahere keeps the animals in cages.”
“Like the worst of zoos,” I muttered, lowering myself into the boat. “I still want to meet him and see the setup.” I looked toward the wide sandy beach, the low hills of green that undulated into the distance. The island was lush with abundant water—a beautiful place for animals to roam free.
At the beach Kafir hopped out, pulling the boat up on the sand and then extending his hand to me. Once I was out the two of us grabbed the cage, lugging it up on the sand.
“It’s not a long walk.”
By now the leopard had begun a plaintiff meowing, the smell from the cage so strong that I could barely stand it. It was difficult walking sideways with the cage between us, but I didn’t complain. Over the first hill several buildings came into view, and beyond them sun glinted off the wire pens.
“Sahere!” Kafir yelled, startling a flock of brightly colored birds and sending them flapping into the sky.
A bald stocky man walked toward us, his gait encumbered by a severe limp. “Good to see you, Kafir. I was losing faith.” He glanced at the cage his eyebrows raised.
“It’s a Javan Leopard as far as I can tell, but you’re the expert.”
Sahere pulled off the canvas, kneeling to get a better look. “She’s a beauty. Where’d you find her?”
“Some uninhabited place Gypsy took me—one of those islands in the archipelago.”
Sahere nodded as if this vague description gave him all the information he needed. “Well, let’s get her into her new home.” Sahere picked up my end of the cage and he and Kafir headed around one of the buildings to where the wired enclosures had been set up.
I heard a roar, turning in time to see a lion-like animal behind one of the fences disappear around a boulder. “He knows we have a newcomer,” Sahere said, continuing on. We arrived at a small enclosure flanked on two sides with other cages. “She’ll have the male on this side,” Sahere said, carrying the cage inside and closing the wire door, “the lemurs on the other.”
I tried to find life in either cage but all I saw was trees and greenery. My gaze shifted back to Sahere, watching him open the leopard’s prison. The animal sniffed the air, and then bolted by him, heading into some underbrush. “She’ll do fine,” Sahere said, moving backward out of the enclosure and securing the gate.
“How many animals do you have here?” I asked, gazing across the expanse of well-constructed enclosures.
Sahere looked at me as though noticing my presence for the first time. “I’d say close to two hundred.”
“Are any free or are they all in here?”
Sahere smiled, revealing several holes where teeth should have been. He rubbed a hand across the gray stubble on his chin. “The island is full of escapees and a few that I’ve released. They do better breeding in the wild but it isn’t always possible since several species do not get along.”
“You must have help here…” I began, noticing the wheelbarrows full of animal droppings and others filled with vegetable matter.
“There are twenty of us fools trying to save these creatures from complete extinction. I hope I live long enough to do some good.”
“Will you eventually take them to other places?”
Sahere nodded. “With Kafir’s help I’ve placed many already, but I have to be sure there’s ample food for them before I release. Mostly it’s in unpopulated areas. People have grown used to their animal-free environments and seem to be deathly afraid of even the tiniest mouse.”
“We’d better get going,” Kafir interjected, his hand on my arm.
“Thanks, Kafir.” Sahere handed Kafir a large pouch, which I assumed contained his payment.
Kafir nodded and shook the man’s hand before heading back the way we had come. I followed him, ashamed of my assumptions about what might be going on here. The man seemed to be doing a service to the world and from what I could see the place was a lot better than many zoos I had seen.
“Sahere seems to genuinely care about the animals.”
“Why would you think otherwise? You have to respect a person who devotes his life to repopulating the earth with animals.”
“You led me to believe that he was horrible, a monster. And I didn’t know you were helping him.”
“No, Gertrude. That was all in your mind. You seemed so outraged that anyone would have a zoo that I thought you might not approve of how the animals were kept.”
I stared at his profile but his eyes remained on the trail before us.
When we reached the shore Brandubh was walking barefoot along the sand, his pants rolled up to his knees. “I wasn’t sure you’d come back,” he told us. “I was contemplating how to sail this thing and feeling rather nervous about the prospect.”
Kafir laughed, lightening the mood for a moment as he pushed the pram into the water. “Next stop Fell,” he said, gesturing for us to get in.
We rowed back to the boat in silence and when we were on board I helped Kafir with the sails before going below. In the saloon I couldn’t find a place to focus my gaze, finding Brandubh’s green stare on me several times. I felt uncomfortable being alone with him, lost in the knowledge
that I had rejected Kafir and that Brandubh knew it. I had the sinking sensation he expected something from me but whatever it was I couldn’t give it. I wished only for solitude to examine my recent behavior and form a new plan to find my baby that didn’t include Kafir and his boat. Mostly I was desolate.
“How was the zoo?”
“It wasn’t what I expected. Sahere’s doing a good job.”
Brandubh nodded, his gaze going to the floor.”I don’t know much about this world. I’m very new here—in fact I was dead until not too long ago. But you knew that, didn’t you?”
I nodded. “What does it mean, you being brought back to life? Are you fully here? I can’t get a read on you at all. When we were back in the Otherworld I had a vision of us together in another life, but now…” I shook my head, meeting his interested gaze.
“Maybe it was trying to tell you about this future life. I told you my memories of us. I also have flashes of other things: the war, how I hurt you. I’m very sorry for all of that.”
I thought back to the month I’d spent with him—how he treated me like his whore. I shuddered, sliding my eyes away. “I didn’t remember any of it for a long time. The pregnancy came as a complete surprise.” I looked up, embarrassed. I felt like I was talking to a complete stranger. But of course we’d been intimate many times.
“My mother knew. She told me before the end of the war. She vowed to kidnap the child and at the time I agreed with her.”
“It was Morrighan, the war goddess, who planted the memories you have now?”
Brandubh nodded, running a hand through his thick hair. “It was a punishment to show me at the very moment of my death what I could have had—it still seems more real than anything that came before it.” He laughed, a hollow sound. “Possibly it’s due to being dead and resurrected.”
“Is this resurrection forever or will you fade away at some point, become a ghost again?”
“I don’t honestly know, Gertrude. My mother has threatened me, but I’m not sure she could carry this out now that I’m fully here. I may be immortal.” When my eyes met his I saw the incredulity in his eyes—as though he couldn’t believe this possibility.
I was speechless for a moment, trying to take this in. “And if Adair dies? What will that mean for you?”
“I don’t think she’s my tether to this life, if that’s what you’re asking. Her death would be a great relief, releasing me from her constant chatter inside my head. I could live my own life for once.”
As we talked I had unconsciously moved closer to him, reminding me of the time we spent together in Milltown. “Do you remember when we first met?”
Brandubh threw his head back, a real laugh coming out of him for the first time. “Oh yes. I was smitten but there was nothing I could do.”
“I thought later you had used me to find out about Maeve.” Maeve was my client and the reason I had traveled to Scotland in the first place. It was fear for her that had urged me onto the plane and into an alien parallel world. And it was she and her followers who had saved the Otherworld from Brandubh and his cohorts. The entire episode seemed so long ago now--a dream of the distant past.
Brandubh lifted his head, his gaze going into some fixed point in the distance. “I suppose it was partly that, at least at the beginning, but you and I had a chemistry that I couldn’t ignore.” His head swiveled toward me, his gaze direct and unnerving.
“What’s going on down here?”
I looked up, surprised to see Kafir coming down the ladder. “We’re filling in the gaps.”
“Ah, yes—you two have some history to catch up on. Sorry to interrupt but I need a cup of tea. The weather is turning foul. I’ve set the steering vane to give me a moment. So how about it?” he asked me, sitting down on the other side of Brandubh.
I hurried over to the stove eager to make up for my behavior. “How far are we?”
“We’ll reach Fell by tomorrow morning. Only one more night to put up with me, Gertrude.”
I tried to ignore the snide tone but my eyes filled. I wiped at them before carrying the mugs over.
“So you don’t take issue with the illegal trading of live creatures?” Kafir asked Brandubh, bringing the mug to his lips.
“In this new godless world I find myself in, I can’t take issue with anything. I don’t have enough information.”
“But the people in Glantsgo seemed to know you. They had lots of nasty things to say,” I said, staring at him.
“I carried out that charade for over six months. I had to put on a persona to convince my mother that I was still her devoted son. If you’d been at the auction you would have seen that I rescued several of those women, placing them on boats with reputable people to be transported elsewhere. But after what happened at the house I took off to find Fehin.” He stared into the distance. “She’s turned our boy against both of us.”
“We have to find him!” I grabbed Brandubh’s arm before I could stop myself, only pulling it away when I caught the pained expression on Kafir’s face.
“I’ll leave you to it,” was all Kafir said as he rose and headed up the ladder.
Chapter Nineteen
Far Isle-2452
It was the beginning of March when we sailed into Fell. I wouldn’t have known the date except for Kafir’s careful daily sailing logs. I had not slept the night before, my mind filled with Kafir’s desolate expression and the confusion I was feeling about Brandubh. After Kafir had gone back up top we had continued our conversation, filling in the missing pieces. Despite Gunnar and Kafir’s assurance that Rifak had never been in Glanstgo, Brandubh told me he had sequestered the boy in the empty house on the hill and had planned our escape. He had spoken to a sailor who had agreed to take us with him on his cargo ship. The person I had seen at the top of the hill with the baby was indeed Adair.
Since then, Brandubh had not spent time alone with his son and despaired of ever getting him away from Adair. The two of us had talked late into the night, trying to come up with a plan, while Kafir sailed the boat toward Fell.
I was making the morning tea when Kafir came down the ladder looking haggard and exhausted. “None for me—I’m going to the Inn to get a bath and some sleep.” With that curt statement he grabbed his pack and headed up the ladder. I heard him on deck moving things around and then the scrape of his boots before he jumped off the boat.
“He seems angry.”
I didn’t say anything, only handing Brandubh a mug of tea, and sitting next to him. He was tense, a scowl marring his brow.
“You and Kafir—Gunnar told me that you loved each other, but I haven’t seen it.”
“Kafir is not the person I thought he was. I…”
“You feel betrayed.”
“Well, yes, I guess that’s one way of putting it.”
“Similar to what happened between us.”
“You remember that?”
“Unfortunately I remember everything now—the good and the bad. I’m glad the planted memories are the strongest--you pregnant with our child.”
The intimate image made my face grow hot, embarrassment sweeping through me. “I wish it were true—our life together. It would simplify matters.”
“It could be simple now, Gertrude. Once we find Fehin and get him away from Adair we can be a family.”
I turned my head, staring into his deep green eyes. “You’re nearly twenty years older than I am and besides, how do you propose we get him back?”
“Gunnar assured me he would help. The only way to be rid of her is to kill her and that’s not something I can manage on my own.”
Exhaustion and the sudden need to be alone rose up in me. “I’m going home now to think. I’ll come and find you tomorrow.”
“Where should I stay?”
“I’m sure Kafir won’t mind if you stay on Gypsy. Or you can go to the Inn—it’s an easy walk.”
He nodded. “One more thing before you go. The years between us won’t matter as you grow older; I won�
�t age.”
I turned back from the ladder, taking in his lean body, the thick gray hair and piercing eyes that seemed to see right into me. A sudden memory of one of our first intimate encounters appeared in my mind, but then I thought of what happened later on—how he forced me. “Something else to contemplate, I suppose. But first and foremost I want my child.”
“As do I.”
From his troubled gaze I knew he had read my thoughts.
“I am not that man,” he called out as I opened the hatch.
***
Outside the boat, cold damp air gusted around me. It was spring now, but the color of the sky was somewhere between gunmetal and the ash left after a fire. I wrapped my shawl tight, climbing the hill toward the shack. Once I’d opened the door all the memories of my baby rushed into my mind—his birth, our months of being together here, and then the horrible day he was gone. And because of me Solti had died. The place was musty, and I opened the one window and door. My sleeping pallet was clean, although dust had settled on the quilt, which I took outside and shook, leaving it draped over some bushes to air out.
“You’re back!”
Foy’s sudden appearance startled me. “Just arrived,” I told him, trying to smile.
“Is Rifak…?” The satyr’s voice drifted off as he took in my expression. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s been a long journey, Foy. I need a little time to myself. If you want to talk with Kafir he’s at the Inn.”
“Yes, I know. Tara told me. She’s with him now.”
“Tara’s with him…at the Inn? How did that happen so fast?”
“I think he sought her out. All I know is she arrived in the lobby and the two of them went up to his room.”
Jealousy surged through me, making me feel sick. “I don’t want to be rude but…”
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