by Luna Lindsey
Another sip of Lonach would snuff out these worries, give her the courage she needed. And then she’d—
A knock sounded on the door, insistent and repetitive. Her hand jerked, flinging the glass away from her as if it were filled with crickets. For a moment, she thought it was. Then reality returned, and she grabbed a tissue to mop up what had sloshed onto her desk.
The knock repeated, persistent and loud, until she remembered what had startled her. “Come in,” she said, her voice quavering.
Gretel burst through the door. “Sandy, there is turbulence. A strong flavor of fae magic is coming from north of here. Wild fae magic.”
Sandy jumped up. This sort of thing didn’t happen very often. Gretel had explained her experiences and sensations before. Sandy had grilled her at length and recorded her every word. It meant a faerie had released a tremendous amount of glamour. That it was wild indicated the faerie didn’t know how to use glamour yet. At least, according to Gretel. The books didn’t always agree with Gretel, and neither fully matched her own experience.
“Can you still feel it?”
“Yes. We must hurry; it is so strong I do not expect it to last.”
“Let’s go.” Sandy ran for the garage, grabbing her jacket and keys on the way. Gretel followed and got in on the passenger side of the white Lexus sedan.
“North you said?”
“Ja.”
“How far?”
“Not too far. Probably across the water. This break in the weather – it is his doing.”
It had been raining all day; now the sky only made idle attempts to spit an occasional droplet at the windshield.
Sandy chose the University Bridge rather than the freeway, which would give her the most flexibility. The bridge was a mile from her house, and at this time of day there wasn’t much traffic. In minutes she reached mid-span. The freeway bridge towered above her to the left.
“Am I still headed the right way?”
“Yes,” Gretel answered. “We’re close, but it has started to fade.”
Sandy swore, and it suddenly started raining again, hard. She flipped on her windshield wipers and they squeaked across the glass. “The University?”
“Possibly. Take a right here. Yes, the University or someplace nearby.”
Gretel led them down 41st, then continued over a winding side street that ran through campus. Suddenly Gretel pointed south. “There.”
Sandy jerked the wheel to the right; instead of parking lots, she found No Parking signs. She pulled to the side of the road in a roundabout, close enough to the edge to be out of the way. If it came to it, she could afford to pay any fines. As long as they didn’t get towed.
“It is almost gone,” Gretel said, shoving her door open.
“We’ll find it.”
They ran down the wide brick sidewalk which dumped them out into Red Square. Sandy started to ask Gretel which way. She didn’t need to finish. At the edge of the square, a small crowd had gathered under the broken obelisk statue. It wasn’t far. She’d chosen a good parking spot.
The rain poured down again. A group of drenched students huddled around two figures dressed in old fashioned clothing. Were they some kind of Ren Faire people? Amish? One lay in a heap, unconscious. The other knelt, fending off the crowd.
“No medical help!” the man shouted, waving off concerned onlookers. “Yeshua will keep him safe. No doctors, please!”
Gretel took a step back and put her hand over her mouth.
“What is it?”
“The boy,” she breathed, “the one on the ground. He is one of them.”
“It’s okay, Gret. He can’t hurt you. Let me take care of this.” Sandy barged forward and knelt next to the strange pair. The boy looked so fragile, so helpless. So unlike Scarf. “What’s going on?” she asked them.
“No doctors,” the old man replied. “His body will not be corrupted with your medicines.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not a doctor. But I’m sure a doctor is on the way. What happened?”
“No… He can’t go to the hospital. That is man’s way.”
Sandy couldn’t believe her luck. If she played this right, she’d have a specimen. An easy specimen.
“I can get him out of here before an ambulance arrives,” she said. “I have a car. Where do you want me to take him?”
“No doctors, just take us home?”
She fought back a smile. “Wherever you want.”
The man lifted the boy in his arms. “Which way?”
Sandy pushed her way back through the crowd. “Move aside!” she shouted. “Make way!”
No one questioned her. Sandy found that most groups wanted a leader. They were easy to order around. The crowd opened up, and they rushed to her car. Talk about a perfect parking spot.
It looked like the man was planning to come with them. Of course he would. She couldn’t easily take this kid home with this guy in tow. She had to get rid of him.
They also had a few followers from the crowd. They had serene looks on their faces, blissed out, enthralled. They wanted to touch the boy, like some kind of goddamned cultists. Had this beast been using some kind of entrancement magic on them? They swarmed around the car like zombies, reaching out, trying to touch them.
“Everyone!” Sandy exclaimed. She made herself sound as confident and commanding as she felt. “Go back to class.”
The old man seemed a little uncomfortable around the car, yet he put the boy in the backseat. One of the worshippers said, “Don’t go!” Someone else said, “We want to hear more. Isn’t that why you came here, to teach us?”
“Yes, yes,” the man said. “God spoke through Brother Ezra today. God’s word is also in the Bible. We’ll be back. Wait for us one week from today.”
Bible thumpers and fae, together. What was the world coming to?
Sandy wanted to speed off with the boy in back, before the preacher could get in, but Gretel wasn’t in yet either, and with all these people, surely someone would see her license number. She had to wait for them both to get in before pulling away, leaving the worshippers agape.
Ugh, these two smelled like they hadn’t bathed in weeks.
“Which way?” she asked.
“It’s a little far, I hope you don’t mind. We had to leave our bikes behind. Maybe we could just wait until he wakes up and we’ll go back and get our bikes and go home?”
“Nonsense. We can take you wherever you want.” If she couldn’t make off with him now, she at least needed their address for later. “Gretel, call the University and tell them to hold the bikes for these two gentlemen.”
Gretel had recovered from her initial shock of seeing an actual faerie. She nodded firmly and pulled up the UW website on her phone.
“I can drive you wherever you need. And I can arrange to drive your bikes back, later.”
“Bless you, you are truly of God. Angels.”
“Sure. But I need to know which way to turn. There’s someone behind me.”
Three honks came in answer.
“Left, turn left. Head for I-90. We’re going to Cougar Mountain Park.”
“See now, that’s not so far. Gret, when you’re done with that call, pull up directions.”
Gretel nodded.
“Is he okay?” Sandy asked, trying to sound normal for a helpful person.
“Yes. He’s just passed out. My name is Elder Noah. This is Brother Ezra.”
“I’m Sandy and she’s Gretel.”
“Don’t worry about the bikes, miss. We have plenty more. If needed, we can take a bus to pick them up. I meant what I said to those people that we’d be back in a week. I don’t know what Ezra did, but many felt Yahweh’s spirit today. They will be back.”
“What happened?”
“Ezra was speaking about the miracle of the loaves and fishes, and suddenly he was shining like the sun. He arose in the air, like Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. The Spirit of God touched the hearts of everyone who saw it.”
“Forgive me, I’m not very religious,” she said.
“Ah, few are, so few. Nevertheless, you are in tune with His Spirit. You came so quickly to our rescue.”
She played along. “You know, it was weird. We were just driving about our business, and I said, ‘Gretel, for some reason, I have to go over there.’ I pulled over and that’s when we found you.”
“The Lord works–”
“In mysterious ways, I know. Wow, I knew what you were going to say!”
Gretel rolled her eyes for Sandy’s benefit, knowing Noah couldn’t see her. Noah nodded. “It was a great thing that happened today.”
“I’m sure. What religion are you?”
“We are the Wanderers of the Way. We call no place our home. Our home is with Yeshua, who is always in our hearts.”
“Is that why you are… dressed so strangely?”
“We live simply, and He did.”
“What do you do for a living? How do you get by?”
“The Lord provides. Men waste so much. We take the castoffs; day-old bread and such. What worldly types would call recycling.”
“Wait,” Gretel interjected. “I heard about you on TV. They call you the Garbage Eaters.”
Noah laughed. “Yes, by some. We don’t think of it that way.”
Sandy gave Gretel a warning look. Gretel smiled. She understood. Make friends with these people, so they could get to Ezra later.
“We just moved Congregation up from Oregon. We will eventually get good shelter under a roof, once we negotiate terms at a place big enough to house all of us. For now, we stay at the park. We have a little camp out of the way.”
They made idle chitchat as they drove along the freeway, but Noah seemed unwilling to reveal much that could be useful. Gretel’s phone navigation got them going the right direction, and once they were close, Noah zeroed them to the right side of the huge park. They turned off into a small gravel parking lot with a trailhead sign.
“This is the place,” Noah said. “Stop here.”
“He’s still not awake,” said Sandy. “Why don’t you go get some help?”
“No, I can carry him. I can’t leave him alone with heathens. No offense.”
This stubborn cultist wasn’t about to let her abduct the boy. “At least let us help you get him to your camp.”
“It’s a long way.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure between us we can carry him. He’s just a boy. What, sixteen?”
“No one is really sure. We found him living in an alley in California a few years ago. He called himself Todd, and he’d been living on the streets as long as he could remember. And now… well now it seems he may be a prophet.”
Not a prophet. An imposter.
But a heavy imposter, too heavy for an old man and two women to carry very far over the sharp inclines and root-marred trail. They got a few hundred feet before Noah stopped and set him down, leaning him against a tree.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t take him to a hospital?” Sandy asked. “We’d be happy to take him. I have money. I would pay for it.”
Noah shook his head. “No, no. It would go against all of his beliefs. He will be fine. The power of this miracle has just drained him is all. He needs rest and prayers.”
“Maybe God sent us here for this purpose, to make sure he survives whatever happened to him.”
“More likely it is a test of mine and Ezra’s strength, to see if we can withstand temptation. We have a litter back at camp. Sandy, if you come with me, we can get help.”
Crap, he wasn’t going to make this easy by leaving Ezra alone with both of them. Maybe she should let him go. They could come get him later, in the middle of the night. Or… they could just take out this one man…
She looked Gretel in the eye and nodded. Gretel pursed her lips resolutely and nodded back.
“Sure thing, Brother,” Sandy said, keeping eye contact with Gretel as Noah turned down the trail. “Lead the way.”
With Noah’s eyes off her, she pointed at a large rock lying on the ground, about the size of a skull. Then she pointed at Noah and made a smashing motion with her hands. Gretel understood.
“Right behind you,” Sandy called, and hurried the few steps to catch up.
“I hope your friend is fine with waiting alone there,” Noah said.
“Oh, this isn’t her preferred plan I’m sure, but she’ll be fine.”
There was suddenly a loud shout, “Sieg Heil!” Sandy stepped to the side as Gretel wooshed past her. Noah started to turn as the rock crashed down on his head.
But not directly. He had dodged slightly, and although she made contact, it didn’t work like it always did in the movies. He did not drop unconscious to the ground.
If only she’d thought to bring Hollis. He would have known how to do it right.
The preacher bled, red blood gushing from a horrible gash on his forehead. But he was still quite mobile, and now he was picking up the same rock.
“Why, I should have known better than to trust the likes of you. Forsaken heathens, enemies of Elohim, you who would harm His Prophet!”
“Now, now, sir…” Sandy began, slowly stepping backward.
“No placations! No lies, daughters of sin!” He wielded the stone and glared menacingly. “In the name of Yeshua, I cast you out of God’s house! Get thee behind me, Satan!”
Sandy glanced at Ezra, just a little way down the trail. There was no way they could get to him, lift him, and carry him to the car before this madman bashed their brains out.
Sandy nodded in silence and the two of them backed down the trail. He followed them until he reached the faeborn, and he stopped there, guarding. “And don’t think of coming back!” he shouted through the trees that now separated them. “I’m not leaving him alone till he wakes up and can walk hisself back to camp!”
She just wasn’t going to get a break, was she?
“That did not go so well,” Gretel said softly as they turned and walked toward the car.
“Nice aim,” she replied. “And Sieg Heil, Gretel? Really?”
“Is there something wrong with that? It means hail victory.”
Sandy sighed. Talk about your generation gap.
“I guess now we go back home and figure out how to get him some other way. These people are crazy!”
CHAPTER 15
*
JETT HAD A WAY OF FINDING the things she sought. What was that human phrase – “ask and ye shall receive”? Jett made that her life.
She was looking for a dreamer, and found one. Jina might not be the same dreamer Ivy had described, with faesight, but that didn’t matter. This one spilled out toradh like a volcano, and seemingly without effort. Jett was glad Jina hadn’t signed with a record label. Dreamers should remain free.
She gazed at Ramón’s sleeping body, and smiled as she rolled out of bed. Their passion last night had benefited from her chance meeting of Jina. They hadn’t fallen asleep until nearly dawn. Now it must be late afternoon.
Glimmers of a forgotten dream haunted her mind. She ran her fingers through her long, thick hair; the tangles fell out as if she’d just run conditioner through them. The remnants of lost dream did not shake out so easily.
Jett had the largest bedroom in the house, room enough for the king-sized mahogany four-poster bed. Deep-colored gauzy fabric draped over just about everything. Mismatched rugs of all types covered the floor, and they in turn were covered in pillows that piled like snowdrifts in every corner. Ramón liked to call it her medieval harem room.
The room didn’t appear much different to her faesight, except for the eyes peering around corners and from under things. She liked that she’d done so well merging real and ethereal in this one room.
&
nbsp; Ramón stirred. He should sleep. The poor man had worked so hard last night. And sold so many paintings. Jett stretched and walked into the bathroom.
The feeling of fragmented dream persisted as she stepped into the shower. Flashes of imagery mingled with a sensation of something happening far away. She struggled to understand what she sensed, and to grab hold of any fleeting shimmers: broken images of the Soviet Union and an angel rising into the air with trickles of glamour dripping from his hands.
Had it been a dream or a vision? It tasted like the latter, but her premonitions were rarely useful anymore. Whatever she had sensed, it was over now that she was awake.
As she showered, the dream washed away a little, and her thoughts turned to Jina. She’d told Ramón all about the musical girl with hair the color of wind-blown wheat and a voice like the sirens of old. He had needed reassurance that there was room enough for two dreamers under her wing.
While there was room in the brugh, there would not be room in her heart until Jina’s wings were clipped. Falling in love with a dreamer was a perilous path along a rocky shore. One false step and she could fall into the ocean and sink to the bottom.
Harper, what a fitting last name. Bard: master of story, word, and melody. Bláthín had been a bard.
Oh Bláthín, my little flower. There was one she had given herself to fully, without regret. Keeper of the old tales, follower of the old ways, singer to the old gods. In those dangerous times, before “Freedom of Religion” was even an idea, when the wars of the One-God took human and fae casualties, Bláthín had paid for her fervor with her life.
And almost took Jett with her.
Such thoughts of her long-gone lover caused Jett to let down her guard a little. Without even thinking, she softened inside. Jina’s dreamtide lapped at the shore.
After her shower, she put on a robe and went down to the kitchen to make some toast. A straight, strong pine grew up through the floor, past the dirty dishes, and into the ceiling. A droopy-eared grig chittered at her from its bark, like a squirrel, and she gave it a breadcrumb.
She heard the front door slam, and Fiz came bounding in, dumping his backpack in the dining room.
