“I need you to talk to this Pixie for me.” She gestured to me, and I could see her frustration for the first time since she had chased me out of her house.
He looked at me, sharp black eyes framed by a million feathery wrinkles. His thick black hair was cut short and seemed almost out of place above that tanned leather face. He didn’t speak, and I couldn’t look away from those eyes.
I felt myself falling, and the darkness of his eyes expanded until I was soaring in a night sky on rustling wings... I swore out loud as I realized that she’d tricked me. He was an old spirit. Older than any I had ever soul-gazed with before, although I tried to avoid that with anyone, much less a spirit-being. I flapped my wings to gain altitude and heard his distant laugh.
I’ve never put too much stock in the spirit walks you read about. Yeah, I’m a pixie. Magic is part of my life. That doesn’t mean that I’m all happy in the metaphysical, looking for some deep spiritual meaning in everything. I’m Folke, not a hippie, dammit. That, and Raven’s chortling was getting on my nerves.
“I don’t mean her any harm.” I snapped. I grabbed a little more air, then went into a slow bank, looking at the frozen Alaska scenery below me.
“Then why is she afraid of you?” He asked. His voice in my head was warmly amused. This was not a being who feared others. Or at least not me.
“Hell if I know. I brought her good news.”
The forests stretched out endlessly under my raven-host. The spruces were so close to one another it was almost an unbroken carpet. I wondered if he was showing me Now, or Then.
“She does not come to me lightly, my niece. So why would good news have set her feathers on edge?”
“Your niece? Whatthehell?”
I’d finally seen the landmark I was looking for, the snake of white that was the river she’d driven us over. I stooped toward it, my feathers rustling in the wind.
“She is my blood. Answer me.”
The tone of that last rang with command and I winced. So far three people had manipulated me since my arrival. I didn’t like it, but the words came out almost on their own. “She’s also of the Fae. Her grandmother’s blood in her makes her the heir to the throne, Underhill. I came to bring her news of her heritage, and to bring her back to Underhill, to Court.”
“You want to take her from her home?” He sounded deeply surprised. I was following the river, now, hoping for the bridge.
“No, I want to bring her home.” I hoped my terse reply would satisfy him, before I revealed more than was good for me.
“This is her home. She is bound here by blood and love. You call only on a forgotten part of her heritage, one that Lavendar set aside long before you were born, Boy.”
“I have my duty,” and I had found the bridge. I swooped low over it, and then followed the highway. I was close, now.
“You have told her. She chooses.” His voice had lost the amusement.
“She is coming back with me.” I gritted through a closed beak, a very odd sensation. I could spot the clearing, now.
“She gets the choice, boy. You are not in your people’s territory, now, and the tales make me a fool, but they also make me free with other’s body parts.” His laugh now was positively chilling.
“Mine are too small to be worth while.” I flapped for airbrake effect and touched down on her truck. The door to the cabin was closed, of course.
Now the chuckle was indulgent. “Want in? And don’t put yourself down, Boy, you have great potential. Mind, you hurt her, and I’ll be in line to hurt you. Got that?”
“Yeah, in spades. Let me in, it’s cold enough to freeze my...” I stopped there, suddenly unable to think of a lewd enough metaphor.
Chapter 3 - Troll on the Bridge
A cackling Raven in man form swung the door open and I fluttered into the warmth. My body was leaning on a kitchen chair, eyes closed and slack-jawed. I looked quickly away. That was not a comforting sight. The lights were out and no-one was home.
Bella was sprawled on the couch with a book. She didn’t look up, and I figured that was on purpose. She didn’t want to make eye contact with me, who she’d betrayed into this. I hopped up onto her chest. As a bird, I figured I could get away with it. Cats do it all the time. She grabbed me and held me up in the air, finally looking me in the eye. I squawked.
Raven came and grabbed both her hands and my bird body. I started to feel a bit squashed, and pissed as hell. Well, that wasn’t just starting. I’d felt that way since the bird had pulled me into his trap. He opened his mouth and I was looking forward to home, sweet body, when something made a sharp tone.
Bella let go, leaving me in the old man’s hands, and while the tone ululated, pulled a pager out of her pocket and dialed the volume even higher than the ear-piercing initial sound had been.
A scratchy radio transmission burst forth. “Respond to a motor vehicle accident on the Tanana Bridge. Injuries reported.”
Bella jumped up. “I have to go. I’m probably closest,” she blurted to Raven and I, and bolted for the door.
I shouted, but only the old man heard me, as I was still in the bird. “Wait!”
She was gone, the door banging behind her. “Shit.”
“What is wrong?” He reached out for my body with one hand, and I leaned on the link as well, leaping back into my own consciousness.
I staggered toward the door. “There - there was no one on the bridge when I flew over it.”
I felt woozy. The jump from bird back to human form had been too quick. The old man slid an arm around me with surprising strength. “I mean, there could have been an accident, but for there to have been a response that fast...” We made it out the door, the Raven, his bird, and I, but she was gone already.
“Argh.” Not eloquent, but that summed up how I felt about this. Something bad was happening.
Raven steered me down the steps. I was still tripping over my own feet, so I obediently followed him. It wasn’t like I could go charging down the driveway after the woman in the pickup.
“I’m going to let go, now, can you stand alone?” He peered at me from a distance of mere inches away.
“Personal space...” I leaned back a bit. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
He grunted and stepped away from me. Feathers were starting to sprout from his skin, and his nose was lengthening into an impressive beak. I stared, fascinated, as he transformed into a glossy black raven, taller than I was. He turned a vivid grey eye on me and stretched his wings.
“Ah...” He croaked, and I took a step back. “That feels good. Been a while for me.”
Hearing human speech come from him, even as raspy as it was, I relaxed. Then I shivered. It was damn cold out here, and even with my coat still on, I was chilled through. I looked around. There was no garage hiding a vehicle, so how was I going to follow her?
The giant Raven laughed at me. “Climb aboard, Boy.”
I looked up at the smooth expanse of wing he was presenting me. “Oh, hell no.”
“You would prefer to stay here?”
I backed up a step, and again that piercing gray eye fixed me. I could tell he expected me to turn tail and run. Instead, I grinned at him and ran full speed ahead, up the leading edge of his offered wing and onto his back. He wasn’t the first oversized avian to give me a ride.
Silently, he launched himself skyward. I held on for dear life, pressing my face into his feathers. I dug my hands in deep, holding on near the skin and feeling the heat of his body. I kept my face down as we rocketed up. I didn’t need to see where we were going, and the windchill would have me solid in no time. I could tell from his wingbeats that we were still climbing.
As I pressed my face into soft, cool feathers I could smell the old bird. Smoked leather, salmon, the beef jerky we had brought him: who knows what else, but this was a spirit being at least as old as any of the Fae at my home Court. He was different, powerful, and he was giving me hope for the first time since I had been bidden to this, the final task of my
life as a freelancer.
He hit the peak of his arc and I could feel the tension in his shoulders as he pitched his wings for a long dive. His pinion feathers fairly crackled as we picked up speed. I risked a peek.
I caught a blurred glimpse of the bridge looming below us, before my eyes streamed with tears in the cold wind. I put my face back down, trying to blot my tears on his feathers. I didn’t dare let go with even one hand while we were in this dive. I was beginning to wonder how I was going to get off at the end of it. Flung out like a stone from a slingshot, it felt like.
Raven spoke for the first time. “I see trouble, all right. I’m going to drop you by her truck to provide distraction.”
“Where’s Bella?” I didn’t dare take another peek, I needed clear eyes for this when I finally got back on the ground.
“He has her.” I felt a jolt as he angled his pinions against the air flowing over them, and we dropped like a stone. “Get ready.”
I was going into a fight blind, no idea what the enemy looked like, what weapon I would find, even if there was one in the rifle case I’d gotten a glimpse of. My ally was a trickster spirit not known for loyalty, and a fairy princess was in trouble. My fairy princess. It was my job to save her cute little ass. I really hate my job.
“Go!” Raven rasped, and I rolled off his wing in the direction he’d banked, and hit the ground running.
Straight into the side of the truck. “Oof...” I could hear all the wind leave my lungs, and I reeled backward for a second, windmilling. Smooth, Lom, real smooth.
The door handle popped open easily, she hadn’t locked it. Why would she, out in this godforsaken wilderness? Well, all right, not so god forsaken. One god, with feathers optional. I looked over my shoulder down the length of the bridge to see where he had gone, and got my first look at the hairball I was walking into.
I pulled the rifle case out by feel while I sized it up. There was indeed a wrecked car midway down, although it looked to me like a fake-up. I had used such a set-up a time or two myself. Bang into the rail just enough to break a light or two, scattering glass and the ridiculous brittle plastic cars are made of these days, then play possum until your target stops to check on you. I wasn’t proud of it, because that was how you caught someone who still had some soul left.
Bella was in the air, clutched by a Norwegian Troll, unless I missed my guess, and I never do. It’s my livelihood to know all the weird creatures out there, and what they are capable of. This one had looked like an ordinary man, possibly with a creative blood smear on his forehead and a dazed look in his eyes, right up until she had leaned in to take his vitals... Then he had changed, into his real appearance, brutish, huge, but the dazed look would still have been there. Trolls are not smart.
Now, he towered twice my height, and seemed to be using Bella as a shield against the angry Raven-god who was trying to pick his eyes out. The way he was holding her, with both hands so he pinned her arms against her body, made me think she had done something to protect herself and had injured him. I had the rifle out of the case, now, mostly by feel, and I tore my gaze from the bizarre fight to look at what I was going to be using.
A nice little 30-30, lever action. Scope, and a rubber recoil suppressor on the butt, which I would appreciate tomorrow. I jacked the chamber open and pulled the cartridges rapidly, finding three, then reloaded as fast as I had pulled them. You aren’t supposed to carry a loaded weapon in a vehicle. Naughty girl. I was liking her more and more.
There was no time to look for more ammo. This was just going to have to be enough. I departed the truck at a jog, headed for the action. The rifle was heavy for me, but not too much.
I knew that the Troll was not an easy being to kill or incapacitate. I was going to have to get it either in the eye, or the nose. Anyplace else, and the heavy plates of its skull bone would deflect the bullet. Also, he was so distracted by Raven that he hadn’t yet noticed me.
“Hey, butt-ugly!” I stopped, braced the rifle to my shoulder, and bellowed at him all in one smooth move. I was in my element, finally. He swung around from trying to bat the annoying bird out of the air and stared at me, mouth hanging open. He held Bella awkwardly in front of him.
She looked at me and stopped trying to kick him, instead curling her head toward her chest, and her legs up. The best attempt at a fetal position while being pinioned by troll mitts. Not bad. I appreciated her consideration for letting me take a shot, as well as keeping her own pretty skin out of the way, and then breathed out as I gently squeezed the trigger.
The first shot knocked his head back, and he dropped Bella. She landed in an ungainly heap, but I couldn’t watch her sort herself out, I was still watching him to see if I had hit the right place. He staggered back and then clutched his head with both hands. Shit... I’d hit him right between the eyes. Blackish blood bubbled out, but I knew it wasn’t a fatal wound. He shook his head, spraying blood in all directions, and then opened his mouth in a roar as he charged toward me.
I had gained his full and undivided attention. I had two bullets, and less than fifty feet between us, and a rifle that wasn’t sighted in properly. I fired again, sighting below the scope, along the barrel sights this time. The troll staggered, and I heard ‘boom, boom, boom’ from behind him. He fell to his knees, one eye destroyed, the other still with a dazed look tinged now with confusion. Slowly, he fell forward onto his face.
I looked over his body at Bella, who was still in her shooter’s stance.
“Why the hell didn’t you shoot him before?” I was pissed, and it may have come out in my voice.
Hers was very tart as she holstered the hand cannon she’d been carrying in a shoulder holster. “I don’t usually shoot my patients out of hand.”
I put the rifle over my arm and walked up to the troll. It was a short walk. I looked down at the back of his head, with the grayish, wrinkled scalp visible through the wispy hairs. “And when he turned into the big ugly?”
“I didn’t have time before he grabbed me. You saw how he was holding me. All I could do was give him a fat lip and a sore crotch.”
Despite myself, that made me chuckle. All right, more like a short bark of bitter laughter. I looked at her. She was beautiful, standing there with her cheeks all rosy and fire in her eyes. The laughter vanished.
“We need to talk. Now, before another monster pops out of the woodwork.”
She looked down at the troll. “What’s going on? What did you do?”
“He wasn’t coming for me, lady. They are after you.”
“What?” Her eyes snapped back to me. She had been contemplating the troll like she was trying to figure out his genus and phylla. Understandable, given her job. She wasn’t going to get it, though, this was way out of the experiences of all but an unlucky few. I was one of those, sadly.
I turned away from her and walked back to the truck. I felt tired. I always did, at those moments, when the adrenaline drained away and left wobbly legs and nausea in its wake. The case was hanging half out of the door, and I fumbled at it with numb fingers. I had not noticed the cold until now, and I was fast losing the ability to use my hands. Bella came up behind me and helped, wordlessly.
A rare woman, this one. She knew when not to talk, and she could handle a gun.
“Your scope is off.”
“I don’t doubt it. It’s sensitive to bumps.”
“I was in a hurry.” I sighed then. “Good thing you had it. Where’s your ammo?”
She pulled a plastic case halfway out and I nodded. If I needed it again, I knew where it was. In that single gesture she’d shown me she was going to trust me. I trudged over to the passenger door and climbed in, my legs leaden. She started the truck’s heater blasting as soon as I got in.
“What are we going to do about the troll’s body?” I asked her.
“Raven will take care of it.” She pointed and I saw that he was still in giant bird form and pecking at the troll. There were a bunch of other ravens there, and clouds o
f them flying in. I looked away. I really didn’t need this image in my dreams.
Bella looked a little pale, too. “I’ll take you back to Raven’s cabin. We can’t get past him to Tok right now.”
“What about other traffic?” I didn’t really care, but I was curious if she had ever dealt with this before.
She peered skyward through the windshield. “I don’t think this will take long.”
I followed her gaze to the cloud of birds. “I think you’re right. Let’s go.”
She made a nice tight turn and got us headed away from the growing flock of carrion birds. Neither of us talked again on the way back to the cabin. I was nodding in the drowsy heat by the time she turned back onto the driveway and jolted me awake. But at least I was warm again.
Inside, she looked rather helplessly at me, and I could tell she was unhappy and out of her element. The first time I had seen her like that, now that I thought of it. I filed that away as useful information. It took a lot to shake this one, she was steady under fire, but afterward, the reaction.
“Coffee? Or would you rather tea? Raven’s version of tea is... excreable, but...”
I stopped her before she could go on. “Coffee is good. I’m not that English.”
I sat on the couch and watched her get it brewing with quick, economical motions. She knew her way around this kitchen.
I went on. It was time to make her aware of who I was, at least to some of me. “Actually, I have spent as little time there as I could since I was old enough to leave.”
“I thought pixies were bound to their home tor?”
I wriggled out of my coat. The wood stove was keeping the cabin nicely warm. “Not bound, no. Just it’s a trait of our kind to be homebodies. I’m a very odd Pixie, by my family’s opinion.”
“That explains why you have no accent.”
“Well, that, and I tried to get rid of it.”
“Oh.” She brought me a chipped mug full of coffee. It smelled heavenly.
Pixie Noir (Pixie for Hire Book 1) Page 3
