by N. P. Martin
"The Arc of Annihilation was created millennia ago by beings in the Realm of Shadows. It was meant to allow those foul creatures to escape into the human world, as well as this one, resulting in assured annihilation for both worlds."
"Why did you have such a dangerous artifact?" I asked her as respectfully as possible.
Hedrema glared at me a second. "I was keeping it safe, as it cannot be destroyed."
I resisted the urge to give her a look, and instead remained silent.
"You have something to say, human?"
"No."
"Good, because you are going to help Dalia retrieve the Arc, along with Sorcha."
A mild sense of relief washed over me when she said that. At least we were getting out of this place if nothing else. "I can do that."
"You will do it," Hedrema said, then looked at Dalia. "You and Sorcha were close in your time here. If anyone can find her, it’s you."
"If she’s in the human world, I’ll find her," Dalia said, causing me to wonder if she was just telling Hedrema what she wanted to hear. I mean, even Hedrema with all her power couldn’t locate this Sorcha girl, so why did Dalia think she could find her? On the other hand, Dalia probably knew better than to mess with Hedrema in any way at all, so she must have had some confidence that she could find her former companion.
"You had better," Hedrema said. "For if you don’t, the consequences will be dire… for all of us."
"Don’t you have kin who are looking already?" I asked.
"Yes, of course, but my kin don’t know the human world all that well. You, on the other hand, and Dalia here, know the human world very well."
"Do you at least know where in the world she is? Is she still in Ireland?"
Hedrema nodded. "I can still feel the Arc’s power, so yes, she’s still here somewhere."
At least that will make things easier, I thought.
"How does this Arc work?" Dalia asked. "Why hasn’t Sorcha used it yet?"
"The Arc gets its power from living sacrifices. Thirteen of them to be precise."
"Thirteen people have to be sacrificed?" I said. "Humans?"
"Anything with a soul will do, if humans can be said to even have souls, wretched as most of you are."
"Do all the sacrifices have to be at the same time?" Dalia asked.
"No, each soul must be sacrificed individually, over thirteen days. Once the last soul is sacrificed, the Arc will be activated and… you know the rest."
"How long has Sorcha been gone?"
Hedrema hesitated a moment before answering. "Ten days in the human realm."
I shook my head. "And you waited all this time before asking for help?"
Hedrema glared at me. "I thought I would find her. Clearly, I taught her too well."
"Three days doesn’t give us much time."
"Well, then," Hedrema said as she got out of her throne to stand before us. "You had better skedaddle then, hadn’t you?"
Dalia and I looked at each other. "We can go?" Dalia said.
"Yes! Go!"
As we turned around to leave, Hedrema called after us, "Do not fail in your task, or the Shadow Dwellers will be the least of your worries, believe me…"
4
I’d like to say that I thought I could breathe again when we finally exited the dark and gloomy castle, but the truth is, my chest was tighter than ever. Assuming Hedrema was telling the truth (and we had no reason to doubt her at this stage), then the world as we knew it was close to being annihilated by unspeakable horrors from the Realm of Shadows, and it seemed to be on us—me and Dalia—to prevent this from happening. Such pressure didn’t make me breathe easier at all.
"Well, that was fun," I said as we walked across the drawbridge and into Rotbloom Forest again. "That bitch is crazy. This whole place is crazy, come to think of it. That snake, Osaba?" I shook my head. "I thought she was going to eat me."
Dalia laughed slightly, clearly relieved to be out of the castle and away from Hedrema. "Now you know what I had to put up with all those years, and you haven’t even seen a fraction of the crazy shit that goes on here."
"There’s still a certain beauty to the place, though, right?" I gazed upon the constantly changing forest as if to affirm my belief. "There’s no doubt it’s magical. I’d really like to see the Seelie parts of this world."
"The Seelie courts are just as bizarre," Dalia said as we trekked on through the forest. "Though not quite as dangerous." She winced then and felt her shoulder where Osaba had bit her.
"Here," I said, stopping. "Let me heal that for you." I whispered a Healing Spell, which at least closed up the puncture marks and stopped the bleeding. "Better?"
Dalia nodded. "Thanks. I thought my arm was going to fall off."
I laughed and we carried on walking, soon emerging from the forest after a while, back into the fields as we headed toward the Thorns and the entrance back to the earthly realm. The creatures who I saw roaming around before were still there, though some of them didn’t feel the need to keep their distance anymore now that Hedrema wasn’t here. Boulders rolled alongside us as if they had come to check us out, and small humanoid creatures danced around us in the fields. Some of them had wings, and they flew past our heads at great speed, missing us by just inches. For the most part, the creatures seemed to be more curious than aggressive. At least that’s what I thought until something resembling a bull on two legs suddenly charged out from behind some nearby bushes, coming to a halt right in front of us.
"Leaving so soon?" the Bull Fae asked. Its face was part human and two thick horns curved out of its head.
Dalia stared at the Bull Fae like she was in no mood to be fucked with again. "Step aside or I’ll be forced to hurt you, bovine."
The Bull Fae puffed his massive chest out, and for the first time I noticed his genitals. His balls were massive. "How would you like these banging against you?" he asked me in a gruff voice, smiling crudely.
I shook my head. "I’m okay thanks."
Laughing, the Bull Fae reached down and ripped up a bunch of grass, and I swear I heard tiny screams from the blades of grass as he shoved them into his mouth. "I’ll let you pass," he said in between chewing. "But first you must answer my riddle."
Dalia shook her head impatiently. "For God’s sake, we don’t have time for this. Move!" She extended her dark energy to try to shove the Bull Fae aside, but he was quicker than he looked and managed to evade the attack, as he did with Dalia’s next three attempts to swipe at him.
"We could dance around like this until the cows come home," he said, pausing to chuckle at his own joke. "Or he could just answer my riddle."
"All right, fine," I said. "Just ask me so we can move on." I had noticed by this stage that a number of boulders had rolled themselves around us now as well, as if to block us in. The Fae in the long grass were also watching us intently, most of them grinning as if they were expecting to see something funny soon.
The Bull Fae snorted through his large nostrils as he prepared to ask his riddle. "The more you have of it, the less you see. What is it?" Upon giving me his riddle, he folded his burly arms across his chest and smiled smugly, his human fingers tipped with small hooves rather than nails.
Sighing, I shook my head as I began to think about the riddle. I’ve always hated riddles. They perplex me no end. The answer to this one, however, just seemed to come to me for a change as I stared into the amber eyes of the Bull Fae. "Darkness."
The Bull Fae smiled as if he was impressed. "Very good, but unfortunately not the answer I was thinking of."
"What? What other answer is there?"
"The one you seek, of course."
"I know what it is," Dalia said.
"No," said the Bull Fae. "He must answer, not you."
"This is ridiculous," I said. "Just let us past. The world is at stake here, for god’s sake." As I went to walk, I found I couldn’t move for the grass had grown around my feet, winding tightly around my ankles and effectively holding
me to the spot. "Jesus Christ." I could’ve tried to use my magic at that point, but I somehow knew it would only end causing more trouble. The second I got aggressive, every Fae in the field would be upon me, including the huge boulders and the very grass on which I stood.
"Think, Corvin," Dalia said, resigned to the situation now it seemed. "It’s not that hard."
The Bull Fae tittered to himself. "For him it is."
I shook my head at him as I tried to contain my anger, while at the same time contemplating the riddle.
The more you have of it, the less you see… the more you have of it, the less you see… the more—
"Ah ha!" I shouted suddenly. "I know it!" It was ridiculous how absurdly pleased I was with myself. "The answer is ignorance!"
The Bull Fae’s eyes widened and for a moment he seemed annoyed, pissed off even, that I’d come up with the right answer. But then he smiled. "Yes," he said. "Ignorance indeed. You can go now."
"Thank Christ," Dalia said. "Come on, Corvin."
The grass unraveled from around my feet and the boulders rolled back. At the same time, the Bull Fae stepped aside. "Remember, human," he said as we walked away. "The more you have of it, the less you see."
"Is he trying to tell me something?" I said to Dalia as we approached the Thorns.
"They’re always trying to tell you something around here," she replied. "Don’t worry about it."
Silly moo, I thought and stepped into the Thorns.
5
The house I had rented was a little two-bedroom cottage with a view to die for. As I didn’t know how long we were going to be in Cork before we arrived, I rented the place for a week just in case. Mizen Head, the place we were in, is located at the extremity of the Kilmore Peninsula, about as far southwest as you can go on the island of Ireland. The cottage was built on a slight slope at the edge of a field that led directly to a cliff. Beyond the cliff was the vast expanse of the North Atlantic Ocean. We were an hour’s drive away from the Glandore Druid sight where we had to meet Hedrema, but this was the closest place I could get at such short notice.
Even though we had been in the Otherworld for hours, only several minutes had passed in the earthly realm, so it was still the early hours of the morning. Dalia and I sat out the back of the cottage, looking out across the field to the cliffs and sea beyond. The stars were still out in force and the orange moon seemed to be bigger and lower than ever in the pitch-black sky, with Mars still glowing ominously alongside it. Across the way, on top of the far cliffs, I could just make out the remnants of a round tower that was no doubt built by Druids centuries ago.
"This place is amazing," I said as I sipped on a filtered coffee. "The landscape makes me feel at peace."
"I know," Dalia said as she cradled her own coffee. "Pity the world is about to be fucked."
I looked across at her. "Unless we stop it getting fucked. Do you believe Hedrema was telling the truth about everything? No offense, but the Fae aren’t the most reliable of beings."
Dalia shook her head in mild offense. "She wasn’t lying. If she didn’t need us, we’d still be in her castle, getting subjected to who knows what."
"That guy Twig freaked me out, by the way. Why did he keep staring at you?"
She stared straight ahead and looked as if she wasn’t going to answer for a moment. "Twig is the equivalent of Hedrema’s head of security. He also likes to torture her pets when it pleases him."
"Did he torture you as well?"
"What do you think?"
I went silent as I looked out upon the stars and the sea below. The world is a messed up place when innocent people like Dalia can be dragged into a life of pain and subservience for no reason at all. Maybe this world, and the Otherworld, deserves to be fucked. The girl, Sorcha, obviously thinks so. "You know," I said as I gazed out at the water. "Years ago when people emigrated from here on boats, they would’ve passed by here. This would’ve been the last time they saw their homeland before heading out into the ocean, to be stuck below deck on some scabby boat for months on end."
"People did what they had to do," Dalia said.
"Do you think this Sorcha girl is doing what she has to do as well?"
Dalia shrugged. "She obviously believes so."
"Tell me about her. Hedrema said you two were close, is that right?"
"I suppose so." She sipped her coffee before continuing. "Sorcha was taken just before I was. She looked after me, as much as she was able anyway, when I arrived. We became friends, or as friendly as Hedrema would allow us to be. Hedrema is paranoid that people are plotting against her all the time, so she doesn’t really allow cliques or friendships to form between her pets."
I made a tutting sound. "Her pets. Who the hell does she think she is, keeping people like that, degrading them?"
"She’s a Faery Queen," Dalia said as if the answer was obvious. "She can do whatever she likes."
"But this Sorcha girl obviously got the better of her, didn’t she? It couldn’t have been easy stealing something as big as an Arc right out from under the Queen’s nose, and getting it out of the Otherworld. I’m actually impressed."
"You won’t be saying that when the world goes to shit."
"Only if we don’t stop her, which we will."
"You sound confident."
"We just don’t have a choice. There’s no room for doubt here."
"Speak for yourself. You don’t know Sorcha."
I frowned. "What do you mean? How powerful is she?"
"More powerful than me or you anyway. Unlike most of Hedrema’s pets, Sorcha embraced the transformations that were forced on her. She opened herself up to the Faery magic and allowed it change her however it saw fit. Even Hedrema was surprised by how powerful Sorcha became and eventually put a tight leash on her, fearing Sorcha would try to harm her."
"Well," I said. "Obviously the leash wasn’t tight enough if Sorcha managed to get one over on Hedrema."
"Hedrema brought this on herself. She was cruel to Sorcha, keeping her locked up most of the time, to the point where I hardly ever saw Sorcha anymore, which is also what Hedrema wanted because she didn’t trust our friendship. That’s when I chose to escape."
"It must’ve been hard, leaving your friend behind."
Dalia’s jaw clenched as she turned her head away and sniffed back tears. "It was."
I reached over and took her hand in mine. "There was nothing you could’ve done to help her, even if you’d stayed."
"Don’t you think I know that? It doesn’t stop me feeling like a traitor."
"Maybe this is your chance to get closure," I said. "If we ever find the girl."
"Closure? There’ll be closure all right, probably the death kind."
"Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that."
"Of course it will," she said, letting go of my hand. "Do you think Sorcha wants to destroy the world because she wants to live? She won’t stop until everyone is dead, or she’ll die trying."
The situation wasn’t looking good. Even if we managed to find Sorcha, going by what Dalia said, she would inevitably try to kill us, Dalia especially, which meant we might have to use lethal force as well, something I wasn’t happy about. I’d already killed one person, an act of self-defense that nonetheless weighed heavily on my soul. I therefore had no wish to kill anyone else, even though I might not have a choice. "We have less than six days to find this girl," I said after a long silence. "Any idea of where we should start? You think she’s remained local?"
Dalia shrugged. "It’s difficult to say. There’d be no reason for her to go further afield than here, but you never know. She would’ve sacrificed seven victims by now, so maybe we should see if anyone has gone missing around here lately."
"I was thinking we could use magic to find her, like a locater gem or spell or something."
"You’d be wasting your time. If Hedrema can’t even locate her, how could you? Sorcha has obviously used her power to remain undetectable."
"She isn’
t going to make it easy for us then."
"Of course not. More people are going to die before we find her… if we find her."
Taking a deep breath of sea air, I sat back and thought for a moment. "Right, well I think the best thing to do is to check the local papers first for mysterious disappearances over the last seven days, assuming there are any. If there aren’t, we’ll have to think of another way to find her. Any ideas?"
Dalia sat cross-legged on her seat and pulled her hood up against the increasing wind coming off the Atlantic. "The only thing I can think of is the weather."
"The weather?"
"Sorcha’s powers are closely linked with the weather. She can affect it however she wants. She also affects it without meaning to, depending on what kind of mood she is in."
I nodded. "Okay, so we look for… what? Freak weather occurrences?"
She shrugged. "I guess so."
I turned my head back to the sea again. Clearly, finding Sorcha was going to be like finding a needle in a bloody haystack.
We’re fucked, I thought, though I said nothing to Dalia.
She knew that already.
6
Later that morning we drove the narrow mountain roads into the nearest village, which happened to be Goleen. The village is tiny, with a main street containing a petrol station, a few pubs and a few shops. Despite its minuscule size, however, the village was crawling with tourists, many of whom sat outside the pubs drinking, even though it was barely 10:30 a.m. Most were in shorts and T-shirts, deeply tanned from sitting around in the hot sun all day. "Plenty of tourists around here at this time of the year," I said to Dalia as I parked the Spitfire in a small parking lot next to the village’s only convenience store. "Plenty of victims for Sorcha to choose from." Dalia shook her head at me. "What? I’m just saying, she wouldn’t have much need to go elsewhere, would she?"
When we got out of the car and walked to the store, the tourists and locals gave us some queer looks, more so Dalia as she was dressed head to toe in black as always, even though the sun was blistering. Not that I was exactly dressed for the hot weather either in my dark jeans, shirt and waistcoat. The half-naked tourists seemed offended by our garb as they stared at us while holding their pints. "You should’ve worn your bikini top," I joked to Dalia as I put my sunglasses on.
