by VK Fox
“When they found out that Sana Baba’s plan was to kill me in the hospital while I was still in surgery, as soon as they had the babies out, Everest and Dahl packed up their son, left their entire lives behind, and drove here to camp out in North Dakota until we all probably die in the line of duty.” Jane was on the edge, yelling the only barricade keeping her sobs at bay. Was she even talking about Everest and Dahl anymore? It was a hell of a lot easier than broaching the subject of her own choices and mortality.
Ian hugged her, and her mother was mute and bright red. “They are good people who are here selflessly, and if their lives are different from what you’re used to, get over it! Agreeing with someone isn’t a prerequisite to treating them with respect, and if you spend all your time judging people it’s a pretty huge fucking roadblock to loving them.”
Jane hadn’t even finished before her mother turned and left the building. Well fuck.
Chapter Six
Jane ate triple berry oatmeal in the Grit Room. Triple berry was one of her dad’s camping specials. The three berries were dried cranberries, dried blueberries, and raisins. All her life, Jane’s mother had rallied against the raisins being called berries.
“Grapes are berries.” Her dad would say. “Juicy, seed-bearing, and round. Berry!”
“Strawberries aren’t round.” Her mother would say. “And peaches are all of those things and they aren’t berries either.”
Jane, Kristen, and Anna would take one side or another to stretch out the familiar argument until the whole family was yelling and enjoying themselves. As Jane sat at the big round table and ate her oatmeal, Kristen told her in a furtive whisper that no more discussion of berries was allowed in the Grit Room since Zack and Everest had taken separate sides earlier this morning and everyone was still rattled.
Dahl stood, pushing up from the big round table with both palms, and for a few heartbeats he grinned at it like God had whispered a joke. He refocused an instant later, smoothing over his cheer with a more serious tone, but the sparkle never flickered out.
“Thank you for being here. This wasn’t an easy choice, and the fact that there are eight of us with our families, ready to work, is staggering. In short, it means we have a shot instead of a last stand. I’m grateful and humbled, but now is the time to focus on the job ahead.” Jane was watching him ease into the speech. He was born for this: a young ruler, shining and sure. Dahl’s similarities to King Arthur were easy to see with Mordred’s contamination out of the picture.
Dahl continued. “Mordred was a far more effective enemy than even I gave him credit for. Despite hard effort to root out his influence, Sana Baba continues to flounder. There are splinter cells remaining within Sana Baba loyal to Mordred or pursuing their own goals. There is corruption in the children’s programs evidenced by traitors recruited prior to linking powers. A quarter of the linked books in the North American chapter have been stolen or destroyed, and the archives have been robbed of information critical to corporate recovery.”
Megan had rummaged a rainbow tape recorder out of her bag and was messing with the buttons. After several attempts the tape began to reel, and Megan gingerly placed it on the table with a look of triumph. Jane raised an eyebrow.
“So I can listen again later if I miss details ‘cause my brain is bored,” Megan whispered.
Jane hissed. “The apocalypse doesn’t hold your attention?”
Megan rolled her eyes. “Adam used to go on and on…”
Jane shook her head and refocused on Dahl’s speech. “...time to act is now. Mordred’s presence in this reality was a warning shot almost twenty years ago that no one heard. Last year, a woman in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania bonded a conscious link to reality-bending powers, allowing her to manifest extranatural horrors. Saint Jane bonded multiple links to Catholic Saints.”
Jane glared at him as all eyes turned to her like she was Exhibit B. “Conduits of poorly understood power from our home reality—links that have never formed before suddenly did. In October, the barrier opened in Las Vegas and Mordred attempted to summon his body. A fully manifested Traveler could have been devastating to our reality—like an invasive species free in a soft environment. He was narrowly thwarted by myself, Everest, and the Sisters of Perpetual Help.
“The barrier is thinning.” Jane could have heard a pin drop under Dahl’s words, the room was so still. “So our mission is threefold: cast out the extranatural Travelers, stop those who would aid them, and repair the barrier. Our resources are the links and ingenuity of the people sitting here: prophecy and emotion reading; reality bending; golemancy; kinetic manipulation; healing, lightning, and magical obscurement; battle prowess, dreaming, and animal communication.
“In addition, Joyeuse has joined the cause,” The sword at Dahl’s side flushed cherry red through his clear resin sheath, “and the Sisters of Perpetual Help have pledged assistance in whatever way we see fit. We have secured a million in cash reserves against Sana Baba’s inevitable asset seizure.” Jane’s mom choked. “And we have the support of Jane’s family in the form of this safe house. We are not without hope.”
Dahl paused and Jane sat straighter, refocusing. “I propose a round table discussion on how to proceed.” Dahl’s mouth tugged back into a smile. “Let’s begin to my left. Everest?”
Everest spoke clearly into the pregnant air. “We need information first. I propose tapping our prophecy resources and requesting access to the sister’s archives. Ian?”
“I can dream and consult with Everest. Between the two of us we’ve been managing well enough. Because of the animal Megan found on her way into camp, I think I should have a word with the local birds to keep an eye out for more. It’s winter, so they are usually happy to help for extra food. Jane?”
Jane swallowed and cleared her throat. “I can give obscurement magic a go as soon as I deliver. I don’t know what the starvation side effect would do to the babies, and I’m not going to risk them. I second the idea of needing to know more though, so yay. Um, Zack?”
Zack was focused on a tiny imperfection on the table’s surface, picking at the chipped lacquer.
“If you’re really following through with the whole reality fetish, you’re going to need to rescue Card. God, that tastes so bad in my mouth.” Zack gagged like his tongue had gone bitter. “It was plan B for you to spring me, anyways, so we’re actually right on track.”
“Card planned for us springing you?” Dahl’s eyebrows knit together.
Megan glanced between the two of them, confused. “More on that, Zack?”
Zack kicked his feet up on the table and nabbed a can of cheese wiz as he nestled into his chair. The rhythmic click click click of the metal marble as he shook the can underscored the rest of his explanation. “Queenie, erm, Card left me with a message to pass along.” He paused and squirted the cheese wiz directly in his mouth. Plausibly he got half the can in there—it took fifteen excruciating seconds, and every time it seemed like he was at capacity, he’d eek more in.
Everest cleared his throat. “Is this part of the message?”
Zack held up a single slender finger, trembled, and slowly spat the spray cheese back onto the tabletop. “Mmm. Much better. Salty finish.”
Megan relieved him of the can and pinched his cheek. “Eyes always bigger than your mouth.”
Zack wiped damp lips with the back of his hand. “Almost had it that time.”
Megan nodded. “Better than the mozzarella log incident.”
“So much better.” Zack turned back to Dahl. For a moment everyone stared at him, completely at a loss for how to proceed. Zack flipped his hand in a careless gesture. “Right, so she needs you to ride to the rescue. Diplomacy failed. She’s being held hostage or something.”
“Being held hostage… or something?” Everest narrowed his eyes. “That’s the message.”
“Yup. You already know how to open the barrier, so easy peasy.”
“She’s being held hostage outside of our reality
?” Everest again.
“Correction: between realities.” Zack grabbed a roll of paper towels and started wiping smeary cheese off the table in large globs. “The Space Between Realities! Sounds epic. Negative Space. Oh, I like that one. The Red Desert? A bit on the nose.”
“And why does Card believe we will be moved to rescue her?” The gears in Dahl’s brain audibly reengaged.
Zack hummed and started making swirly patterns on the tabletop. “Mmm… Oh, because her presence out there further weakens the barrier. Since you all love reality so much you want to marry it, she figured you’d correct any barrier issues, super speed.”
“Ah.” Everest’s jaw clenched. Zack was drawing phallic cheese symbols. Jane glanced at her mother, who was doing dishes and not noticing. This meeting needed to be wrapped up as quickly as possible.
“Where is she?” Dahl found his voice. “The space you’re describing is almost entirely unknown to us. Do you have an idea of her location?”
“She is being held hostage in the house of an extranatural Traveler called the Crone. Are you familiar?”
Dahl swallowed, probably his pride, and continued “I’m not. I’ve done some research into sightings of Travelers but didn’t come across any by name. Can you tell me more?”
“Um, most of my research had to do with finding her. I don’t have an address, but I’d know her house if I saw it.” Zack shrugged. “Between what I know and two prophets in the mix, it’d be kind of embarrassing if we couldn’t locate her.”
Dahl nodded. “Sister Mary will be arriving tomorrow, and with any luck today will be enough time for our prophets to get the shape of the situation.” Dahl’s eyes flicked to Ian, and the big man gave a slight nod. “We’ll adjourn and reconvene tomorrow morning at oh nine hundred. Dismissed.”
Jane had lined up behind Blue waiting for the bathroom, and Blue ushered her forward. “Oh, sweetie, you go first. I remember how it is.”
“Thanks.” Jane shuffled foot to foot. “Actually, since we have a sec… You’ll notice that I missed my C-section appointment. Ian said there was a plan and I should chat with you?”
“Of course! Yes, let’s get something figured out.”
Well, fuckmellow, this was already not going well. “Figured out?” Jane cleared her throat. “That doesn’t sound like a plan.”
“Okay, don’t be worried,” Not good. Not good at all. “Originally we were going to take you to a hospital near here, but we encountered some hiccups.”
“What hiccups?”
“Dahl and Everest agree that Sana Baba will be watching the hospitals. They already have contacts in the emergency healthcare system, so it would be quick and easy to put them on alert.” Blue’s big brown eyes were skipping over her face. “But you know, women have been having babies for, like, ever without C-sections. I did a home birth with Zee, so I’m up to speed on the whole labor and delivery shtick. We got this.”
Jane’s mouth went dry. “Blue, I am having twins fathered by a man who Michael Jordan would have to crane his neck to see. I’ve gained eighty pounds, and I’m banking on seventy of it being baby—”
“But Ian’s genetics aren’t super-sized. His bulk is due to his link, right?”
Jane chewed her lip. Would their children inherit his physical prowess? Or would the genetic material he passed on be unaltered by magic? “Okay, I guess that’s a possibility, but not one I’m comfortable taking for granted. I can’t heal myself, Blue. If you have to do surgery, I can’t assist.”
“Look, I know this whole thing is scary and you had a plan and now you don’t and that sucks. But we are going to make this happen. I have been working on bodies since I was eight—”
“Not living bodies!”
“And I have Everest to back me up. Whatever happens, we got this. I’ve had time to lay in supplies, so between our awesomeness and your healing powers as a safety net for the babies, things are going to be great. Let me know when you start feeling contractions and we’ll go from there. Okay?”
Jane twisted her lapis wedding band. “Going to a hospital seriously isn’t an option?”
“The only one I could think of is the sister’s on the east coast, but it’s sixteen hundred miles away, and we don’t know if it’s being watched. Everest says informants in the sister’s ranks are almost a given. Since the vault break job we know we can trust Sister Mary, Sister IED, and Sister Rugar, but that’s it, and they’re not on the medical staff.You’ll be the most vulnerable during delivery. Moving you there is riskier than taking care of you here.”
So she was going to deliver her babies in an old fallout shelter in North Dakota. Jane rolled the idea around in her mind, turning it to find the bright side. Friends and family were here. It would make an interesting baby story. Blue sounded confident, at least. “Do you know how to do epidurals?”
“Ummm, no. But I do have ether and chloroform to put you under if you need surgery. “
“So you do think I’ll need surgery! Are you fucking kidding me? Where, on the Grit Room table?”
Blue gave her best, brave smile. “It’s gonna be okay, sweetie. We’ll take good care of you.”
Jane closed her eyes and squeezed back the helplessness. A minute later, the bathroom door opened and Jane rushed to claim the facilities. Standing in front of the steel bathroom mirror, she stared down her shaky terror until it crawled back in the pit of her stomach where it belonged. Women had been giving birth without hospitals for most of human history and many of them were successful. Blue knew what she was doing. Probably. Fuck.
In the bottom left-hand corner of the mirror someone had written a few words in grease pencil. Jane squinted at Ian’s precise, blocky writing: “Hello, Beautiful.” Ian was here and he loved her. Magic was real and they had a crap ton of it.
Jane relaxed and reached through her body to the magical thrumming of her babies’ hearts. They were healthy—perfection in their tininess. One of them had sucked a mark onto the back of her hand as she practiced mouthing. Jane stopped herself from healing the tiny mark. Fixing every scrape and bruise was not going to work—for her or for them. They could handle some bumps on the road.
A thawing grin spread across Jane’s face. Safe delivery, save reality, happily ever after? For a minute it all seemed possible.
Chapter Seven
“You are fucking kidding me.” Dahl shook off the exquisite embrace of unconsciousness, rubbing his sandy eyes. Fitz was asleep for once in his little life. The night so far had been a ninety-minute tantrum because they couldn’t find Fitz’s penny flute, followed by a series of horrific meltdowns when he screamed until he lost his voice. Dahl sent Zack and Megan to sleep in block A, effective immediately, as soon as he puzzled out that their presence was at least part of the issue. They were only too happy to go. Three different times Dahl had rocked Fitz to sleep and tried to set him in bed, only to see him stir slowly to consciousness as his small hands clutched for Dahl before he could sneak away. The bunk wasn’t big enough to fit them both, so Dahl had to keep trying until he finally got it. It felt like winning the fucking lottery. Now rapid tapping at the door threatened to undo the Herculean feat.
Dahl indulged in a bit of quiet profanity and pulled the door to find Everest, pale and clammy, standing in the snow on the other side. “Dahl, I need you to come with me right now.”
Dahl glanced stupidly at Everest’s empty bunk and then back at the door. When had he left? “Do I need to be armed?”
“No. Come on. Now.”
Dahl grabbed the baby monitor and coat, shoved his feet in boots, and let Everest pull him into the freezing night. The crisp, sharp cold stung his sinuses and made his throat ache. The snow was so frozen it didn’t melt on his sweatpants, powdering away as he trudged through the shallow drifts along the path to the Grit Room. He could hear Jane yelling before Everest pushed the door open. Blue, Jane, and Ian were crowded into a tarp-draped impromptu surgical suite.
“Her heartbeat’s slowing! Now, Blue! You n
eed to do something FUCKING NOW!” Jane was sitting on the plastic-covered table like a future murder victim bending over her huge belly while Blue, gloved and aproned, held a clear mask over Jane’s nose and mouth.
“It’s going to be okay, sweetie, we got this. Breathe deep, and when you wake up everything’s going to be great.”
“Don’t you dare put me all the way under. I need to be conscious in case… in case…” Jane’s puffy face crumpled, and Ian wrapped his arms around her, holding her gently. Dahl was frozen in the doorway, Everest pulling it closed behind him against the cold.
“Everest,” Dahl swallowed dry. “Get me up to speed.”
“Jane needs a cesarean section. One of the babies is in distress. I need your help.”
“Tell me how.”
“Blue has to have an assistant, and I’m worried I’m going to pass out. Ian doesn’t have the dexterity for this.” Everest’s voice rasped over the whisper. “You’re medically trained, and you have a strong stomach. Get scrubbed.”
Dahl nodded as he rushed to the sink, shedding his coat and rolling his hoodie sleeves. He started washing with hot water, squirting dark, foaming surgical scrub in his hands and lathering to the elbows.
“Double time, please!” Blue’s voice cut the numbness as he hustled to the table, water still running because he couldn’t figure out how to turn it off without contaminating his hands again. This was happening. Now. Jane was unconscious, laying on her back as Ian cradled her head. His father’s face hurt to behold—all the hope and the fear mixing into something searing and divine.
“Disinfectant, please.” Blue indicated Jane’s huge belly underneath the naval. Dahl focused on deep breaths and worked left to right with careful, quick strokes of cold iodine. Medical training did not mean surgical training. He could use clotting powder, make a tourniquet, and perform CPR. Had Blue ever done this before? It might not be the right moment to ask.
