by Tim Lebbon
“The dwarf let you go?” she asked.
“Not sure he had a choice.”
“It’s okay.” She went back through, leaving Vince alone. He took in another deep breath and looked around.
They were still in the Longford valley. It was dark, the valley bathed in moon- and starlight, and the revealed reservoir bed was pale grey. This new portal—perhaps a crack in the Fold that Grace did not know about, a fault in her creation that had formed when her own new portal was initiated—opened onto the hillside, above where her doorway emerged down in the valley. The geographies were confusing, but then Vince didn’t expect anything about it to make much sense.
A few trees stood around him, there was long grass underfoot, and heavy banks of shrubs hunkered like sleeping creatures in the moonlight. He felt very much alone, and he realised he was somewhere he had vowed never to be again—a universe away from Angela.
“Fucking hell,” Dastion said behind him. He stumbled as he emerged from the deep shadow on the hillside, but Shashahanna held him upright.
“We’re here,” Vince said. “You were right!”
“For all the good it does us,” Dastion said.
“It means we can see what’s going on here while Sammi works on her powers, her spell, whatever, back in the Fold. No one knows we’re here. And if needs must, we can do something to slow Mallian down.”
“Something like what?” Shashahanna asked. “What can we do against the fairy?”
“I’m working on that,” Vince said. “Come on, let’s head downhill to see what’s happening.” He looked around for a while, locating this place as well as he could. The last thing he wanted was to lose his way back here. This portal was a deep dark shadow standing close to a wall of rock, and if the night grew much darker he wasn’t sure he’d be able to find it again.
“I’ve got it,” Shashahanna said.
“You’re sure?”
She tilted her head to one side. “Trust me. I’m a mermaid.”
He wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but he nodded and led the way down the slope towards the grey.
It took only ten minutes to reach the dividing line between greenery and greyness. They paused there, looking downhill to see if there was any obvious movement. Vince scanned the landscape until he saw what he thought was the remains of Longford, further along the valley to their right. That was where Grace had formed her portal when she’d sensed Sammi’s use of her fledgling powers, and that was where Mallian would hopefully still be. Vince only hoped the Nephilim would not have already fled the valley to commence Ascent. For all his bluster and bravado, Vince had always known Mallian to have other Kin around him. Even trapped in the Fold he had welcomed Vince’s occasional chats, and on occasions he’d seen him speaking with Kin. A powerful being, he was also one who enjoyed company, and Vince only hoped that was still the case.
The clock was ticking.
“Down,” Shashahanna breathed, her voice like a rumble of distant thunder.
Vince and Dastion dropped, still and silent. Vince breathed through his mouth, listening for whatever had startled the mermaid. She touched his face, caught his attention, and pointed across the hillside.
Two figures moved from the shadow of the lush hillside onto the stark exposed reservoir bed. They paused at the divide, and Vince was sure he saw the glimmer of eyes staring his way.
He lowered his face so that the moon did not shine from his paleness.
When he looked up again the figures were walking down into the valley. They were all but silent, but they made no attempt to hide their progress. They were confident and calm. They were Kin.
As he exhaled something passed above them, a swooping shadow cast against the starlight with wide wings and a short, stumpy body. It glided above the hillside, following the line of the land down into the valley. Soon after it passed above the walking shapes it passed out of sight, lost to the darkness. Vince caught a dank and musty smell, an old smell like something unearthed after a long time buried. He rubbed his nose to try to rid himself of the scent.
He’d been expecting this, but not so soon. Kin were coming to join Mallian on foot and wing, ready for the uprising he and others had been planning for so long. Somehow he’d got word out. It was terrifying, but at least he was still readying himself for Ascent, not rushing right into it now that he had Grace under his control.
The ticking clock might have slowed a little.
Vince tapped his companions’ arms and signalled that they should return the way they’d come. Shashahanna led the way, but moments after starting back into the trees, she froze.
Vince moved beside her to see what had brought her up short.
“Bone,” Vince whispered.
“I lost you,” Bone said. “You see them?” He nodded past Vince.
“Yeah. He’s calling them to him.”
“Who’re your friends?”
“Shashahanna, Dastion. This is Bone. He’s with us.” At least I think he’s with us, Vince thought. That he was a loose cannon was for sure—he’d let the infected Kin out, after all.
“He’s already begun,” Bone said.
“Meaning what?”
“He killed a cop. I saw it. Tore him to pieces in front of his sheriff, so she could catch it all on her body-cam. And the cruiser dash-cam. Horrible, just...”
“People saw it?” Vince asked.
“The army’s on its way. I called them in. There’s stuff about me you don’t know, but the agency I work for can help. Maybe. And now Mallian’s shown his first card and there’ll be no going back. It’s all going to hell.”
“Maybe not,” Vince said. “If we can break his control over the fairy, once the army gets here he’ll recognise the overwhelming odds. He’ll back down.”
“You really think that?” Bone asked. “You didn’t see what he did, how brutal he was.” He sounded shocked, haunted.
“I’ve seen him do worse,” Vince said.
“So you believe a thing like that will put its arms up and surrender?”
“Maybe, if he sees he has no other choice.”
“You have a plan?” Bone asked. “Because time’s ticking.”
“I can hear it,” Vince said. “Yeah, we’ve got something of a plan, and maybe you can help. When will the army arrive?”
“Six, seven hours.”
“We can’t let him leave,” Vince said. Beside him, Dastion nodded.
“He won’t wait for very long,” Bone said. “His blood’s up.”
“We’ll make sure he stays.”
“How?”
Vince shrugged. “That part I’m still working on.” He looked at Dastion and Shashahanna in the darkness, vague shadows, exotic and amazing creatures who he could smell, feel, touch. Sometimes he forgot how incredible these beings were. He hated that events took away their wonder. He wished he could simply be with them and enjoy their company, rather than pitching one Kin against another, or watching while the maddest of them declared war.
“Will we find help?” he asked, and they both knew what he was asking.
“I’m sure,” Dastion said.
“I’ll try to talk them into it,” Shashahanna said.
“Help from where?” Bone asked.
“Somewhere else,” Vince said, because there wasn’t time to explain. He didn’t really know how to explain. “A place we have to get back to. You wait for the army to arrive and guide them in. Though by then, I reckon they’ll know where to come.”
“Just follow the fight, right?” Bone asked.
“I think so,” Vince said. “It makes my skin crawl, but I think that’s the only way this can end.”
27
Angela hated being alone with Fer and Sammi. Sammi was distracted, kneeling close to the relics and silent, concentrating on whatever was happening inside her young head. Angela wanted to hold her, drag her away from all this and find some way of giving the girl normality once again, but she knew that was a foolish hope. Normality had left
them years ago, and it could never return. The irony was, Sammi seemed much more adaptable than Angela, and more ready to make the most of the way things were.
That would be the fairy blood in her veins.
Angela was cold, wet, and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten. Food seemed so unimportant compared to what was happening, but her stomach ached with hunger. Fer, the shapeshifter, didn’t appear hungry or cold. It seemed to pulse with countless forms, its visage never quite the same each time Angela looked at it. She couldn’t tell its sex, and didn’t ask. They hadn’t swapped a word since Vince left with the dwarf and the mermaid, but Fer had stayed close, circling the clearing where Sammi pored over the relics. It returned from time to time, looked at Sammi, looked at Angela, and then left again. She liked to think it was keeping watch for any dangers approaching, but it could just as easily have been keeping watch on them.
She hated Vince being away from her again, exploring somewhere deep beneath the Fold with a mining dwarf and an enigmatic mermaid, neither of whom she knew enough about to trust.
She hated every single thing about this situation, and over the course of the last half hour she had thought of ways to take action. Sitting, standing, waiting was not in her blood. She’d been doing that for too long since Vince had disappeared into the Fold, a stagnant existence with Sammi at the cabin in the woods, broken only by occasional visits from Lilou.
Poor, dead Lilou. Now she was gone, Angela realised how much she had grown to like the nymph, despite the doubts and suspicions she still had deep down about her relationship with Vince. She had been one of the most relatable Kin Angela had met, and the one with the most refreshing, open outlook, passionate about her causes and reasoning. That passion had resulted in her death.
Angela could no longer stand around and let events pass her by. Every heartbeat dragged them towards further tragedy, and there was no telling who might be the next one to die.
“Sammi,” Angela said, “we need to act, and now.”
Fer drifted in from the left, passing through the misty rain and catching starlight from unknown constellations.
“I need more time,” Sammi said. “It’s confusing.”
“How much more time?” Angela asked, and she sounded angry. She hadn’t meant that, but the pressure bit at her, the sense of uselessness just standing here in the rain.
“Angela,” Sammi said, turning around. “I don’t know. I feel lost. It’s all coming so quickly, all the knowledge, all this magic, and I’m getting smothered, and I don’t know...”
“I’m sorry, Sammi,” Angela said, kneeling beside her niece and holding her tight. “I’m sorry. We’re asking so much of you.” Sammi laid her head on Angela’s shoulder, but there was a tension there, and a distance that Angela had not felt for a long time. She thought they had grown close, and been pulled closer by the pain of their loss. Sammi’s new life, dawning on her only now in ways both painful and troubling, was pushing her away once more.
Angela hugged her tighter, hoping to hold onto some of the past.
“I’m working it out,” Sammi said. “But it needs to work first time. Otherwise if I do something, cast a spell, whatever it is, and Grace isn’t freed right away, I’m afraid Mallian will kill me.”
“He’ll have to get through me first,” Angela said. So full of bravado, it also sounded foolish.
“He will,” Sammi said. “You know that. You won’t even break his step.”
Sammi pulled away and looked into her aunt’s face.
“I know,” Angela said. “Do your best, Sammi. I don’t think we have very long. But I have to do something, find out just how long we have. I’m going through to see what’s happening.”
“We can’t use Grace’s portal! Vince said we might walk right into Mallian’s hands.”
“None of us knows. And I’ll be careful. Hopefully Vince will be back soon. But I can’t just stand here watching you trying to do whatever you’re doing.” She nodded down at the scattered relics, mere shadows in the darkness, but probably so solid and bright in Sammi’s vision. They all came from something alive, and their presence made Angela feel sick. The Kin were incredible, but like humans they had their dark sides.
“Good. I’ll work better alone,” Sammi said, and Angela couldn’t help feeling it was a snub.
“I don’t like to leave you on your own. But from what I’ve seen...”
“I can look after myself?” Sammi raised an eyebrow.
“I won’t be long.” Angela smiled at the hint of humour, the shred of Sammi. “I love you,” she said. She wasn’t sure she’d ever said it to the girl before.
Sammi’s face went grim. “I know,” she said in a deep voice, and they both chuckled.
Angela stood, Sammi turned back to the relics laid out before her, and Fer was by her side, naked and in human form.
“What’s happening?” it asked.
“You and I are going to see the lie of the land.”
“We’re going through?” Fer asked.
“Only for a peek.” Angela frowned, looked Fer up and down, and then smiled. “You’re very beautiful.”
“Thank you,” Fer said, smiling.
“So what else can you be? I have an idea.”
* * *
Angela and Fer stood close to the portal. It was a strange, shimmering space, like a blur on her vision. The darkness and shifting curtains of rain made it ambiguous, a reflection of Fer and its own ambiguity. She hoped Fer would go through. It had not shown fear, but its movements were less certain.
“You think you can do it?” Angela asked.
“It doesn’t hurt?”
“No. It doesn’t hurt.”
“Last time I was brought through, I was someone else.”
“You’re stronger now than you were then. You’re what you’re supposed to be.”
“But she’s through there,” Fer said.
“You don’t have to fear the fairy anymore,” Angela said. “There’s worse, now. What Mallian plans will destroy the Kin, just when you’ve found your way to become one. Don’t you want a future? Time to grow into yourself?”
Fer looked at her, and Angela could not read its expression. Even in human form there was something alien about its face, animalistic, and it might have been smiling or grimacing.
Fer lowered its head and crouched down. Its shoulders hunched, limbs snapped straight and bent again, and it let out a low growl as its back arched. The sounds were sharp and damp, painful and ecstatic, and in moments Fer was a wolf, head lowered as it stared at the portal.
“Can you... understand me now?” Angela asked. She didn’t know how this worked. Was the Kin still a shapeshifter, or was it now a wolf with all of a wolf’s senses, abilities and understanding?
The creature didn’t even look at her. It stalked towards the portal and entered, disappearing from shadows into darkness.
Angela waited ten seconds and then moved forward herself. She was tensed and alert, ready to act as soon as she pushed through—hide, fight, or run. She tried to keep her eyes open but she could not. She was afraid of what she would see passing from the Fold into the world.
She emerged into cool, dry darkness. There was no rain, but a chill breeze made her shiver, drifting across the dusty reservoir bed and picking up silt to blow at her face. She crouched down and looked around, alert for movement. If she’d been seen, she would have only seconds to push back into the Fold and run.
A growl came from her left, and the wolf trotted into view. It inclined its head and set off, and Angela ran after it. Soon they were moving quickly up the gently sloping reservoir bed, the wolf’s nose to the ground.
After only a couple of minutes the creature stopped, head down low, belly brushing the ground. Angela fell onto her front beside it. She was panting hard, yet she could hardly hear the shapeshifter’s breathing.
They were close to the first ruins of Longford, and just ahead she could see the low slumped shape of an old building. Be
yond, further up the slope, a shape wandered back and forth.
We’ve come too close! she thought, and she wondered again whether Fer had actually chosen sides. Then she saw that the shape was further away than she’d thought, and larger. Mallian.
Around him other figures stood or sat, shadowy outlines catching moonlight on their skins, pelts or scales. She counted five but there might have been twice that number.
Fear bit in, cold and sharp. She touched Fer’s hairy back and nodded behind her the way they’d come, but Fer growled softly and pulled away.
“You’ll be found!” Angela said, as quietly as she could.
Fer leaned in close, pressed its face against hers, then jumped up and was gone. Angela did not even hear it go. She was left alone in the darkness, and with only one course of action—to return back through the portal and into the Fold.
Mallian was gathering Kin to him already, preparing for Ascent.
They didn’t have long.
* * *
Left alone in the darkness and the rain, feeling no eyes upon her and allowed to concentrate fully on her new self, Sammi realised two things.
First, the old Sammi was already gone. The memories and emotions were still there, along with the regrets and the deep, dark sense that she could never be the same again, but she was not that girl anymore. Her memory of Sammi was of an innocent life, one marred by tragedy yet still retaining hope for the future. This new existence forced upon her—perhaps dragged up out of her, where the truth had been in hiding for so long—told a different story.
There was no hope, only a promise of conflict and pain. And with power came a great, heavy dread.
The second thing she realised was that it would take her lifetimes to fully master this power, not simply minutes or hours. She had come to understand that a shard of Grace’s soul resided within the spell cast by Mallian over these objects, and to set it free would be to release the fairy. But that didn’t mean she knew how to do so. She could sit and stare at the relics for as long as she wanted, but the knowledge of how to combat Mallian’s spell would not come to her unless she took aggressive action. Kneeling here and waiting for the answer to arrive would do her no good, and in the end they would all run out of time.
