Hell and High Water

by Charlotte E. English

  I waited, sought for further signs. The cadence of those steps: slow and deliberate. No hurry there, no flurry of activity ahead of the proposed auction. What was this lady’s purpose, then, in entering the building?

  I thought of Tai, or Daix, but discarded the idea. Nothing about this person matched either: the movements were wrong, the proportions… the scent. A hint of a deep, floral fragrance caught at me, distracting. I didn’t recognise it.

  The waters knew her. She’d been there before. When I was brought in, perhaps? Was this my captor?

  Was it Brianne?

  It had to be; it was the only explanation that made any sense. But I couldn’t be certain. Too many nagging dissimilarities, too many subtle signs…

  Besides that, a familiarity. I could not shake the sense that I, too, had seen her before, that I knew her as the waters did…

  At last it dawned on me. What the evidence of my pearls was telling me, what the waters saw: I did know her.

  I’d known her very well, long ago, and she was dead.

  She was dead; she’d been dead for eighty years.

  I couldn’t breathe. The pearls fell from my fingers and spilled across the floor, unheeded; I fought for air, frozen with horror. And beneath that, hope.

  It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be.

  Could the waters be wrong?

  How long I sat frozen in this state, I could not have said. I was woken abruptly from the trance by the sound of a pounding upon the door, and Tai’s voice, yelling for me. ‘Fi?’

  ‘Moment,’ I called, or tried to; the word came out as a cracked whisper, and Tai didn’t hear it.

  ‘Fi! Open the damned door!’

  I shot out of the chair, made it to the door in three great strides, and hauled it open.

  Tai stood staring at me, eyes wide and petrified. She let out a breath when she saw me, relief quickly giving way to annoyance.

  ‘I only thought you were dead,’ she growled, stalking past me into the hall.

  ‘Sorry,’ I mumbled. ‘Sorry, I was…’ I couldn’t finish the sentence. I closed the door, and it was a moment before I could turn and meet her gaze again.

  Tai’s eyebrows went up. ‘What?’

  I tried to speak, but the words didn’t come.

  ‘Fi.’ Tai gripped my arms and gave me a tiny shake. ‘Pull it together. What’s happened now?’

  ‘I saw…’ I paused, cleared my throat. ‘At the car factory. You know I wrought pearls from the waters there? When they took me?’

  ‘No, but good. And?’

  ‘They… someone’s there now.’

  Tai nodded. She was not unfamiliar with the method; I’d used it in the past. ‘Tell me it’s Brianne? I’ll be down there in a jiffy to remove a couple of important articles of her anatomy.’

  ‘It wasn’t Brianne.’

  ‘Damnit.’

  ‘I… I’m fairly sure it wasn’t Brianne.’

  Tai took a long look at my face, then steered me to a chair. ‘All right, deep breath. You’re a big girl, you can do this.’

  ‘Silise,’ I blurted.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I saw Silise.’

  ‘No fucking way.’

  ‘It was her.’

  ‘Fionn of Cuath-Tor, Silise is dead. It couldn’t have been her.’

  ‘Nonetheless.’ I breathed deep, and managed to stop shaking. ‘I’m certain of it.’

  ‘Can’t be. Someone’s screwing with you. How clear a vision do you actually get with this trick, anyway?’

  ‘Not… not that clear. It’s more impressions, senses—’

  ‘So you didn’t see her.’

  ‘Not exactly—’

  Tai sat back. ‘As I said. Someone’s screwing with you. With us. Again.’

  That could be true. I thought back, tried to imagine how it might be possible to fake all the impressions I’d received. It seemed… improbable. ‘But, Tai, how could anybody be that familiar with Silise except Silise herself? Every movement of hers, her gestures, her demeanour — that stuff is far harder to fake than a face. You know that.’

  ‘Well.’ Tai stood up. ‘One way to find out,’ she said cheerfully. ‘Let’s go down there right now.’

  ‘If you’re right, then this is another trap.’

  ‘And if you’re right, our long-lost best friend is down there waiting for us.’

  Tai’s words triggered what was left of my critical thinking. Shock and… other emotions had temporarily disordered my wits, but my head was clearing. ‘No. You’re right. If she was alive somehow, why would she be at this building, of all places? And why wouldn’t she have told us?’

  Tai nodded. ‘This is some game of Brianne’s. It’s clever, I grant you.’

  I frowned, still disquieted. ‘But how could Brianne know Silise so well? And, Tai, she’d have to have realised I would work pearls from those waters, she’d have to have known what that meant, what I could do—’

  ‘Perhaps she does know all that. She’s been watching us a long time, planning this little game for a while. That much is clear.’

  ‘She? Or someone else?’

  ‘Like who?’

  I just looked at her.

  ‘Silise is dead,’ said Tai firmly. ‘I don’t know how Brianne is doing this either, but it’s just a game. It has to be.’ She headed for the door. ‘You coming?’

  ‘Where? The old car factory?’

  ‘Where else? Let’s go find out what Bri’s up to now.’

  ‘You remember the part where this is a trap?’

  ‘Yep.’ Tai beamed at me.

  ‘And maybe we could stay ahead of this game by not walking straight into this trap, the way we did at the club?’ I knew myself a hypocrite as I spoke; I’d let Brianne trap me, let her cart me to the old car factory. I’d done it with sound reason, and with good results. But I couldn’t just let Tai throw herself to the wolves.

  ‘At least it was an informative process,’ said Tai.

  ‘A process that would have killed you, if you hadn’t happened to thieve my pearls beforehand.’

  ‘You were the one that walked face-first into the water.’

  ‘I wasn’t in any danger.’

  ‘And how did you figure that, exactly? You’re the selkie, Fi, and those are turning up dead lately. Hell, you’ve been kidnapped since then and you can still say you weren’t in any danger?’

  I was silent. I had no answer to make, unless I wanted to confess my little scheme to her. I couldn’t.

  ‘Perhaps you mean you were in no danger you didn’t find acceptable,’ Tai continued.

  Too true for argument. Still I said nothing.

  ‘Okay well, if you’ve got some kind of death wish going on, this is a great way to further that goal.’ Tai beamed at me again, but there was an edge to it this time, something cold behind her eyes. ‘And if that’s Silise down there, she obviously doesn’t love us anymore, so let’s go give her a chance to kill you.’

  ‘Us, Tai.’

  ‘Oh, you’re not worried about you but you are about me? That’s sweet.’

  ‘We lost Silise because we didn’t look after each other. I won’t make that mistake again.’

  Her brows went up, her expression one of withering scepticism.

  ‘I didn’t expect you to follow me into that pool,’ I said. ‘I mean, why would you?’

  ‘If you’d like to think back to everything you said about ten seconds ago, I believe you’ll find it applicable.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Didn’t want to let you go alone.’

  ‘Which turned out to be pretty stupid, didn’t it.’

  Tai shook her head, chose not to answer that. ‘Are we going to the car factory or not?’

  ‘Not. We’re sticking to the plan. We can’t afford any more screw-ups before tomorrow’s auction.’

  Tai accepted this without a blink. What she might privately have thought of it, I couldn’t have guessed. ‘Fine. About that solution you said you had?’


  Wordlessly, I retrieved Narasel’s sealskin from where I had laid it, reverently, over the back of my sofa.

  Tai hadn’t registered its presence before. She received it in silence, and nodded once to me. ‘Narasel’s?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I’ll bring it back to you.’

  Tai said it with emphasis, meaning she’d bring it back to me even if she had to leave a limb behind in the process. ‘Her family will want it,’ I said.

  ‘They shall have it.’ She stroked the fur softly. ‘I’d better get some sleep,’ she said. ‘I’ll see you for the auction?’

  Ah yes, the part where I got to pretend my best friend hated me enough to sell me for cash. Perhaps it was the abrupt way the question of Silise had been raised tonight, but the prospect made me nauseous.

  Still. Needs must. ‘Come here first,’ I told Tai. ‘If you like, we can even stage a betrayal scene.’

  Her mischievous smile gleamed. ‘Great. I’ll bring the big guns to take you down.’

  And then we’d walk out of here, Tai wielding Narasel’s sealskin like it was mine, me acting the part of a woman whose will has been torn away and used against her.

  Good times.

  ‘Sleep well,’ I said. ‘You’ll need it.’

  Chapter Sixteen: Tai

  We did the betrayal scene.

  Maybe it was absurd. In fact, definitely it was absurd. But you never know who might be watching, right? And it helped get us in role.

  The sort of thing we used to do, back in the day.

  ‘Hello, Fionn,’ I said, coldly, when she opened the door to her flat.

  She looked me over, cool as a mountain stream. ‘A gun? Really? That was never your style.’

  Damnit, I knew I shouldn’t have gone for the gun. It might have been only a prop, but it felt good! Powerful! ‘It gets the point across,’ I said, sounding only slightly defensive. I tightened my grip on the weapon, shaking my head. Keep it together. I was evil Tai today.

  ‘So what is this, a double cross?’ said Fi softly. ‘Tai. Has it come to this?’

  Just the right note of tragedy in her tone, and her chin held high. ‘Don’t make me laugh,’ I hissed.

  Her eyes twinkled, briefly. ‘You’re here to kill me,’ she said.

  ‘No. I’m here to claim you.’

  An eyebrow went up, and she grinned. ‘Sounds interesting.’

  ‘I have your sealskin! You never thought I’d find it, did you?’

  ‘No! Not my sealskin!’ Fionn gasped. ‘This is the literal end.’

  ‘I know. I’m never getting invited to your birthday party again, am I?’

  ‘Never!’

  ‘Well, fuck it.’ I lowered the gun. ‘We’re going to have to do better than this when we get to the car factory.’

  ‘Yes, yes. Tell me, are you a benevolent betrayer? Do I get to wear shoes?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Maybe even a coat.’

  ‘Wimp. No. Like any kidnapper worth their salt would let you grab outerwear.’

  ‘You’re right. No coat. Did you want to drag me by the hair?’

  ‘Yes. Did you grow it out especially?’

  ‘Just for you.’

  I took hold of some of the hair in question, and gave it a tug. ‘Right, come on. Bring the skin.’

  ‘I’m supposed to carry it? How does that make sense?’

  ‘I’ll take it later.’

  ‘Better take it now. Brianne’s got people watching my front door.’

  ‘Has she? I didn’t see them when I came in.’

  ‘Then you’ve got sloppy.’

  ‘Or they were very well hidden.’

  Fionn grinned. ‘Okay, Daix told me.’

  ‘Oh yes, Daix. Where the hell is she, anyway?’

  Fionn shrugged. ‘Off doing her Daix thing. We’ll see her at the factory, I expect.’

  ‘Impossible. We might see someone of Daix’s approximate height and proportions playing shamelessly to the crowd, however.’

  ‘She gets bored,’ said Fi.

  ‘Somebody ought to get some fun out of this shit show,’ I agreed. I took a steadying breath. Evil Tai. From here on, I had to be more convincing. Curtain up. ‘Walk,’ I told Fionn, in a cooler voice. Detached. ‘We’re going outside. Stop when you reach the street, and wait for me.’

  Ehh. Fionn got into role in the blink of an eye, and she chilled me right down to my bones. Not that there was an obvious shift, nothing theatrical. Nothing you’d even notice, if you didn’t know Fionn. The changes were subtle, and profound: a degree of passivity about her, an air of biddable docility. Something of liveliness slipped out of her face, and the steel went out of her eyes: she was as composed as ever, but more in the way of a thing, a doll, a creature built without independent will in the first place.

  She nodded without meeting my eye, stepped past me, and set off down the hallway. Her gait was smooth and even, to the point of eeriness, like a graceful automaton.

  I shuddered, and followed.

  Down on the street, Fionn paused as instructed, stopped dead a few steps beyond the doors and waited. She barely moved.

  A shadow rippled, and Phélan emerged. I didn’t need to warn him about Brianne’s spies: he knew his role, and however maddening the man could be, he was a professional. He tipped his hat to me, ignoring Fionn, except for casting a quick, appraising eye over her. Like a man evaluating a horse he, or someone else, might consider buying.

  ‘All went well?’ he enquired.

  My only answer to this was to heft the sealskin, letting Phélan see it. ‘Let’s go.’

  Phélan had a car waiting, dark and innocuous. We barely spoke on the drive across town. Fionn did as she was told, and sat in silence. I tried not to think too hard about where she was getting all her excellent method acting from. This was what she’d been like, when some long-ago psycho had stolen her sealskin for real. Even in all our years together, she’d never talked in detail about who that man had been, or why he’d done it. I only knew it had been someone very close to her.

  Unthinkable.

  I sat thinking about it without interruption until the car drew up on West Hendon Broadway. Phélan got out, and held the door for me, then for Fionn. We’d been dropped a short distance from the old car factory: we wanted a moment to orient ourselves, and maybe to check the place out, before we went in.

  It was 9:45. Nearly showtime.

  I leaned close to Fionn, made some pretence of adjusting her attire. I wanted her to look her best when I trotted her in front of the buyers, right?

  ‘Anything?’ I breathed, barely an audible whisper.

  ‘Show’s started,’ she whispered back. Right. Fi’s pearls from the factory would be a blaze of activity, feeding her a flood of sensations about the myriad people descending upon the building. Probably they were of little use, from here on: too much going on, too little detail. But Fi had brought them anyway, just in case.

  They’d brought her no significant information yet, I surmised, for she said nothing more.

  When I turned away from her, Phélan offered me his arm. ‘Milady.’

  I smiled brightly, and took it. ‘Shall we?’

  We sauntered up the wide street like we owned it, Fionn walking, as instructed, a pace or two ahead of us. As evil-Tai, I didn’t want to take my eyes off my highly saleable prize; as real-Tai, I didn’t want to let Fi out of my sight in case someone snatched her again. I didn’t feel in control of this game. We were out of our depth in these waters, and I knew it. Fi knew it. There were too many questions still outstanding, too many mysteries, too many variables in play. Whoever was playing games with us was winning, at least for the moment. We needed to turn the tables — tonight. That meant keeping my wits about me.

  And it meant sticking together. I couldn’t let myself be separated from Fi, unless she had Daix at her back.

  The car factory was a different place that night. It loomed still in decrepit shadow, a sad mess of empty windows and v
anished potential; but now lights blazed in some of the echoing rooms within, and its air of melancholy desertion had given way to a buzz of activity.

  There were guards on the door. Sluagh.

  ‘Drevan’s men,’ said Phélan in a low voice.

  Interesting. I hadn’t expected that, and apparently, neither had Phélan. What did it mean? Was Drevan the organiser of this auction? I hadn’t pegged him as possessing so much power, or initiative. I’d thought him focused on his leadership struggle with Nelo.

  Perhaps this was part of it.

  ‘Thetai Sarra Antha,’ I announced as we reached the doors. ‘With my escort, Phélan Astrophel.’ Phélan tipped his hat.

  ‘And the lady?’ said one of the guards. Sluagh, the both of them, dark-clad and imposing.

  ‘Introduce yourself,’ I said briefly, coldly, to Fionn.

  ‘Fionn of Cuath-Tor,’ she said obediently. ‘Slave.’

  A moment’s silence, while the two guards looked Fionn over. She’d dressed in one of her more fabulous gowns, a fluid, rippling confection of moon-white satin. Her hair was decked in pearls. She’d make a gorgeous auction piece.

  We were waved through.

  The hall beyond was empty, except for one person: short and lithe, a boggan perhaps, wearing an usher’s uniform. This innocuous appearance was belied by a posture, an air, of authority; he quickly intercepted us. ‘Madam,’ he said to me, with a brief nod. ‘Sir. I trust you’ve registered your lot in advance?’ He was looking at Fionn, still and silent.

  ‘Lot number seven,’ I said. ‘Fionn of Cuath-Tor. Sealskin and pearls included and intact.’

  He nodded. His scrutiny was subtle, but intense: I didn’t know what he was reading in me or Phélan, but that we were being tested was apparent enough.

  Nothing I could do about that. Shouldn’t be a problem: I was here as my real self, hiding nothing, except for the fact that Fionn was only pretending to be enslaved. But he’d have no reason to suspect that, and it was me and Phélan he was testing, not Fi.

  ‘This way, please?’ he said after a moment, and Phélan and I were led through a short succession of corridors, wanly lit with wisp-lights. The room designated for use for the auction was situated nearly in the heart of the building, a large open space now cleared of the machinery it must once have held. Thick with people already, all of them fae; a low hum of conversation greeted us as we were ushered in.