by E M Graham
I was half way through the door before I realized she’d caught up to me. I tried to grab her arm but she raced ahead of me, she was a fast one that Alice.
‘Wait for me!’ I called out to her, but she didn’t listen, she was like a hare with a fox on her tail as she turned east on the old cobble stones of Water Street. It was a dreary and scary place here, all the old wooden buildings huddled together, black with the smoke from the nearby railways, the odd candle in uncurtained windows of the bawdy houses and tenements. Jesus I couldn’t afford to lose her in Alt of all places.
In real time, this whole area is taken up with the arterial highway with its ramps and empty concrete spaces and iron fences and shipping containers. It’s a lonely uninhabited space, but in Alt it was still a long unlit neighborhood of slums and narrow alleys all backing onto the shipyard.
Disreputable forms slithered out of our way as we slipped along the stones and the reeking gutters. My friend was fast, yet I was fueled by terror because I had an inkling of what lurked behind those doors. I was gaining on her, but then I saw a door open suddenly. A skinny, stretched out black figure in a tall silk hat darted out to intercept her.
‘Alice!’ I screamed and forced my unfit body to push harder, harder and I was almost touching her when the door began to close. ‘No!’
My foot stepped over the rotted threshold and I prepared to throw myself bodily in but to my surprise that same long arm grabbed me and with incredible strength and gentleness picked me up as if I was a kitten. The door slammed behind me and I heard the clunk of wooden bolts falling into place.
The stranger stepped back. The three of us stared at each other, consternation on all our faces.
We found ourselves in a rough room, bare floorboards and wallpaper peeling off the plank walls. A stone fireplace and chimney took up all of one wall and a rickety set of stairs led up to a dark second story. Two tallow candles burned greasily in the lanterns atop the rough table.
He was incredibly tall and thin, dressed in a long black frock coat that had seen better days. His silk top hat was equally battered and sat on his head at an angle over dirty blondish hair. A pointy ear poked out of the mass of his messy hair. And this strange being was familiar to me.
‘You really shouldn’t be out there by yourselves,’ he said in a soft musical voice. ‘Don’t you know it’s not safe?’
I collected myself. We needed to get out of here, and fast. I jumped over to Alice, grabbing her in both hands and shut my eyes to flick back into real time.
Nothing happened.
I opened my eyes again to see the stranger sadly shaking his head.
‘It won’t work, not till you get back to the spot you came from,’ he said sadly. His voice was gentle and non-threatening. ‘I don’t know why that is, but it is. Like many things, no rhyme nor reason to them.’
I stepped in front of Alice, to shield her if there was to be any magic happening here.
‘Who are you, and what do you want from us?’
‘I could hear you coming, and I could hear old Barker yelling,’ he said. ‘And anyone running from him is a friend of mine.’
‘You need to let us go,’ I said to him viciously, trying my best to intimidate.
‘It’s okay, Dara,’ I heard Alice speak behind me, then she stepped out. ‘I don’t think he means us any harm.’
She walked up to the stranger. ‘Do you?’
It clicked then, seeing them both stand next to each other, both tall and slight with barely coloured hair, they looked more like brother and sister than she and Benjy did.
The stranger was an elf, but not like any elf I’d seen in my brief excursions to Alt over the years. That breed was usually so haughty and proud, dressed impeccably in their silk clothing and much cleaner than this specimen. Elves were cold and mean and arrogant, for the most part, but this one had a broken and vulnerable air about him.
Elves usually kept to themselves in their high eyries or distant valleys for they found other species quite distasteful. None of the elves I knew would ever find themselves in this humble home.
He smiled. ‘You’re safe here,’ he said.
And weirdly enough, I found myself believing him.
11
‘PLEASE, TAKE A SEAT,’ he said. ‘Be comfortable.’ He indicated the single wooden chair by the fireplace to Alice. I took a three-legged stool, while he folded himself onto the rough bench by the table. He removed his hat and ruffled his hair with his fingers.
He told us his name, but the closest I could get to pronouncing it was Brin. He laughed softly and told us it was a Celtic name after all, so unfamiliar to our Germanic-based tongue, and so we shouldn’t feel embarrassed or lacking at all.
‘You’re an elf,’ I said, after he had poured some kind of tea for us both in cracked fine china cups that looked like they’d been rescued from a rubbish heap.
Brin nodded. ‘I am.’
‘But...’ I looked around the humble room. It was clean, but oh so rough and homespun. How could I find the words to ask my question without risking offense? Elves were notorious for finding insults in innocent conversation, almost as bad as the fairies. Anything which didn’t fit into the narrow elven view of themselves was quickly rejected.
Not Brin though. He smiled beatifically as if he understood my dilemma. Alice was still staring at him, which might be considered rude under some circumstances but it didn’t seem to bother him at all.
‘Why am I in such surroundings?’ He looked around at the clean yet humble home.
It was my turn to nod. Exactly.
‘I’m not like most elves,’ he said simply. It was the understatement of the year, but he didn’t offer any further information. ‘You’re from... Beyond, aren’t you?’ There was a note of longing in his voice.
‘I’ve seen you before.’ That tall thinness was unmistakable. This was the ghostly figure I’d seen out of the corner of my eye, lurking around the corner of the War Memorial. It had been this elf Brin, not a ghost after all. Just an elf who couldn’t quite make it over from Alt.
‘You could see me? I almost crossed the veil, I almost did, but it’s too thick,’ he said sadly. ‘I can see the other place like a dream, but I can’t quite reach it. I can’t find a portal.’
‘But why do you want to go there?’
‘I want to be human,’ he said.
‘But you’re Elf,’ I replied. ‘You can’t be what you’re not.’
‘I’m not like the others,’ he said again. ‘All this being cold and aloof, living far away in secluded valleys and being better than everyone else... it doesn’t fit me. I want to live, but not in this horrible old place. I want to live in your world, be modern, and fly in the air, and all the other stuff I’ve heard whispers about.’ His pale grey eyes shone in the tallow light.
‘I don’t know if you can do that, not to live,’ I said, my voice full of doubt. ‘I mean, when I switch over to Alt, it takes a toll. You might have the same reaction, just in an opposite way.’
He said nothing, just glanced up at Alice. ‘I think I’m ready to take the chance,’ he said softly.
‘Oh, God,’ I said under my breath. Great, Alice had made another instantaneous conquest. I swallowed the rest of the tea-like stuff he’d given us and stood up. ‘We need to get on the go. I’m sorry Brin, we have stuff to do. I can’t take you with me right now, but maybe we can come back and try, another time.’
‘I’d rather stay here a while,’ Alice said. ‘You go ahead without me.’
‘Alice, we can’t be here for any length of time, it’s not healthy,’ I told her. I could already feel a slight tingle at the tip of my big toes. Alt was weird - it had a peculiar effect on the human body if one stayed here for too long, although I must be getting used to it. Perhaps one could build up a tolerance to Alt, but I still had to worry about Alice. ‘We’ve got to get back behind the station.’
‘Take me with you,’ Brin said softly. ‘I can’t stay here a moment longer, I can�
�t bear it. This place is so... barbaric.’
‘Yes, Brin should come with us,’ she said.
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ I said to them both. ‘You don’t belong over there, Brin.’
After a pause, he nodded slowly and stood with us. ‘I understand,’ he said sadly. ‘Let me at least help you get back to your portal. I know of a path which leads behind the houses to the rail lines which will be safer for you. Follow me.’
He unbolted the door and peeked outside to the pitch dark. The railway lamps glowed in the distance.
‘Come,’ he said. Brin took us down a tiny alley which opened up to a no-man’s land of weeds and alders between the ship yard and the run-down cottages, his long legs exaggeratedly tiptoeing through the underbrush. We walked along in single file till we reached the end of the rail line and the iron steam engine. We met not another soul, living or dead.
‘Thanks,’ I said awkwardly. ‘We’ll take it from here.’
I went to take Alice in my arms in preparation to flipping back to real time. She allowed me to do this, but her eyes remained on Brin with a small smile.
I took a deep breath and squeezed my eyes shut but felt Alice’s arm move at the last moment, like she was reaching out and then I felt another’s touch on me just as I flipped.
When I opened my eyes in the gravel of the old railway yard, there were three of us in real time.
‘BRIN, NO!’ I was honestly concerned for his health and wellbeing, for I had no idea of the effects of real time on one of the elven persuasion. Also, I had a strong suspicion that Hugh really, really would not approve of this, and that this sort of action was exactly what his elders were complaining about.
‘Let me stay, just for a small while!’ Brin breathed in deeply and dramatically. ‘Oh, the promised land! Smell the freshness of freedom!’
Now, the diesel and salt was wafting up from the harbour and mixing with the whiff of creosote from the old railway tracks, while a dog had done his business somewhere recently amid the wasteland, but yes, compared to his neighbourhood in Alt with its overbearing coal smoke and the raw sewage running in the gutters, the air was comparatively fresher. But still.
‘You have to go back,’ I told the elf. But Alice was holding on to his arm and beaming. They made a cute couple, and I’d never seen my friend want the company of another being so much. Too bad it was an ill-fated match, a collision between two worlds. It was never meant to be.
‘Just a little while,’ she echoed him.
We were running late now, for time in Alt passed much as it did here. I needed to meet with Willem this evening.
Although... Perhaps Brin could help. I eyed him critically in the dim light. He had full elven power, look at the way he had lifted me lightly up off the street and into his house. Two magicks were always better than one.
‘Okay, you can come to Zeta’s with us,’ I told him with a nod. ‘But lose the hat, okay? That’ll just draw attention to you over here. No one dresses like that anymore except at Hallowe’en. And... and try to tone down the elfness, if you can.’
He swept the hat off his head. ‘I am so thrilled,’ he began. ‘This is the greatest adventure. Why, I will compose a song for you, for Dara who lifted the veil between my world and this heaven, for ...’
‘No!’ I interrupted him. ‘Christ, no elf songs, please. We have to go.’
Alice and I rode our bikes up to Duckworth Street, with Brin easily loping beside us and keeping pace. My mind was working quickly with the problem of how to use the elf. By the look of her, Alice was too gaga over Brin to be of any help to me, she wouldn’t remember to try to knock Willem over with her allure. But at least now she had to believe me about Alt and magic and things. There’s no way she could deny what had happened this evening, not when we had living proof of a full-blood elf with us.
I tried to quickly give Brin the gist of what we had planned for the evening. He caught on quickly, although he quivered at the thought of tricking a sorcerer. The elf was about to shake his head but then he glanced at Alice’s long fair hair again and visibly melted. He nodded. He was on board.
We drew near to Zeta’s, and we locked the bikes to a parking meter down the road a bit. Looking at the pair of them together, I had to go back on my previous decision. Alice was supposed to entrance Willem, but there’s no way she could do that with the elf taking all her attention. The two of them were radiant – in fact, I could see a glimmer forming all around Brin, an eerie elven glow.
‘Brin, maybe it’s better if you don’t come in with us,’ I said. ‘I really need Alice to concentrate on what she’s doing to help. I need you to stay outside, because well, Willem will see right off the bat that you’re an elf. And that will mess everything up.’
‘I will be like a shadow,’ he promised solemnly, holding his hat before his heart, perhaps a little relieved. ‘I will remain out of sight and hearing, deep into the depths of the darkness.’
‘Right,’ I said. ‘You do that. Come on Alice, they’re still in there. Remember, I need you to distract Willem any way you can while I look for that medallion.’
‘I got your back,’ she said, and I knew she meant it. She gave a last lingering smile to Brin.
The plate glass window and the door of the shop had been covered with heavy damask drapes, just a few small cracks of light showing that Willem and his group were still within. I pulled open the door and we entered.
Screens had been erected in the small store, and all the shelving pushed to one side to make room for the circle of women gathered around Willem. He totally ignored us. I could tell by the burning candles and the incense in the air that they had just finished some kind of circle.
‘I totally felt the magic,’ Carrie murmured as she looked down on him, her face ecstatic.
‘The power is immense,’ another said, sliding her eyes across at the sorcerer.
Oh my God. Willem was standing in the midst of the group, touching each woman on the forehead in turn as if handing out benedictions to his faithful disciples. I counted ten women in the space, of whom Carrie was the youngest. All the others ranged in age from their thirties to their fifties, and all were dressed expensively, and all turned adoring eyes on the small man.
‘Go now, my precious ladies, my coven,’ Willem said softly to them. ‘Till we meet again.’
He looked up at me with a flash of anger in his eyes.
‘We’re finishing up here,’ he said to me. ‘Where were you?’
‘Unavoidably delayed,’ I said. I felt the resentful eyes of Carrie and Zeta and a few other women on us but I ignored them all.
He turned his back on us and spoke in a low voice to his groupies. ‘You know what to do, my dear ladies. Now I send you off with my blessings. Remember, time is of the essence! And Carrie, you have your special job.’
She preened while the others regarded her jealously.
‘Now ladies,’ Willem added. ‘If you can prove yourselves in this small task, you too might earn your place in the inner, inner circle.’
Damn, we’d missed the chance to find out what the sorcerer’s dark intentions were, but no matter. It was probably all just an exercise to build his overinflated ego and fill his wallet.
At least they were leaving now, so Alice would be free to grab his undivided attention while I searched for the medallion.
‘Willem,’ I said after the women had all left the store, even Zeta had been dismissed form her own space. ‘This is Alice. She’s interested in joining your group.’
‘You are a seeker of knowledge?’ His lashless eyes sized her up. He must have sensed her elf blood, for a look of greed came on his face.
I closed my eyes momentarily to try to sense the location of the medallion. I could feel its presence, but only faintly. He didn’t have it on him anymore – no, it was downstairs in the cellar, I was almost sure.
‘I’d love to hear about your group,’ Alice said in a breathless voice as she fixed her enormous grey eyes on hi
s face. ‘I’m so sorry we didn’t make it to the meeting. Why don’t you tell me what I’ve missed?’
In that moment, I no longer existed for Willem, but I was used to that after hanging out with Alice for all those years. I slowly edged my way over to the stairs leading to the basement, and Alice too moved, Willem following her closely until his back was to me.
The beaded curtain – that was going to make a noise, no way around it. I pointed to it, and she nodded.
She took a deep breath and we timed it exactly.
‘Owww!’ she screamed out, and bent to hold her calf in her hand.
Good old Alice. I was through the curtain in a flash and down the dark staircase with hardly a ripple of the beaded curtain.
‘Charley horse!’ I heard her explain to Willem. ‘Oh, that’s better. Thank you. How’d you do that? You really have a good touch.’
She’d let him touch her leg? I was impressed with her acting abilities. I left them murmuring together as I switched on the flashlight app from my phone. Nothing had changed down here since my last visit, except that the stone cellar was noticeably colder.
In the blue light, I could see that the piles of smoky junk from Zeta’s store hadn’t been moved at all and the air still tasted of ashes and ancient dust. I took a deep breath and sent out feelers for a hint of the medallion. Yes, I could sense its presence somewhere here, but it was still elusive and I could not get a grasp on its location.
These sensors of mine were pretty reliable, I knew. I could always find Edna’s keys and other lost items by standing still, thinking about them and somehow thus locating them in space and time. I never told my aunt I was using witch power for this though, she always commented on my terrific memory.
It’s hard to explain just how it worked. The sense acted like another nose, if you can picture invisible octopus tentacles but with sniffers at the end, sort of like that. The mental feelers I sent out were looking to match the feeling of the object in my mind.
I moved deeper into the space and the feeling of the medallion grew stronger, but the space itself was now empty save for the ancient wooden door at the end, the one which led under Duckworth Street.