by J M Guillen
“’Licia?” I leaned a bit forward. “You okay?”
“Jax.” Alicia chewed on the word, as if she tried to make sense of it. “Baxter, you said Aiden felt certain Jax was not the creature’s actual name?”
“Creature?” I made a show of an over exasperated sigh. “When did we step from ‘mysterious contact’ to ‘creature’?”
“Right.” Baxter tapped the journal, still on the table. “That’s the one flaw about Aiden’s made-up language. ‘X’ and ‘K’ and ‘CH” are kind of interchangeable.”
“No, that’s not what I’m asking.” Alicia rubbed her temples for a moment, like she listened to something we couldn’t hear. “I’m asking if it’s possible there is an entirely different name, and this is just the name Aiden knew.”
“I guess so.” Baxter shrugged. “With all that’s happened, I won’t claim anything’s impossible.”
“What is it?” I felt a touch irritated my fun night with my friends had shifted back to business so quickly.
“Abriel has memories of many of Simon’s contacts.” She gazed around the table, just a touch of star-white shine in her hazel eyes.
“Does she remember this one?” Rehl finished his soda.
“One of those contacts was a creature named Black Horn Jack.” Alicia paused. “Abriel remembers the creature as quite mysterious. It lived in Central Park and had a peculiar affectation for riddles.”
“Could be our guy.” I grinned.
“Simon only spoke with the creature a few times. From what Abriel remembers, it held the power to answer literally any question.”
“We need that.” Baxter brightened. “We need that a lot!”
“The creature wasn’t omnipotent,” Alicia continued. “Simon theorized it held the power to answer any question posed, but one would need to play the creature’s games. Or answer his riddles. Something.”
“Simon wouldn’t like that,” I considered. “Not enough control.”
“Right up your dad’s alley though.” Baxter said.
“Simon felt there might be some inherent risk in this process,” Alicia spoke, her voice fairy soft. “Abriel doesn’t trust it.”
“Goodie.” I sighed. Why couldn’t anything ever be straightforward?
“But we’re still gonna go, right?” Baxter turned from Alicia to me. “I mean, just because something seems stupid doesn’t mean we don’t do it, right?”
“No, we’ll go. It’s too much of an opportunity to pass up. Even if he doesn’t know where Dad or this other group is, we might be able to get some more answers.” I gazed around the table.
“We’ve been in the dark about almost everything here.” Rehl leaned back in his seat and dug in his pocket. He pulled out the car keys and slammed them on the table. “I’m ready to go when you guys are.”
“Let me grab the check.” I scooped up the receipt and walked toward the front of the store. While I waited in line to pay, my mind scrambled to come up with the best possible strategy for this evening’s little adventure.
If there were one thing Simon had taught me, it was the value of being prepared.
2
Not fifteen minutes after Rehl had parked the car, I broke rule one.
“So here’s what I think we should do.” We still sat in the car, and I poured over one of the free maps the city provided. “We park here and split up into two groups. I really don’t expect any problems tonight, we’re only here for information.”
“We just want to confirm Jax is here.” Rehl waved one hand. “Black Horn Jack. Whatever.”
“Exactly.” I gave him a smile. “We’re not here to cause any trouble. We don’t want a dangerous evening.”
“So, what?” Baxter shook his head. “We’re supposed to walk around the Ramble and just… look for a guy?”
“I know it’s not much to go on.” I turned to Alicia. “If this character is the same guy Simon knew, did Abriel ever go with him when they spoke?”
“No.” Alicia frowned. “Abriel has no information on what Black Horn Jack even looks like.”
“Consider this recon, Bax. We’ll scout for anything unusual. Anything my father might describe as ‘twilight cloaked,’ for example.”
“I bet Knucklebones had walkie-talkies,” he groused.
“It does. With headsets.” Rehl turned from Baxter to me. “New rule. When we go on campaign, we always swing by the store first if we can. That way we can gear up.”
“That’s a decent rule.” I nodded and handed Baxter one of the maps.
“Do we set a rendezvous time?” Baxter glanced at his calculator watch. “Maybe meet back here in two hours?”
“The park closes at one.” Rehl tilted his head toward Baxter. “If we meet back here in two hours, we’ll have plenty of time to decide what to do next.”
“We’re just out for a walk,” I said sunnily. “Just an evening walk in the park.” Inside, however, I already suspected the truth. Nothing so far had been a walk in the park.
I couldn’t imagine things would change now.
3
Forty minutes later, all I’d done was get uncomfortably damp.
“This is stupid.” Rehl shook his head, though I scarcely saw him in the shadows. “We’ll end up dead in the Lake. You watch.”
“You, maybe,” I whispered. “I was smart enough to partner up with someone slower than me.” I grinned. “Thank God Baxter shot you in the leg.”
“He barely grazed me,” he scoffed. “Liz, I could bench press you. In Central Park, no one chases guys who look like me.” He flexed a bicep to prove his point.
“I assumed that was because of your face,” I muttered.
As if I hadn’t spoken, he went on, “Even if they did, I’d just knock you down and keep running. Then Miss Lawson would be all alone in the Ramble. Easy pickings.”
“Alone?” I scoffed. “Rehl, no young woman is alone as long as she has her Beretta 92.” I turned to one side in the dim light and opened my leather jacket to let him see the weapon I had smuggled from Knucklebones.
“You brought an unlicensed gun into the park?” I couldn’t see how wide his eyes had gotten, but I didn’t need to. I could hear it. “What the hell were you thinking?”
That I can’t keep blowing myself out in magical battles, I thought with a surly sigh.
Rehl glared.
“I’m thinking, even if you do get ahead of me, you won’t be after I wing you.”
“Ridiculous,” he huffed. “You’d never—”
“Shut it.” I held up a hand and froze in place. “Look.”
Faintly silhouetted in the light of the moon, a lone, cloaked figure walked through the Ramble.
“Ha!” I didn’t quite squeal, as that would have been undignified. Instead, I quoted the text my father had left. “‘Ramble ’neath the silvered moon, twilight cloaked!’ It’s him!”
“It’s some creep who wants to hook up for the evening.” Rehl’s hand found my shoulder. “You don’t have any proof of anything else.”
“He wore a cloak!” I gestured emphatically, even though the dim light lowered our visibility. “There’s no renaissance festival anywhere close, as far as I know, and the con’s long done.”
“He’s a flasher,” Rehl sighed. “I know you don’t spend much time in New York anymore, Liz, but that’s probably a trenchcoat.”
“I guess we’ll find out.” Before he could say another word, I stood up, making no further attempt to hide in the bushes.
The pedestrian, not ten yards away, halted in place.
“Evening, Jax.” I spoke the name clearly and stood as tall as possible. “We should talk.”
The figure cocked his head, as if taking measure of the stranger before him. A long moment passed, and I almost believed he hadn’t heard me.
“No.” He spoke softly, an unusual melody wound through that single word. “We shouldn’t.” And with that, he ran like a hart through the shadowed wood.
Shit. Without a second thought, I sprinted after him.
“Liz!” Rehl had scarcely stood before I’d leapt three steps away. He might have a lot more muscle than I did, and he might have more endurance, but sheer speed? On a wounded leg?
No way. I was built to run.
Tearing through the shadows, I fought to keep the elusive figure in sight. Occasionally, he ran past a few stray beams of moonlight, and when he did, I saw a tangle of black hair as well as a cloak swirl behind him.
“Liz!” Rehl called again as he gave chase a decent distance behind me.
I didn’t want him to get too far behind, but at the same time, I’d be damned if I lost sight of our fleet-footed friend.
We needed answers.
The slender silhouette scampered down a short hill and leapt a dry creek bed. Without a glance behind, he took a hard left and ran deeper into the Ramble.
I followed, pushing myself all out. I hated to run this fast in the dark over unknown terrain, but I had little choice.
The cloaked figure stopped for a moment at a low stone wall and pulled himself up. Once on top, he paused and peered back to see if I still followed.
I did.
The moment he realized it, he slid down the other side.
I couldn’t help but grin; that wall had slowed him just a bit.
Dex check, Liz. I picked up speed, kicked my legs forward, and leapt when I got close, shoving off with my hands as the wall passed beneath me.
I grinned; this move had always felt simple. Hope Rehl has his kong vault down.
I landed and continued to run.
The figure gamboled ahead, then darted into a darkened thicket of brush. Without a bit of worry, I darted in, after I made certain I hadn’t dropped my pistol.
Yet after only a few steps, I realized I couldn’t see him. The darkness of the thicket closed around me. I turned back the way I came, but only became more confused.
No matter how I teased him, Rehl had a point. If we got separated by too much, we could be in trouble.
As of this moment, I was already lost in vast darkness.
Where’s the path? I squinted.
“Liz! I can’t catch you on this leg!” Rehl sounded miles away.
I started to call back when I felt eyes on my back, a prickly sensation I couldn’t describe. I turned, and there he crouched, the slender figure I had chased.
He no longer wore his cloak, but I recognized his wild jangle of hair. He hunkered on the branch of a tree, perched delicately. Even though his face remained shrouded by shadows, I saw his eyes glint in the halflight.
“Hello, Jax.” I stepped toward him. “I hoped we might speak.”
He canted his head to one side and spoke, an unexpected lilt to his whispered words. They felt like a honey-sweet lullaby in my mind:
“My back unbroken, reaching for the sky,
My roots deep, seeds planted by one long dead,
Leaves turn in golden autumn, turn in verdant spring,
Silent with fragments of deep knowing,
Speaking without sound, rustles in the wind,
Wrought by one who can never taste my fruit.
What am I?”
“You—?” I shook my head and felt oddly dazed. With those last three words, I felt a gentle, tingly sensation in my chest. “You are a riddler, if my father is to be believed.”
“Answer then, far-runner. Show me who speaks.” An implied command gilded his quiet words.
I chose to ignore it.
For whatever reason, Abriel had seemed highly cautious of Jax and his riddles. I opted to dodge.
“I’m not here to give answers but to find them.” I took another step forward. “My father searched for you once, Jax. He’s missing.”
“Rude to take but never give, childling lost,” he whispered. Jax shifted on his branch, seemingly completely at home.
“I didn’t intend to take anything,” I spoke softly as I slipped through shadow. “I simply hoped we could talk.”
“Hope bears sharpened teeth. You sought more than words.” He shifted closer to the trunk of the tree. “Speak true. You come for a favor. A boon.”
“Perhaps.” I furrowed my brow in slight confusion. Hadn’t I just told Rehl we were nowhere close to a ren fest? The way this guy spoke—
“Yet see, you ever speak in sharp meanders.” He shook his head, and radiated sorrow. “Does truth lie like lead ’pon your tongue?”
“No, I simply wanted to… want to know if you can help me find my father?”
“Yes…” He nodded. “That wends closer to hidden desire.” Then he shook his head. “And yet your searching leads to darkness dire.”
“You know where he is?”
“The manling fool gained shadows which he sought.”
“Tell me!” I stepped closer, and my face flushed with anger.
“No.” For the first time, his words did not carry that odd lilt. “There is no profit in your seeking. I will not bear the hame of your folly.”
“Folly?” I shook my head and tried to keep myself calm. “Do you even know who I’m talking about? My father came to you not—”
“Aiden Shepherd.” Jax tilted his head again and appeared almost owlish. “That is the name he bears.”
“Yes.” I blinked back tears, surprised. “That is my father.”
“Lost.” That one word struck me like an iron hammer. “He wanders ’pon a shadowed road.”
“And you won’t tell me how to find him?”
“He sought darkness.” Jax dropped from the tree branch and landed soundlessly on the soft ground. “He would not wish you follow.”
“Why?” I hated the panicky, little girl lilt to my voice. “Why did he seek darkness?”
“Follow the path back, ere you be wayward.” He nodded and pointed behind me. “The Twilight is not kind to mortal-born.”
“Not without answers, Jax,” I spat.
The shadows rustled, and he was gone.
“Fuck!” I stepped forward, and my eyes darted about, searching in the gloom.
“Liz?” Baxter’s voice called from somewhere off to my left. “Please let that be you and not some kind of park monster.”
Baxter and Alicia had caught up. Seemed the party might converge.
“It’s me.” I called back loudly enough for him to hear. “Rehl is somewhere behind me. I think I’ve got Jax, and I’m chasing him. Follow me!”
Without waiting for a reply, I sprinted into the dark.
Because that…
That was the smart thing to do.
4
I pushed my way through thorn and bramble, thankful for the thickness of my motorcycle jacket. Once on the other side, I caught a fleeting glimpse of Jax as he sprinted across the moonlit meadow toward the darkness of the other side.
“Gotcha, asshole.” I sprinted after him.
The air felt cool upon my skin, just a few degrees above actual cold. The park swirled with more mist than it had earlier, which gave the entire area a haunted, spectral aura.
I felt comfortable under my jacket, still, I couldn’t help but think Baxter had been right.
We needed to plan a little bit better for these missions.
Jax capered down the far side of a rise before he ran into a darkened thicket.
I prayed inwardly that my friends followed at least somewhat close on my tail. The park was larger than I’d expected, and I felt woefully lost.
Leaping over a fallen log, I followed Jax down a bare earthen path. We ran past several small ponds, which shone in silvered moonlight. The further we went, the larger the trees grew until, eventually, truly ancient groves surrounded us.
I rounded a corner between two large stones, wondering if Jax would ever tire, when I came upon him.
He crouched on top of a large, stone statue of an elk and gazed down at me owlishly.
“Oh!” I muttered in surprise. “There you are.”
I really needed to work on my witty banter.
“You chase, tho twilight warned.” Jax’s m
elodic voice haunted me. “Ne’er knowing what in strangeling darkness may be born.”
“Yes, I chase.” I breathed a little hard but stepped forward. “I need answers. I understand you might have them.”
“And yet I offered once, with full regard.” Jax titled his head to one side, and his dark eyes gleamed. “My answer’s given, what e’er you seek.”
“You mean your riddle.” I frowned. Riddles had never been my strong point, much to Dad’s chagrin. “Do you expect I remember those lines you spouted? Every word?” Yet even as I asked, I knew the truth. The merest attempt to remember Jax’s riddle brought back that fluttery tingle in my chest.
I could remember it. My eyes grew wide. I remembered it perfectly.
“My back unbroken, reaching for the sky,
My roots deep, seeds planted by one long dead,
Leaves turn in golden autumn, turn in verdant spring,
Silent with fragments of deep knowing,
Speaking without sound, rustles in the wind,
Wrought by one who can never taste my fruit.
What am I?”
“Answer well, and your boon is made.” He paused. “Pact struck.”
“And if I get it wrong?” I fixed him with one eye. “Will you eat my heart or turn into some kind of bat demon or something?”
“To be certain, no uttered truth shall come.” Jax shook his head. “Wayward you shall remain.”
“That’s it? No secret catch?”
Before he could answer, an eldritch wail echoed from the deep wood, a haunting cry from between those ancient trees.
Jax froze in place at the sound, furtive. He simply gazed at me, dark eyes wide, as the bone-chilling howl cast its way through the wood.
That sound was followed by another, which only made Jax’s eyes widen more.
“Liz!” Baxter cried from somewhere within the shadowed forest close behind me. “I’d love to know if you’re pretty close right now!”
“Here!” I called out yet kept my gaze on the anxious Jax.
“Mortal-kith wandered wayward at your side?” He breathed the words into mist. Jax shook his head, fascinated wonder plain on his face. “The Twilight is ever-hungry, Aiden-kin.”