by Vance, Ramy
Of course, I thought, a room with a view.
As we drew closer to the room, we could hear music blaring as an ominous voice said, “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to …”
“Who is that?” King Aelfric said.
“Patrick Stewart. Well, Captain Picard. Actually, Patrick Stewart playing Captain Picard,” I said, and now it was the fae’s turn to give me a confused look.
Payback’s sweet, I thought as I placed a finger over my lips. “She’s in there.”
Remi and Aelfric both pulled out their improvised kitchen weapons and said, “We’ll flank her from the left and right. You two attack head on. Let’s end this curse once and for all.”
“And no hurting Justin.”
“Who?”
“The human holding the box. The mission is to get the box away from him and carry it as far from this place as possible.”
Remi nodded. “I know exactly where to take it.”
I’m an Idiot … Seriously, I Am
The plan was simple enough, and given the kind of muscle we had between a dark elf, a ly erg, a changeling and moi (I might be small, but I’m mighty!), it should have been an easy win. Attack, get the box, make a run for it.
Simple-calafragalisticexpialidocious. It was a plan with a lot of potential, a lot of hope. And given that Justin stood inches away from the T.V., his back facing the open door, we should have been a shoo-in.
I’m an idiot, I thought way too late to abort. Because just as the four of us were about to coordinate our strikes, Justin’s neck snapped around Exorcist style, his eyes neon orange. A blinding energy burst out of his body.
The blinding light engulfed us, pushing us together into one ball before Justin walked backward, pushing us out the door we’d entered by. Once we were outside, the strange energy let us go.
Remi and Aelfric landed on their feet, lunging at my poor, possessed boyfriend.
“No!” I cried out, but it was too late. They both crashed into an invisible wall filling the doorway.
“Shield’s up,” a voice that was both Ester and Justin said, before casually walking back to the T.V.
“An impossible mission with a lot of hope—just to ripen us up,” I said, helping Remi to his feet. “That’s the kind of fear she likes to feed on.”
“Fear after hope is dessert, dearie,” Ester and Justin’s dual voice said. “But despair after all is lost … that is the main course.”
Justin cradled Ester’s box in his hands as he took a step to the side, showing us the T.V. screen. It no longer played Star Trek. Instead, it showed the storage room we had left the others behind in. On the screen, we watched as zombie after zombie crawled into the room from the hole we had made, the barricade long gone.
That might have been all right, except that the hole was getting larger as dead hands dug at the sides to widen it. In a few minutes, it would be large enough for them to walk through.
Not that they were waiting until then. Two zombies crawled through and their heads were promptly bashed by Krelis’s rolling pins. But a third managed to get through when the two zombie bodies were dragged from the hole, and two more clambered through. The zombie that got through was dispatched by Ankou, who used the kitchen knife I gave him to gut the undead creature from Adam’s apple to navel.
Way to go, Mr. I-Only-Observe!
Even the abatwas were doing their part by stuffing the hole with items from the storage room, slowing the zombies’ progress.
And all the while, Sonia drew them in with her song. Her face was strained, but I saw a resolve there I’ve seen on the faces of mothers guarding their young, of soldiers fighting to save their squad, of truly selfless beings protecting their loved ones.
She would sing until her family was safe, or she was dead. Whichever came first.
“No, no!” Remi said, banging his fists against the unseen window.
I turned to Deirdre and yelled, “Go—help them!”
Deirdre dashed away. Remi started to follow her when Aelfric’s regal voice cried out, “Stop!”
“I have to save her. I have to—”
“Stand here with us and fight.”
Remi turned to the door, his tainted fists balled up in frustration.
“Are you sure you should be listening to your once king, ly erg?” the dual voice said. The screen’s focus shifted to Sonia as a zombie reached out for her. Ankou pulled the zombie back, but unless we stopped Ester soon, they were doomed. “Run. If you can’t save them all, maybe you can save her.”
The ly erg shook his head. “I stand with my king.”
“Interesting,” they said. “Then perhaps we should ask a more pertinent question: does the king wish for you to stand with him?”
“On my honor,” Aelfric said, placing a fist over his chest.
“On your honor,” the voices cackled. Justin lifted a hand and the T.V. displayed not a storage room filled with zombies, but a brook in the middle of a field.
There Remi stood, his hands relatively clean compared to what they were now. He placed a hand with only a bit of green in the water and dragged his fingers against the stream.
It was daytime where Remi stood, but the line he drew revealed a world sunk into night. And through that portal stepped a lone man.
Orfeo.
↔
“It was you?” Aelfric said, his voice no longer imbued with regal authority; he sounded like he was begging for his murderer to stop. “You? You are the reason Heurodis was killed? The reason my Sonia is blind?”
“Lies!” Remi cried out.
“No lies,” the dual voice said. “I never lie. Ask Katrina—she knows.”
I nodded, my gaze passing from Aelfric to Remi. Before me stood two seasoned warriors on the brink of finding some corner to curl up in and die. I thought about lying to them, using that lie to patch them up enough to stay in the fight.
But it was no good—I could see Aelfric processing everything that had happened before and after his wife’s death. He already knew the truth, though his heart had yet to accept it. Telling him the truth would be the fastest way for that to happen. And once he accepted it, maybe, just maybe he’d get back into the fight.
“Part of the reason Ester’s so good is because she only speaks the truth. A truth that distorts and manipulates, but always the truth.”
“No. The human vampire lies, too.” But Remi’s paniced voice betrayed him.
“Ester always tells the truth, but that’s not the only way to see it. Your hands—I saw them become more deeply tainted with green blood after Jack died. That can only happen if you’re responsible for his death, and since you are the reason Heurodis died, you are the reason for his guilt and ultimately for him charging through a horde of zombies. His blood is on your hands.”
Remi shook his head violently. “No, it’s not true. It’s not—”
“The truth!” Aelfric cried out, his voice so powerful I felt like I should confess everything I’d ever done in my life—like, ever. And I wasn’t the one on trial.
Remi stopped his head shaking, stopped his prattling. Stopped moving altogether. He stared ahead, acceptance painted not only on his face, but on his whole being.
He fell to his knees and said in a distant, sorrowful voice, “A soldier without war is nothing. When I let Orfeo into our realm, I thought one of our guards would capture him before he reached our walls. I believed that seeing a human in our lands would be enough to warrant war. I didn’t know he would slip past the guards, that he would make it to Heurodis’s chamber and kill her. I didn’t know then that my brother, Jack, would take it so hard. He wore that chain for over a thousand years, didn’t speak a word to anyone for over a thousand years. All because of what I’d done. So yes, his blood is on my hands.” He held out his left palm, the one stained with new green blood.
“And the barguests that blinded Sonia? Was that part of you not wanting to hurt her?” I said.
Remi close
d his eyes, the weight of his words forcing out tears he could no longer hold back. “I was trying to force war. If the death of your wife wouldn’t spur you to action, then perhaps the death of your daughter would.”
His calm, detached voice suddenly became imbued with feeling as he thought of Sonia. He opened his eyes and looked at me with eyes that begged me to hear him—were desperate that I hear him. “At that moment, I only saw her as a half-breed child who distracted our king from what must be done. But that was then, before I knew her. Before I saw who she really was and fell in love with her. That is why I did all this. I hunted down Archimago, created this scenario, all to offer my beloved Sonia a chance for closure.
“And look. In doing so, I have given her something much more: our king, her father. You have returned.”
“It’s not me you have to convince,” I said.
Turning to King Aelfric, Remi fell to his knees. “I never wanted to hurt you or Sonia. I just wanted you to open your eyes. Force you to see what a life hidden in the UnSeelie Court was costing us.”
“And so you chose for us to pay another price altogether?” the Elf King asked.
“Aye,” Remi said, lowering his head. He looked into the room; the T.V. had returned to a view of the storage room. Several zombies were inside now, but so was Deirdre. Thank the GoneGods for small miracles.
“King Aelfric,” Remi said, his voice calm as he stared at the scene, “I know I am undeserving, but will you allow me one last chance to serve you?”
The dark elf said nothing.
“One last chance to undo some of the wrong I’ve done.” Remi bent deeper, exposing the back of his neck. Amongst the UnSeelie, this was a request for a dagger to be thrust into the neck.
“What will you have me do?” the Elf King asked, pulling the kitchen knife from his belt.
“What you must. End me now, or free me from my promise to you.”
King Aelfric looked up, pain dancing across his lips. The choice Remi offered him was simple: kill him, or allow him to be killed. It is not easy for a fae to release someone from an oath. To do so means to forgive them everything they have done.
That meant forgiving Remi for the death of his wife, the blinding of his child, and an act so heinous that it led to his suicide. That was a lot for the Elf King to forgive. I mean, could you forgive someone who took away everything you ever loved?
The dark elf’s hand trembled as he wrestled with the choice before him. “My most trusted soldier, my friend. If Death comes to you this day, then let him embrace you as who you were to me—who I would like to remember you as.” King Aelfric dropped the knife and placed his empty palm on Remi’s head. “Rise.”
Remi stared up at his once-upon-a-time king, his hands before him. I noticed the new green stain—Jack’s blood—wash off his hands. So too did the red stain, Heurodis’s blood. Both were gone.
I guess when an Elf King forgives you, he really forgives you.
“Thank you,” Remi whispered, and with the resolve of a true soldier who knows everything is lost, he stood. The ly erg spoke, but not to his king this time. He spoke to me. “You say that this evil spirit is trapped within that plain wooden box.”
I nodded. And just in case he got any bright ideas, I added, “She’s contained there. Breaking the box will release the evil spirit, and I don’t know any way to kill it.”
“You may not, but I do,” Remi said. “For you, for my friends, for Sonia and for my king.”
He lifted two fingers to the center of his forehead as he concentrated. He started to hum, and with that hum I felt a surge of emotions that created a cloud within me. Anger and despair, but also hope and the courage to finally do the right thing.
Remi placed the two fingers on Ester’s shield and pushed. As he did so, his hum grew into a rage-filled scream that burst the shield into a million fractals of crackling energy.
With no shield to stop him, the ly erg leapt forward with impossible speed. Impossible for any being not burning time, and as he moved forward, I saw his hair greying.
He wasn’t just burning some of his time—he was burning all of it.
Grabbing the box from Justin, he cracked it open like an egg. As Ester’s spirit flew out of the cursed item, he sucked in her essence, trapping her within himself.
Finally free, Justin fell to his knees as consciousness left him. I rushed over, pulling his limp body away from Remi and Ester as they continued their macabre dance.
The struggle between the two determined souls only took a handful of seconds. Hardly enough time to pay proper respect to the magnanimous event taking place. Ester struggled to break free, and Remi continued to suffocate her with his very being.
With a crackle that would have sent Zeus himself running in fear, it was over.
Remi’s body stood hunched over as though in prayer, aged beyond recognition. But there was no movement, no rise and fall of breath. No sign of life.
“What … what did he do?”
King Aelfric answered. “A ly erg is granted a single wish that may be asked at the moment of death. Remi’s must have been for the power to contain the hag.” The king walked over to Remi’s unmoving body and placed a gentle hand on his back. “The price of that wish was a soldier’s sacrifice. Death.”
Remember how every fae has a unique “thing”? Seems that a ly erg’s thing is the ability to go out with a bang.
I guess some wishes are still granted in this GoneGod World, I thought as I stared at the fallen ly erg’s unmoving body.
Goodbyes and Goodbyes
As soon as Remi consumed Ester, the zombie horde melted away like a scene out of The Wizard of Oz. And the mindless dead weren’t the only thing that stopped: the snow stopped falling, too. Ester’s curse was lifted.
Not that anyone felt joy about being freed. Ester might have been gone, but what she had done wasn’t about to melt away. Jack-in-Chains and Remi were gone, and there was no magic in this world to bring them back.
Justin came out of his possession as though waking from a coma. I got down on the floor and held him tight as he slowly started to comprehend what had happened. He might have had a demon pulling his strings like some shadow puppet, but it was his body that did everything, his eyes that saw everything, and his being that would, in time, remember everything.
“I ... I’m so sorry,” he eventually said.
“Shush,” I whispered in his ear. “I’m just happy you’re safe.” But that happiness quickly became pain as I thought about what I’d have to do to make sure Justin stayed safe.
Aelfric was already gone, and I knew exactly where he’d gone: to Sonia, to make sure she was all right. So Justin and I stayed where we were and waited for the others to come.
They did. First Deirdre rushed in with the look a mother wears when she’s found her lost child and sees she’s not hurt. Sonia was next. The blind halfling, led by her barguest Tiny, rushed to Remi’s side, where she held his dead body and cried.
King Aelfric, Redcap, Krelis and Snap, Crackle and Pop (I know those weren’t their names, but I couldn’t remember what Aelfric called them, and besides … come on, if the cereal tastes good, eat it!) and finally Ankou.
The fae reaper looked worse for wear, like he’d ridden Space Mountain when he was expecting the Epcot Center. His eyes were wide, his expression shell-shocked. And I think I knew why: he’d finally understood he was mortal. After an eternity of being immortal and a reaper, I’m guessing you never really think about your own death. Now that the gods are gone and everyone is mortal, well, it takes some Others longer than others for the mortality to sink in.
I knew exactly what he was going through.
But as traumatic as that realization was, Ankou was a professional. He made his way to Remi and put his hand on the ly erg’s head before chanting the warrior’s funeral rites.
I looked at Aelfric, expecting the dark elf to stop the reaper, tell them all of Remi’s betrayal and how the ly erg didn’t deserve an honorable send-off
. But Aelfric did none of that. He just held his head low and respectfully waited for Ankou to finish.
I saw then why they loved him so much.
Next we made our way to Jack, whose body had been shorn to ribbons of flesh hanging loose over his massive frame. Again Ankou preformed the warrior’s rite, while Redcap and Krelis, burning some time, repaired his body for send-off.
With that done, it was time for me to assume my role of Negative Nancy. “We’ve got three dead bodies. This place is torn up. The police aren’t going to accept justified murder, and the school isn’t going to give you back your deposit.”
Everyone heard me, but no one spoke for a long moment until Snap, Crackle and Pop started their shrieking speech. I didn’t understand what they said, but—and I wish this was a joke, but I can’t make this up—they pulled out a shovel, pickaxe and hard helmets from only the GoneGods know where and rushed off.
“Taken care of,” King Aelfric said.
“And the bodies?” I asked.
Redcap stepped forward, holding his orange wig in hand. “We have that taken care of, too.”
↔
We waited until night before placing the bodies in an old-school bus that Redcap owned. I don’t know what was more surprising: that Redcap had a bus, or that someone gave him a friggin’ license to drive it. Either way, we got the bodies inside, careful to respect them as best we could given our suboptimal funeral car.
Redcap drove up onto Pine, then up a winding road that cut through Mont-Royal and toward Beaver Lake, where he backed the bus as close to the water as he could.
Justin and I held back as the fae approached the water, their hands outstretched as they hummed. A kelpie sprang from the lake, its massive, horselike head dripping as it rose. I guessed the rumors about the Loch Ness Monster living in Beaver Lake weren’t an exaggeration after all.
It looked at the fae before fixating on King Aelfric and snorting so loudly they were all showered with lake water. Then it lurched forward, rubbing its snout on the dark elf’s chest.