Sister's Keepers

by Belinda White

  "I'm pretty stocked, but you might pick up an extra gallon of milk and some extra syrup for the griddle cakes," she called back. "Be safe out there."

  "I will." I looked over at MacDougal, who was just starting to show signs of life. "Wanna ride with me?"

  He shook his head then groaned. "I thank ye for the kind offer, but methinks I'll just lay here quiet like until the room stops moving about quite so much."

  I grinned. He'd chugged more than one mug of the pub’s green beer last night. Seems leprechauns were just as susceptible to hangovers as us human folk. For some reason, that made me happy. I let Maggie and Rebel out for their morning constitutionals as I left. Rose hadn't yet installed a doggie door. Probably wouldn't for safety reasons. I mean, you don't want a neighborhood dog wandering in by accident when Lily happens to be in fur form. She's a pretty small bunny.

  In less than a half hour, I was back and in the kitchen with Rose making breakfast. She took charge of the pancakes and I started the cinnamon rolls. Being the kind you just took out of the can and put on a cookie sheet, I got the easy part. When they were about done, the smell of rolls and hotcakes had everyone gathered at the table.

  To forestall trouble, Rose had Lily bring in her desk chair for MacDougal. The purple chair was strictly for Coyote's use.

  We ate in silence, all of us in various stages of waking up. After breakfast, I got a couple of aspirin from my purse and handed them to MacDougal.

  He looked at them curiously. "What be these?"

  "They're called aspirin. They help take away the pain of headaches." Before I could stop him, he had them popped in his mouth, chewing. I had to laugh at his expression. "You swallow them whole with water."

  "Now ye tell me," he said. "I was thinking maybe the cure was worse than the pain."

  "You two sure are getting along better this morning," Rose said from behind us. I jumped. And I thought wolves were stealthy.

  "We bonded last night over our hatred of basements," I said.

  We gathered into our places in the living room, each choosing the same seat as last night. I kept expecting Coyote to show up, but he must not have liked how things were going with our guest of honor. I knew he'd been hoping to banish MacDougal from our realm for good, and it didn't look like that was going to happen. Or maybe he was despondent over the thought of Titania possibly sending multiple leprechauns over to embattle him. Perhaps he had decided to quit while he was ahead. If so, he might be smarter than I thought he was.

  Rose had given a lot of thought to the wording of our one and only question. She'd asked for my approval of it before breakfast. Looked okay to me, but then what do I know about wording a faerie question?

  She looked at MacDougal and in a serious tone asked, "Are you ready to hear our question?"

  MacDougal nodded.

  "Okay, this is the question we want to be answered accurately and completely. It is actually a very simple question. Where, exactly, can we find Taz's sister, Odella Hunt?"

  The leprechaun looked over at me. "Sadly, she is no longer in this realm."

  I took a deep breath, trying to control my emotions. She was dead after all. Still, he hadn't answered the question. At the very least, my sister deserved a decent burial by family and friends. So, I waited. I was half afraid that if I asked another question before he answered the first it would give him a loophole. And dead or alive, I wanted to bring Dell home.

  MacDougal smiled. "Tis not so dire as all that, child," he said. "Your sister is alive and well. In Faerie."

  My breath caught, rendering me speechless. Good thing Rose had my back. "Dell is in Faerie? How did that happen?" she asked.

  "That is another question and not in the bargain made," he answered.

  “Can you take me to her?” I asked, holding my breath.

  Rose opened her mouth, but MacDougal beat her. “Alas, dear wolf, I cannot. No Fae may bring in a human without Royal permission.” He shrugged. “I have no way to communicate with my queen while in this realm.”

  "But we asked where we could find her, and if she is in Faerie we cannot find her," Rose said. "Does that make our first question void?"

  I held my breath. Again.

  "Not void at all, dear lady. After all, you are Benandanti, and your ancestors long traded favors with Faerie for information. Only in the fairly recent generations has that communication stopped. To find Taz's sister is not beyond your means. You must simply restore the Benandanti-Faerie communication lines."

  I leaned forward in my chair and started to volunteer when Rose deliberately put her arm in front of me. "Don't say a word yet, Taz. Our ancestors stopped communicating with Faerie for a reason. We need to do some research before rushing into this."

  I just looked at her. This was my sister. My alive and well sister. I would do anything to get her back. I couldn't believe Rose of all people didn't understand that. But while I was deliberating what to say to her, she turned back to MacDougal.

  "Do we need a faerie such as yourself to re-establish the flow of communication? Or is this something we can do after we think about it?" Rose asked.

  "A Benandanti may choose to re-connect with Faerie at any time. A faerie presence is not required. Queen Titania has long been fond of your people and has kept tabs on you over the centuries, even after you severed our two-way communications," MacDougal answered. "A sad, sad day that was in Faerie."

  "How do we re-connect?" I asked.

  "Tis simple. Simply write down your wish to re-establish communication with the Faerie realm and sign your true given name to it."

  I opened my mouth, but once again Rose stopped me.

  "This re-connection with Faerie. Does the connection only apply to the Benandanti who signs the pledge or to all the Benandanti?"

  Oh. I saw her point. As much as I wanted my sister back, I didn't have the right or authorization to speak for the entire Benandanti race.

  "What a fine question you ask, my lady," MacDougal praised her. "In the original negotiations between your race and ours, the Benandanti decided they wished to make the connection on an individual basis. Only those who wish to trade favors for information need pledge to communicate with Faerie. One's pledge will not affect any other than their very own self."

  "And it remains that way even to this day?" I asked. "If I make the pledge, it won't affect anyone but me, right?"

  "That is correct," he answered.

  "And if I agree to make the pledge, can you guarantee I can find Dell?"

  He shrugged. "I know that she is to be found in our realm. In point of fact, she is in Titania's own court. I see no reason you would not be able to find her." He shook his head. "Alas, however, it is not me place to guarantee such a thing."

  My eyes were darting around the room looking for paper. Rose saw my quest for what it was and placed her hand on my arm. "If Dell is in the queen's court, then she should be safe for a time yet. You owe it to both yourself and your sister to do this right." She glanced over at MacDougal. "Let's send our new friend on his way home, and then we'll discuss this before you make your pledge."

  Reluctantly, I agreed. We'd see the leprechaun to his Faerie gate safely and then when I got home, Rose or no Rose, I was signing that pact.

  Dammit to hell, I wanted my sister back.

  Chapter 8

  IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG to see MacDougal to his gate, as it happened to be just inside the borders of McCormick's Creek state park and less than a mile from my tiny house. Just before he crossed over, I handed him my gift. A grocery bag filled with boxes of Lucky Charms. His eyes actually grew moist.

  "We faeries don't befriend a human on a whim. But you, Tazlyn Hunt, have a friend in Ian MacDougal. Because of our bargain, I can't say I'll come to yer aide if you call upon me. But if ever ye find yourself in the other realm and need help, know that ye have a friend there.”

  I nodded, more affected than I like to admit. I was starting to feel guilty about this whole banishment thing. "If I'm ever there, how woul
d I find you?"

  "Ye know me scent, child. Besides, I'm not hard to find at all. All the faerie folk know good ole MacDougal." And with that, he gave a jaunty little wave and stepped over an invisible line and out of our realm.

  Part of me wanted to see if I could follow him. Maybe I could find my sister myself. I took a step forward, but Jed held me tight. "Even if you could cross, you may not be able to come back. It'd do no good to have you and your sister both trapped in Faerie." He kissed the top of my head. "We'll get her back, but I don't want to lose you doing it."

  I hugged him. I didn't want to lose him either. We walked back to where we'd parked the Jeep hand in hand.

  "You do know I'm signing that pact, right?"

  "Yup," he said. "All I ask is that you hear what Rose has to say first." He held his hand up to stop me from arguing. "Not that I'm saying to allow her to change your mind because I'm not. I don't think that is what even Rose has in mind. We just want you to have all the facts so that you will know exactly what you are getting into, and how it will affect your life from here on out."

  I was quiet. There really wasn't anything to say. I'd listen to what Rose had to say, but no matter what, I'd be signing that pact.

  It was a silent drive back to Rose's. Each of us lost in our own thoughts. Would I be able to find the Faerie gate again? And would I be able to cross it? Maybe I could get a peek at Rose's family journals. Were there instances of the Benandanti actually going to Faerie? Jed was right, there were things I needed to know.

  ROSE HAD THE JOURNALS out on the kitchen table when we got there, and she and Lily were searching through them. Jed and I joined in.

  "For future reference capabilities, I think we should enter these into the computer," Lily said. "Number one, that way we could have backups in case anything happened to them. But number two, it would really make it easier to find the references we are looking for because we could just do a simple search."

  Jed nodded. "That's a very good idea. We could all take a journal to key in, that way we would share the work. Then put the files on a thumb drive and share it with the others. That is if Rose is willing to share her family's journals."

  "They are more Benandanti journals than family heirlooms. The information belongs to our entire race, not just my family. We have always been the record keepers so to speak of the Benandanti. The chroniclers."

  I smiled at her. "That explains your writing ability, I guess. Sounds like you come from a long line of writers."

  "You could say that, yes," she said.

  I looked at the table loaded down with books. All filled with tight handwriting. I opened one. At least the writing was legible.

  "So where do we start?" Jed asked.

  "Actually, I've been re-reading these journals ever since the Coyote asked for our help, and I think I've weeded out all the faerie references." She held up a small notebook. "This is a list of journal and page numbers to all the references if you'd like to look yourselves." She must have noticed my grimace. "Or I can give you a rundown of what I found."

  "A rundown would be great," I said. Not to mention a heck of a time saver.

  I glanced at Rose. She was smiling. "It's not what you think. Not this time anyway," I said, fingering one of the journals. "These are books I actually want to read. They have so much information about where we came from, how we got to where we are today. Information my parents didn't have the time to share with me." I looked back up to Rose. "It's just that right now..."

  "Right now, your main concern is getting your sister back," Rose finished.

  I nodded.

  She reached over to pat my arm. "Dear, if my brother George ever went missing, I swear I'd go to Hell itself if I could find him and bring him back."

  Okay. So maybe Rose did understand after all.

  "So, you're really not going to try to talk me out of this?"

  "That would be an impossible task, now wouldn't it? All I want is to make sure you have all the information you need. For before and after your pact."

  I hugged her. It was really good to have not only a pack but friends to boot.

  "Okay, everyone, gather around the table and I'll give you the history of the Faerie to Benandanti connection." She grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and sat down in her customary chair. She always took the red one. Lilith favored blue, mine was green, and Jed had inherited Rebel's yellow chair. Now that Reb's place was by the fire with his lady.

  "Feel free to stop me with any questions you may have, though I warn you I probably won't be able to answer them. But maybe a group discussion will shed some light, or at least possibilities, to the gray areas," she said.

  We all settled in for Faerie Connection 101.

  "Centuries ago, before the Roman Inquisition when we had to go underground, the Benandanti spread out across the land. They did this primarily to be able to spread their protection to more people. Each couple of Benandanti chose a village to live in and protect. Of course, the secondary reason for the spread out was the fact that most Benandanti are indeed wolves. And wolves are very territorial creatures."

  Everyone looked at me. I shrugged. "It's what we are."

  "Being His good walkers," Rose continued, "it was our highest priority in life to keep those under our protection safe from evil. At that time, the most prominent enemy seemed to be witches. But that is a tale for another time." She paused to sip her water.

  "One day, a Benandanti mother was approached by a very beautiful young lady who called herself Tania. The Lady said she had information about a Melandanti that was going to start preying on the children of the village. The mother didn't want to believe her but knew there was a new were who had just moved to the settlement. The shifter had not made a request to join the pack, choosing to stay off to himself. The mother had figured him to be a lone wolf and not a threat. Of course, being a good walker, the mother couldn't dismiss the lady's warning out right. So she watched the new wolf very carefully."

  "Did he really kill a child?" Lily asked, horrified that a werewolf would stoop so low.

  "He would have. But because of the lady's warning, the Benandanti mother was there to stop him from taking the child's life. Justice was served and the child was saved. As luck would have it, the child he had chosen for his first victim was none other than her own little girl. A Benandanti child."

  "Which naturally led her to be very grateful to the beautiful lady Tania," I guessed. "Who just happened to be a faerie."

  Rose nodded. "Very grateful indeed. So much so that when the lady asked her to join a pact to trade favors for information such as this to better protect her village, the mother did not hesitate. Of course, at that time they had no knowledge of the Fae or what they were capable of."

  "Did it work?" Lily asked. "Did the faeries actually help them save lives? If so, why did we stop the connection? The highest priority is to save our village, right? Even if that means dealing with those we'd rather not deal with?"

  "It turns out it wasn't quite as black and white as that," Rose said. "For centuries the Benandanti used the information the Fae gave them to protect their people, true. But at the same time, the Benandanti had to trade favors. Usually, they were odd things that didn’t make sense at the time. But one day, not too long in the past, one wise Benandanti started to add things up. To see the bigger picture as it were. Our people always knew we were being manipulated of course, but we also thought that the good we were doing outweighed the bad."

  "They were using the Benandanti for evil, weren't they?" Jed asked.

  Rose nodded. "Small things, but they were starting to add up. The Fae had gotten to the point that they believed us too dependent upon them to stop. And their demands started growing more daring."

  "So, we severed the connection," I said.

  "Yes," Rose said. "My great grandmother was the last to deal with the Fae. Even once the Benandanti decided to end the pact, it lasted until the last Benandanti that signed their name to the agreement died. Granted
it was one-way communication. Faerie to us. The Fae couldn't force us to grant favors or accept their information."

  "Why didn't the communications just end?" I asked.

  Rose looked me in the eyes. "Because the Fae demand a lifetime pact."

  "Okay, let’s slow down and think things through here," Jed said. "This smells an awful lot like that faerie manipulation thing. First of all, you said the beautiful lady that started this whole thing was called Tania...could that have been short for Titania? Do faeries live forever?"

  "Time passes differently in their realm to be sure, even for humans as evidenced by the tales I've heard. But even with that, the faeries are near to immortal as far I can tell. I mean, I believe they can be killed, or at the very least hurt by things such as iron and steel. It's just really, really hard to do." Rose thought for a minute. "It is quite possible that Tania was indeed Queen Titania. It would make sense that it would require a high-ranking faerie to form a pact with the Benandanti."

  I thought back to our conversation with the leprechaun. "And MacDougal did say that the queen has been keeping tabs on the Benandanti for centuries..."

  "You're right, he did," Jed said. "Which makes me think even more that this is nothing more than a plot to reestablish the pact."

  "If Titania has been keeping up with us, then she will have known about our connection with the Coyote. It is possible that she sent MacDougal here as a ploy to involve us. Even if we hadn't planned to ask the loaded question, the leprechaun could easily have steered us to it," Rose said.

  "Is it possible MacDougal could have lied to us?" I asked, my heart dropping.

  I could tell a part of Rose wanted to say yes, but her honesty wouldn't let her. Besides, I would have found out the truth for myself eventually when I read the journals.

  She shook her head. "I don’t think so. The book says that a faerie is honor bound to speak only the truth, at least in our realm. It doesn't, however, require them to give us all the needed information. They can leave stuff out and talk in riddles or just leave themselves huge loopholes. The humans have to listen very carefully to what they say and think through all the possible meanings it may have."