The Time Corps Chronicles (Complete Series)

by Heather Blackwood

  “You heard her. Release her,” said a woman’s voice. The force pulling them released them and Yukiko spun around, teeth bared and magic flaring. The woman before her was lithe and graceful with curly dark hair. She wore a blue dress and a blue and gold silk scarf tied around her neck. Matching faceted blue gems glittered from her earlobes and from a pendant around her neck.

  Yukiko would use every ounce of her power, even causing her own death, before she was taken again. She drew power and prepared to attack. Electricity crackled the air.

  “No need for that, Kitsune,” the woman said. “I simply wish to speak with my daughter.”

  Chapter 39

  Astrid stood up, brushed herself off and took in the elegant woman before her. There was no resemblance between them at all.

  “You don’t believe me,” said the woman. Her voice was soft and gentle.

  “No, I don’t.”

  “And yet, here you are. Home.”

  “I am simply passing through. I’m Seelie. They explained it to me. Now we’re going to leave.”

  “Then why did they keep you captive?”

  Astrid wasn’t sure what to say. The Seelie had kept her captive to train her so they could control the use of her powers. But she didn’t want to reveal that she was a Door to this woman, this Unseelie.

  “What I mean is this,” said the woman. “If you were Seelie, then you are subject to their queen. If she summoned you, you would have to come. I am sure they did not tell you this. Why would they? It would reveal them for what they are—liars. They kept you because it was the only way to keep you from your own people, your blood relations.”

  “Don’t listen to her,” said Yukiko. The little fox’s fur stood on end and though she wasn’t crackling with electricity anymore, Astrid thought that she looked ready to do something dangerous with her magic. “She’s Unseelie,” the fox growled. “They are liars and cheats.”

  “And the Seelie?” said the woman to Yukiko. “They have been truthful, honest and compassionate to you? I heard rumors that a Kitsune had been captured. I heard that there might not be any of your kind left. I am honored to make your acquaintance. My name is Bogdana.” She gave a little bow and clasped her hands together in what Astrid supposed was a formal greeting gesture.

  Yukiko returned the bow by lowering her head. It should have been a cute movement from the little animal, but instead it looked very grave. “Yukiko,” she said.

  “How did you know I was coming?” asked Astrid. “We didn’t even know.” If the Unseelie knew she was here, would the Seelie know also? She needed to know what she was up against.

  “Both the Seelie and Unseelie have far-seers, and some of us actually listen to them, unreliable as they can be. I hired one shortly after I lost you, to learn if I would see you again and where and when. I visited a few others, and they gave conflicting times, so I simply went to each indicated place at the indicated time, hoping.”

  Her expression was warm, sincere and a little unsure. Bogdana was polished and lovely, but there was a little vulnerability to her, a sort of deep pain. She was taller and curvier than Astrid, her hair dark instead of blonde. But if Astrid was a changeling, that meant that her appearance was made to match that of the baby that her human mother had lost.

  “How do I know you are telling the truth?” Astrid asked. Yukiko made an exasperated noise.

  “You cannot. You have no birthmarks or identifying traits that link you to me. And since you are a Door and are incredibly valuable, what world, what people would not do anything to have you join them? I have nothing but my word.”

  “Why would you think I’m a Door?”

  “Would you come with me? I give you my word that neither I nor the spirits who attacked you will do you any harm.”

  “No, I need to go back home. Sorry, lady,” Astrid said.

  “You can test the theory that you are Unseelie,” said Bogdana. “You will always be drawn to this place and the things of this world will always be drawn to you. They are your brothers, and you are their sister.”

  She thought of the slaugh, coming to her house at night, coming to her place of work, attacking her cat, stacking rocks. The Unseelie had indeed been drawn to her. And opening a door to Unseelie had been so easy.

  Bogdana continued. “Our king or queen will summon you, and you will come, willingly or no. Wouldn’t you prefer to know about where you came from before you are forcibly dragged before our sovereigns?”

  “The Unseelie are enemies of humans,” said Astrid. “The slaugh I met wanted to hurt people. They’re evil.”

  “The slaugh are only one kind of Unseelie. Do you not have evil people among humans? Terrible criminals who delight in harming the innocent?”

  She could not deny it.

  “It is the same here,” said Bogdana. “And among our cousins, the Seelie, it is the same. Even among the Kitsune it is so.”

  One of the guards glanced at them. They needed to get back into the mirror house. But what if what this woman said was true? She had to know.

  “You have five minutes,” said Astrid.

  “There is a place here that serves sweet goat milk where we can chat.”

  The Unseelie version of Luna Park was very similar to the Seelie one. Most of the people appeared human, though here and there walked strange beings. Instead of resembling mostly mammals, they were more likely to be reptilian, insectoid or arachnoid. They were not ugly or frightening, most of them anyway, but they were unsettling. The Unseelie seemed to like similar games to humans and Seelie, like breaking plates with balls, tossing rings onto pegs and throwing balls at stacked bottles. A game caught her eye, one involving shooting needlelike darts at cats and dogs. She thought of Cinderella with a pang.

  The logjam ride, which in her world was a soaring construction that was one of the tallest in the park, was mostly underground here. The water ran red, and howls of delight came from passengers as they plunged into the darkness beneath the earth. A fine mist that smelled like toasting marshmallows rose from the underground tunnel.

  The window serving food was similar to the one in the human world, and the Unseelie man behind it was human-looking. The menu, just as in the world of the Seelie, had no meat, but included cloverseed rolls, mushroom paste rolled in grape leaves, sweet hibiscus cakes, sweet goat milk and cattail juice. Astrid and Yukiko asked for water, in a wooden cup and dish respectively, while Bogdana ordered goat milk, served in a wooden cup with an orange paper umbrella. They found seats at a table under a shady tree covered in thousands of heavy, dangling blue blossoms the size of Astrid’s fist.

  “You asked how I knew you were a Door,” said Bogdana. “I knew from your birth. When you were born, the court took you from me. They tore you from my arms. A member of the court had won a bet with the human father of the infant girl you replaced. One of our kind went through on the appointed day, and somehow convinced the man to wager the child. I opposed it, of course. A dreadful business. But the Unseelie have been trapped for so long, only able to slip through one or two at a time on certain nights of the year. Our brothers and sisters longed for freedom. So they took the only Door born to us in a thousand years and changed you with another infant. You were raised in the human world, are almost completely human, except deep in the depths of your very being, where you will always be Unseelie. Once you were of age, according to your own internal perception of such, you started to be called home.”

  Her father. Her mother had spoken of him now and then. They had stayed married for a few years after Astrid’s birth, but then her father had disappeared. Sometimes her mother had spoken of him fondly, but mostly she talked about how he was a drunk and a gambler. Her poor mother, first stuck with an unreliable man, and then to have him actually gamble away her infant daughter.

  “And I was made to look like the baby?” asked Ast
rid.

  “You were. It is permanent, though there are glamours you can learn to employ if you wish. But I do say, you do not look bad. You were beautiful as a babe also, all rosy cheeks and tiny cupid’s bow mouth. It broke my heart to lose you. Tell me, was your human family kind?”

  Astrid nodded and sipped spring water from her wooden cup. Yukiko was not drinking at all, but was scowling as much as a canine could scowl. Her ears were not back, nor was she baring her teeth, but her physical posture was one of wariness.

  Perhaps she should trust Yukiko. She had stayed by her side and helped her as much as she could under the circumstances. Something was bothering her though, something about the mirror house when she had slipped through to the Seelie world. Yukiko had been there, and she had been there when the slaugh came through the first time. But so had Santiago and she didn’t blame him for the chaos. Indeed, there was no one to blame but herself for any of it.

  “I have a house not far from here,” said Bogdana.

  “We’re not interested,” said Yukiko.

  “You would be guests, and under all of the protection that your status offers.”

  Astrid looked at Yukiko. She knew that in some cultures, a guest was fed the best food, given the finest bed and treated with more honor than any member of the household. To harm a guest was a grave offense. And the mermaid had said that the Seelie frowned upon stealing from a host. There were rules.

  Bogdana rose. “I will leave you if you wish to discuss it between yourselves.”

  “I can’t leave without you,” said Yukiko once Bogdana was out of earshot. “And I wouldn’t if I could. I will see you safely home.”

  “Do you think she’s telling the truth?”

  “It’s possible. You said the Seelie kept you contained with cold iron. If you were truly theirs, then you would be subject to their queen. She would call, and you would come.”

  “So they would have had no need to forcibly contain me.”

  “I had not thought of it, but it’s true. However, there are many types of otherfolk. You could be so many things, and each one would want to claim you. Our own god, Inari, would have offered to make you a Kitsune, if only you would use the power in his service.”

  “I think she might be telling the truth. That first Door I opened in the mirror house was to Unseelie. And at my house, while I was asleep, I let another slaugh through, a mother with a baby. My cat killed both.”

  “Well, that’s one point in favor of Bogdana telling the truth,” said Yukiko. “Tell me, what were you thinking, that first time in the mirror house, when you first saw the slaugh?”

  “Nothing really. I was tired and I was thinking of going home, eating dinner, resting.”

  “Going home, you said.”

  Astrid drank the rest of her water. “Yeah, there’s no place like home, right?” She looked up at the yellowish clouds floating in the lavender sky.

  “I’m sorry,” said Yukiko. “I really am. If this is your home, then I am sorry.”

  “How bad is it? You said you had never been here.”

  “I’ve only heard things secondhand. But the Unseelie are brutal, cruel and lawless. Where the Seelie have order, the Unseelie have chaos. Their only loyalties are to themselves, and they’ll use murder, trickery and cruelty to achieve their ends.”

  “Like your wild foxes?” asked Astrid.

  “Yes, but often worse. There’s the Wild Hunt, and the members of the Unseelie Court are absolutely vicious.”

  “Are some of your wild foxes good, or at least neutral?”

  “Well, yes. Some are decent enough people.”

  Perhaps not all hope was lost then.

  “We’ll just stay for a few hours, then we’ll go home,” said Astrid. “If I’m going to be pulled back here, then I need to know what I’m in for.”

  Astrid waved to Bogdana, who stood a bit off, looking out over the water. She returned to the table.

  “We’ll come with you for a few hours,” said Yukiko. “But I stay by the girl’s side every moment.” At Bogdana’s surprised look, Yukiko said. “I am bound to her. She freed me from captivity, and I am her bondservant.”

  Astrid had no idea what this meant, but Bogdana nodded in understanding. Yukiko must have a reason for what she said. Perhaps it was just a precaution against them being separated again. Sensible enough.

  They left the park by the main entrance, passing the carousel. She was disappointed when it looked very much like the one from Seelie, although this one had a few wolves mixed in among the other creatures. Where the parking lot should have been, there was a wide open space, dirt-covered with patches of weeds. A stable stood to one side. Bogdana paid a fee and hired two ponies. Yukiko jumped up onto the rump of Astrid’s pony and balanced there, looking grouchy and imperious.

  “Just a few hours,” muttered the fox.

  As they rode, Astrid half expected her pony to turn and speak to her, but he never did. They took a wide dirt path toward the hills, then a thinner one that circled a round hill. The large house was built into the side of the hill with ivy-covered stone walls and steep rooflines ending in conical towers on the corners. Astrid loved it on sight. The back of the building cut straight into the hillside, and diamond-paned glass windows covered the front, presumably to let in as much light as possible. A few tiny birds fluttered out from a hiding spot under the eaves.

  It was almost like a castle, though smaller, and here, under the lavender sky, with the strange plants and the odd, tangy smell to the air, it fit.

  They arrived at a large door at the front corner of the house and dismounted. The ponies turned back, winding their way back down the hill, presumably back to their master.

  The front door was huge and arched with no knobs, but rather two heavy metal rings. There had to be a latch or some mechanism to hold them shut, but as Bogdana pulled the door open and they entered, Astrid did not see one.

  Servants stood here and there, all of them hooded figures who kept their faces downcast. They vanished as soon as Astrid saw them, slipping into other rooms or down hallways. The house itself was beautiful, filled with antiques, ornate rugs and historical pieces. Some light came through the front and side windows, and brass sconces held flickering torches that created no smoke or smell, but only light.

  Each room contained differently colored torches. In the main living areas, they were white and yellow, while the library had a greenish light illuminating its shelves of books and scrolls. The sitting room, filled with soft couches, had a friendly pink tinge. And bright yellow illuminated the dining hall with its giant stone-topped table, large enough for twenty, and matching high-backed chairs carved with bird and dragon heads on the armrests.

  Art filled every room, from sculptures in little niches or on tabletops to giant tapestries depicting elaborate stories covering entire walls. There were charcoal drawings and paintings in oils, watercolors and other mediums which Astrid could not identify. She paused often, examining them. In her world, some of them would have been worth a good amount of money, so skillfully were they executed. One particular painting of a horse and dismounted rider climbing a winding path up a mountain caught her attention. The horse seemed alive, as did the man, though his face was turned away from the viewer, his gaze looking up the path ahead of him.

  “He is one of our ancestors. Would you like to see the gallery?” said Bogdana. “We have many other pieces.”

  “Are you a collector?” asked Astrid.

  “I haven’t purchased any of the pieces, if that’s what you mean. I draw. My brother sculpts. My father liked to paint, as did my mother. My mother’s mother wove tapestries and my grandfather was an expert musician, still renowned throughout the Unseelie world.”

  “Your family made all of this?”

  “Our family,” she said. “Do you th
ink you would like to try your hand at some form of art?”

  “I already like to draw. I’m actually going to art school. At Columbia. That’s in New York.”

  “Indeed?” Her mother turned to her with a look of pure pleasure. “I would not have thought the humans would have nurtured any talent you possessed. They do surprise me sometimes.”

  Astrid did not consider her upbringing nurturing, but she hesitated to say so. “Well, I had the materials and took some classes in high school.”

  “And your mother, she must have been so proud of you. Is this Columbia a good school?”

  Astrid vacillated between being modest and telling the truth that yes, Columbia was one of the top schools in the country. She partly wanted to tell Bogdana that her mother had not liked her “scribbling” but she felt oddly protective of her mother as well. The poor woman had lost her daughter and raised a changeling. It was Astrid herself that had driven her to become what she was. Elliot would have disagreed, but he wasn’t here to argue with her.

  “It’s a good school,” said Astrid. “It’s hard to get admitted, so I was shocked when they accepted me.”

  “Do not be shocked. What you are and what you can do means that your creations are so far superior to the work of the humans that they will marvel at it. And if they do not, it is because they are so blinded by their ape nature that they are incapable of recognizing the worth of the things you create.”

  “That’s a little harsh. There are marvelous human artists.”

  “Many of them otherkind,” said Bogdana.

  “But not all,” said Astrid, eager to defend humankind. “And humans are innately curious, innately creative.”

  “As are we, except we are even more so, sometimes to our folly.”