The Time Corps Chronicles (Complete Series)

by Heather Blackwood

  She knew that long ago, people did not leave the confines of home at night, and the wall and the city gate kept the things of the black at bay. But what happened when the evil breached the walls? When it rode through the streets? When it destroyed the world in fire and blood? Or would it be more subtle, as in the days of old, where the dark things waited in the lonely places, the quiet places, to ensnare their prey?

  When had the Unseelie been barred from the human world? Was that when the fear of the dark started to fade? Once there had been old men and women who made a sign with thumb and forefinger, whispering words to ward off the spirits, but they had gone, and their children and grandchildren after them, until the modern people simply smiled and shook their heads at the quaint ways of their ancestors.

  But the knowledge was not completely gone, was it? Astrid thought of the stories that people still told of aliens coming from the dark of space to capture and kill, of vampires and zombies rising from the grave to feast, of men driven mad by evil until they themselves became the very blackest hunger for violence. The stories, however banal or silly, were stories of evil. Fairy stories.

  Astrid knew that there had been times when these creatures had names, and how rituals of knots, water, salt, mirrors, magnets and beads could repel them, even defeat them. And she was about to attempt just such a thing.

  Her mother’s hand clamped around her upper arm and she forced her forward into the mirror house. The governor’s two servants stood behind them, and they moved to stand on either side of Astrid as they stopped before the exact mirror that she had used before. Someone must have told them which one it was, and the only one who would have known would be Bogdana. It was another secret, another betrayal, meaningless.

  Her heart pounded in terror as the song of the Wild Hunt grew louder. The chain around her neck was comfortable, and that would not do.

  “Make the Door,” said the governor. He did not attempt to explain or cajole. It was an order, and he expected her to obey.

  She thought of Sister, the little girl of six or seven, crying and fighting as they whipped her soft skin, or burned her little hands. She thought of her screams as they held her down to cut out her tongue, the blood, the pleas for mercy. She now had no words. No name. The screams of the Wild Hunt became the girl’s screams. The chain tightened, and yet she thought of Sister more. Crying on her palette. Blood on her skin. Blood in her mouth, on her teeth, her lips.

  She was choking, and she pulled at the chain. “I can’t,” she gasped. She fought to pull off the chain, but the more desperately she fought, the tighter it became.

  “Take it off,” said the governor to Bogdana.

  “She’s my slave,” she said.

  “And now she is mine. You will give her to me.”

  “I most certainly will not!”

  The cries of the crowd grew louder and Astrid heard the sound of people running. Then there were several heavy thuds outside followed by shouts of jubilation. The slaugh were landing, and she could not breathe.

  “That is an order,” said the governor quietly. “Give me the chain.” Bogdana, with a look of pure hatred, touched the chain, which loosened. Astrid gasped and pulled in the sweet, clean air. She doubled over coughing, but at least she could breathe.

  The mirror house lurched as slaugh landed atop it. They tore in through the front and back entrances and Bogdana screamed. The governor backed up and his servants flew to his side. Gigantic black arms wrapped around Astrid from behind.

  She did not fight, but instead whispered one word, over and over. And then the floor flexed, and bent, and she fell through, clutched tight in the arms of the slaugh.

  Chapter 43

  “It is finished,” said Pangur Ban. She was sitting on the kitchen windowsill when Elliot came down to have breakfast. Seamus had already made coffee and was sitting at the table while Huginn perched on the baker’s rack against the wall. “We stayed until the sea woman found the bell,” said the cat.

  “You two are amazing,” said Elliot, giving a nod to Huginn.

  “They’re the best infiltration and retrieval team we have,” said Seamus.

  “You are too kind,” said Pangur Ban, squeezing her eyes shut as she turned her face into the beam of sunlight.

  “Tell me about Mick,” said Elliot. “He kept talking about the birdman. Is that you?”

  Huginn made a croaking sound in the back of his throat. “Mick is time sensitive, like you, but he can’t get back to his original time stream, and I’m hoping we can help him. He slipped sideways, into a different time stream, but he also moved forward along the time line. And now, he keeps slipping into different time streams, but thankfully, not between worlds. It’s an interesting case.”

  “I’m working on it,” said Seamus, flipping open the morning newspaper.

  Elliot had just poured a cup of coffee when Neil came in through the kitchen door, bringing a gust of warm morning air with him. “We’re not finished,” he said to Elliot. “There’s a problem. Julius was at the library all night, looking up old records.”

  Elliot wondered how Julius had managed to stay in the library without being caught, but he didn’t have time to ask before Neil continued.

  “He said that Astrid’s grandfather, and yours, died three years before she was born.”

  “But that’s not what Astrid told me,” said Elliot. “She said it was a year after she was born.”

  “She wouldn’t know if she was a just baby,” said Neil.

  “So it’s what her mother said. That’s almost the same thing.”

  “How do you not know when your own grandfather died?” asked Neil.

  “Neither of our mothers will talk about him. It’s like they agreed that he never existed. I think there was a letter when he died, but neither of them went to his funeral.”

  “So you and Astrid only know of his death from your mothers?” asked Neil.

  “Yeah, but they have no reason to lie. And what does that have to do with Astrid and the bell? He delivered it to her, so he must have died after she was born. Simple.”

  “I don’t know,” said Neil. “Julius says that we no longer have a time loop with the bell any more, but we do have an unstable time line.”

  “But we did everything just as we were supposed to. The bell went to the shop in New Orleans, and our grandfather will buy it and give it to Astrid.”

  Neil leaned against the kitchen counter. “How can he deliver the bell if he died three years before she was born?”

  “How do you know he died?”

  “There was a death record, but no record of next of kin. They were never notified.”

  “How did he die?”

  “Train accident,” said Neil absently. It was a good thing Elliot hadn’t known his grandfather or he might have been offended by the thoughtless way Neil delivered the news.

  “And he’s certain?” said Elliot.

  “Julius is a researcher,” said Neil. “He can obtain almost any record, either from our library or almost anywhere else. So yes, he’s certain.”

  Hazel came in with a cardboard box. “I think I got everything you asked for,” she said. “And there was a note taped to your trailer door.”

  Elliot was still staying away from his trailer, giving Luna Park a ten-mile radius in case he needed to enter the area to help Astrid. So Hazel had brought him a few of his belongings. He took the note from the box and opened it.

  “It’s from Yukiko, that girl I told you about,” he said. “She says it’s urgent.”

  “Why didn’t she just call you?” asked Neil.

  “We just had the one date. We never exchanged numbers. I don’t think she had a phone.”

  “Wow, she didn’t give you her number and you didn’t want to call afterward,” said Neil. “It must have been a good t
ime.”

  “Considering the Seelie snuck something into my food and I began noticing the time slips and seeing things, yeah, it was horrible. I thought I was going insane. She probably thought so too.”

  “And yet, she wants to see you.”

  Elliot remembered her kissing him on the cheek, but the note didn’t seem like any kind of romantic invitation. Neil and Seamus had both assured him that Astrid was in Seelie, but she would return safely. But there was no way to know for certain, which was why he was staying away from Luna Park. That way, he could intervene if needed. Besides, if the time line was unstable, anything could happen.

  “I’m going to see her. It may have something to do with Astrid.”

  “I’ll come along,” said Neil, pulling a set of car keys off of a hook by the kitchen door.

  Twenty minutes later, they were at the Seaside Inn. Elliot knocked on Yukiko’s door. When she answered, he thought he caught a flash of movement behind her.

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” she said. “I wasn’t sure you’d get the note, and Mr. Augustus said you quit your job.”

  “I did. So what’s wrong?”

  Yukiko glanced at Neil, and for a moment, Elliot thought he saw recognition in her eyes. He also thought he saw Neil shake his head a fraction, but he couldn’t be sure.

  “Where’s Astrid?” he asked. “You said it was urgent.”

  “Astrid is alive,” she said. “I will be blunt. There’s someone here you need to meet. It’s your cousin.”

  “What do you mean, meet her? Where is she?” Elliot pushed into the room.

  “Wait, it’s not Astrid,” said Yukiko and Elliot felt her touch his arm. But he pulled away from her. Astrid was in the back of the room, looking at him with wide, terrified eyes. She wore pajamas and her hair—her hair was much longer than when he had seen it last.

  “How long was she there?” he demanded, turning to Yukiko, then Neil. Yukiko was flustered, and Neil was unreadable. “How long was she stuck there?”

  “It’s not her, it’s her doppelganger,” said Yukiko.

  Then he saw Astrid’s skin, the scars, and he closed the distance between them. She shrunk away from him and skittered sideways, toward Yukiko.

  “What happened to her?” he yelled. “What did you do to her?” He rounded on Yukiko.

  “Elliot, listen to me!” Her voice was louder than it should have been, and he saw a light, like a flash of lightning. It forced him to stop, just for an instant. “This isn’t Astrid. She’s a changeling—Astrid, I mean. This girl was the human baby she replaced.”

  “What are you talking about? That’s Astrid!” But another look at her told him otherwise. Everything that he normally sensed in his cousin wasn’t there. She had a different feel to her. Yukiko put a protective arm around her shoulders.

  “What happened to her? Who hurt her?” asked Elliot. Yukiko would get about one minute to explain why his cousin was covered in scars and was so damaged that she didn’t seem anything like herself. And then he didn’t know what he was going to do.

  “Listen to her,” said Neil. He was standing too close, as if he was ready to hold Elliot back if he tried to grab Astrid or hurt Yukiko. Elliot hadn’t noticed him approach.

  Yukiko explained it to him. How Astrid was born to the Unseelie people and how this girl was the human child she replaced and who was then kept as a slave to the Unseelie. How Yukiko and Astrid had fallen through a door into Seelie, then escaped to Unseelie. Astrid had allowed herself to become a slave to free this girl who had chosen the name Sister. How he had to take care of the tongueless tortured girl. How Astrid was now trapped.

  He looked into Sister’s eyes, the exact color and shape of Astrid’s, but the person behind them was different. The girl signed something.

  “She says that she is your cousin, but Astrid is your cousin too. They are sisters.”

  “How did you get all that from her making that sign?”

  Yukiko said, “I can translate for her until she learns regular sign language.”

  “But how can you do it now? How do you know Unseelie sign language?”

  “It’s not that. I can just—” she glanced at Sister. “I can just tell what she means.”

  “Tell me the truth,” said Elliot. “You were there at the puppet show and when the slaugh came through and you and Santiago were the ones who captured it. You were there when Astrid went to Seelie. And you were there when I was poisoned and thought I was hallucinating. Now you come back with this girl. Tell me the truth. All of it.”

  Sister was signing something over and over.

  “What is she saying?” asked Elliot.

  “She’s asking if you’re family,” said Yukiko.

  “Yeah, of course,” said Elliot. “Of course we’re family. We’re cousins.”

  The girl eyed him with a mixture of assessment and wariness, but there was also a gleam of defiance to it. It was strange, to have two identical cousins, one of whom wasn’t really related to him. But he didn’t care if Astrid was the daughter of the devil himself. She was still his cousin. He had now simply gained another family member.

  Sister signed to Yukiko.

  “No, I won’t leave you. Not until you want me to.”

  Sister signed more.

  “I told you I won’t leave you. Not unless you want me to.”

  As Sister continued to sign, Yukiko got a strange look. Sister stopped, and the two women stood looking at one another.

  “What is she saying?” said Elliot.

  “She says I’m her cousin too.” Yukiko paused and Sister put her fingers to her lips in some sort of sign.

  “I said I would look after you for a while,” said Yukiko.

  Sister got a stricken look and Yukiko sighed. “I don’t have any family. I’m not even—I’m not related to you.”

  Sister signed something and then pulled her hands into her sleeves and crossed her arms. She looked like she was about to cry.

  “Fine,” said Yukiko. “I’ll be your cousin too if you want.”

  Sister looked satisfied. Neil was almost smiling. As touching as it was, Elliot wanted answers.

  “Now tell me the truth,” he said to Yukiko.

  “Seeing as we’re both responsible for our cousin,” said Yukiko. A moment later, a snow white fox stood in a pile of Yukiko’s clothing.

  A few minutes later, after Yukiko had explained what she was and why she had come to Luna Park, how her spirit ball had been restored and how she could create illusions, Elliot turned to look out the window. The bright summer sunlight beat down on the pink stucco walls and the empty pool. Outside, they had work to do.

  Astrid’s mother had seen his grandfather when he delivered the bell. There was an eyewitness. But eyewitnesses could be unreliable.

  “I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” he said to Neil. “First, call Julius and get Seamus to buy back the bell from the shop in New Orleans. The records showed a man buying it, so it’s either one of us or him. Then, Yukiko is going to help me with an illusion. And then we’re going to Luna Park, and I’m going to save my cousin.”

  “You’ll want to stay close to me,” said Yukiko. “Just to make sure the illusion holds. It’s not just changing your appearance. I have to make her think you’re her father, which means I have to affect both of you at the same time.”

  They stood on the sidewalk outside of Astrid’s house. They waited there until Astrid’s father left for work so her mother would be home alone with baby Astrid. Yukiko studied an old photo of his grandfather that Julius had somehow obtained. Elliot had never seen him. They looked a lot alike.

  Neil was back at the safe house with Julius. Julius should have been almost twenty years younger at this point in time, but he looked just the same to Elliot. He had b
een working on fabricating a death notice to deliver when Astrid was a one-year-old baby. Now Elliot had to do his part. The little owl bell waited in his pocket.

  “Ready?” he said and at Yukiko’s nod, they crossed the street and rang the doorbell.

  His Aunt Carrie looked so young when she opened the door. Her eyes went wide with shock and then she composed herself.

  “Hi sweetie,” he said. “I came to visit you and the baby.”

  “And who is this?” she said, looking Yukiko up and down.

  “This is my girlfriend, Sally.”

  Yukiko offered her hand, and Elliot wondered if it was a way to make the magic more potent through physical contact. But maybe it was just a handshake.

  “I brought a little present for the baby,” said Elliot.

  His Aunt Carrie hesitated, and Yukiko must have been applying her magic, because she then welcomed them in. She led them to Astrid’s room, where the baby lay sound asleep in her crib.

  “Your baby is beautiful,” said Yukiko.

  Carrie looked down at her daughter. “She is, isn’t she?” She had a wistful smile that Elliot had never seen on her. She was so young now, happily married with a brand new baby who had survived a hospital scare. She glowed with contentment.

  He tried to imagine what a regular grandfather would do, even an estranged one.

  “May I hold her?” he asked softly.

  Carrie hesitated and then picked up Astrid and placed her in his arms. She stirred a little, and then fell back asleep, her tiny pink mouth slightly open. She had a faint smell to her, not of diaper or baby powder, but of sweet soft skin and milk. He kissed her forehead. She squirmed awake, and he knew what was causing her pain. The bell in his pocket was cold iron, and this little baby was a changeling, a cuckoo in the nest of her human twin.

  Astrid’s face screwed up in pain and she opened her mouth. Her chin quivered, but no sound came out. Then she drew breath and let out a hearty cry. Carrie took her and soothed her.