I wanted to kiss her but it would have been like kissing myself so I just shook my own hand instead. “It’s a promise,” I said. “Thank you, Charissa.”
“Goodbye,” Charissa said as my copy began dashing forward; it soon disappeared behind a tangle of tall grass.
“Right then,” Ray said, and I saw that he too had somehow shifted his form to become an exact duplicate of my own. “Now there’s three of you.”
My mouth was wide open. “I didn’t know you could do that as well!”
“Well, since I can maintain this form just by concentrating then the next logical step was to see if I could change it since it’s all immaterial anyway,” Ray said. “So all I had to do was to keep a mental image of you in my mind as a sort of reference point, and apparently it doesn’t take much further effort to transpose that onto my appearance.”
I heard the barking of the hounds; they were not too far away. “I’d love to chat about just how fantastic this all is but we’ve got to get moving again.”
“Right, let’s go.”
And so we went on. With the two of us running side by side it would be very hard to distinguish who was the real me. That gave me a little bit of comfort and I deduced from the sounds behind us that the hunting party had split up in order to go after Charissa’s illusion of myself as well.
I kept on running through several more footpaths and my thoughts turned once more to a feeling of eventual defeat. There was still one big problem to deal with: Since the Erlking could control the moon and there was no way that heavenly satellite would ever give me the time to properly end the hunt, in the end the faeries would still win. But soon enough I had thought of another idea.
“Ray, just follow my lead,” I said while I sprinted ahead of him. “We’re going to take a path back to the bog lands.”
“Back to the dead lands? Why?”
My legs started to ache again but I kept on running. “The Erlking may be able to control the moon in his realm, but let’s see if he can do it in another.”
Sure enough the wooded path ahead of us began to blur as the grayish mist started to get more prominent. I felt the ground underneath begin to get softer as the solid grass began to give way to marshy peat.
But just as we were nearly there, a huge figure loomed ahead of us. I stopped and my concentration was broken as the mists began to recede and the images of the great trees of the forest became dominant once more.
It was Tock. He was riding on top of a very large black goat with silver horns on its head. It bellowed menacingly as it stood in front of us.
The dwarf was carrying an ornate black spear and he leveled it in our direction. “Ah, ’tis my good fortune to come upon ye just in time. I tasked myself to guard the entryways to the faerie realm and half-expected from ye an attempt to leave it before the hunt was over. It looks like my patience has been rewarded and I shall be the one to bring in the quarry.”
I pointed an accusing finger at him. “You’re the one! You told the Erlking that I refused Charissa!”
Tock roared with laughter and he could barely control his billy goat from charging at me. “’Tis true, aye it was me. The wizard tasked me to make sure that ye never leave these lands and he gave me a goodly supply of spirit bottles for my efforts too.”
Ray was quite angry too; his voice was perhaps an octave lower than mine but it was still quite similar. “You cretin! Do you realize that Amicus Tarr couldn’t care less about faeries? He’s in league with your traditional enemies, the Fomorians!”
“I have my own whims and destiny,” Tock said. “The Erlking has always taken the prize of the Wild Hunt but now it shall be me. With an honor like that I shall be given the hand of Princess Charissa and soon I shall become king of the faeries!”
“You’re completely mad,” I said. “The faeries will never bow down to an ugly dwarf like you.”
“Enough words,” Tock said as he hunched forward and prepared to charge. “The time of the hunt has drawn to a close. I shall now take my prize for my ultimate destiny awaits.”
The goat then reared up and let out a roaring bleat before it started to sprint towards us. As Tock leveled his spear towards my chest I couldn’t believe it was all going to end this way.
Ray instantly ran ahead of me as a sort of decoy since we both looked alike. “Move!”
I dived out of the way just as Tock’s spear nearly gored my chest. With Ray standing right in the same spot I had been in, the goat had thought that it was about to collide with me and so it suddenly stopped. Tock’s momentum and his lack of balance after his spear missed made him lean forward and he fell off of his mount.
The dwarf roared with rage as he picked himself up and grabbed his fallen spear. Ray was trying to beat on him but since he was just a spirit his fists kept going through Tock’s head. I dashed into the undergrowth to see if I could escape but the dwarf ignored Ray’s distractions as he ran after me.
I crouched down and started to move sideways, hiding among the tall grass while the dwarf kept thrusting at the undergrowth with his spear, hoping to skewer me like a cornered rabbit.
“I know ye be here,” Tock hissed as he kept thrusting his spear in all directions. “I can smell ye!”
I realized that he was going to get to me sooner or later so I was running out of time. I had thought about surrendering to him but judging from the crazed look in his eyes he would probably run me through with his spear the moment he saw me. That was when a distant thought began to manifest itself in my head. I recalled that Ray had told me that the best defense against faeries was bread and that the faerie attendants in Charissa’s chambers had refused to wash and dry my pullover because it had something in it that repelled them. That was when I remembered what I had in my hoodie pocket.
“Aha!” Tock said when he saw me stand up just ten feet to his right. “There ye are!”
Just as the dwarf was about to thrust his spear at me, I began crumbling the packet of biscuits that was still in the side pocket of my pullover and as he approached I threw the bits of crumbs right at his face.
Tock screamed the moment the crumbs hit his face and they began to melt through his skin. The dwarf dropped the spear as he fell on his knees in pain. I quickly turned around and ran back onto the path where Ray waited.
“Come on,” I said as I started to run and concentrate on the path ahead as it once more became misty.
“I hear horses behind us,” Ray said as he ran alongside me.
The sound of hooves soon became more acute as we kept running but I tried putting that worry behind me as I concentrated on the path ahead in order to transport us back to the bog lands.
The mists ahead of us became dominant once more as the woods slowly began to disappear. It was right then that I saw a gigantic black horse was now galloping alongside me.
“The hunt is over!” the Erlking bellowed as he leaned over and tried to grab my neck but his hand passed right through as he had attempted to take Ray instead.
Right at that moment we passed through the faerie realm and into the land of the dead. The Erlking’s horse started to lose its footing as it slowed down and started to slip on the damp peat of the bog lands. I raced ahead of them and narrowly missed falling headfirst into a bog pit but I was able to adjust my balance as I ran around it and jumped on top of a gnarled tree trunk.
The Erlking wasn’t as lucky as his horse finally buckled and he fell from the saddle and right into a bog pool. The king’s armor weighed him down heavily as he floundered in the brackish liquid. As he grabbed onto some nearby peat at the water’s edge in order to pull himself out, a multitude of pale hands leapt up from the dark waters, grabbed his shoulders and began to pull him into the murky depths.
The Erlking flailed as he tried to fight them off but the hands pulling him down were too many and his head started to slip beneath the black muck. “Help me!”
“I shall,” I said as I moved closer to the edge of the bog pool. “But you must tell me, have
I won the contest?”
The Erlking’s head was now barely above the water. “Y-yes! You are t-the w-winner of the Wild Hunt! N-now help me!”
I took hold of the Erlking’s horse and grabbed the reins, throwing them to him. The king of the faeries grabbed hold of the straps that were tied to his horse and he began to pull himself out. With my guidance the horse started backing away and their combined strength was enough to pull the Erlking out, and he was sitting at the edge of the bog pool a minute later.
Ray was now standing beside me again. He was back to his own appearance and his form took on a grayish, spirit-like exterior once again. “Bloody hell, I can’t believe how that all worked out.”
I grinned. “I couldn’t have done it without you, Ray, even if you were a knob.”
“Oh piss off,” Ray said. “I pulled the double switch with you at the last minute. It was luck that he tried to grab me instead of you.”
The glade beside the copse of silver trees was quiet as the entire assembly of faeries was bowing down in stunned silence and respect. I stood underneath the trunk of the largest tree with Ray and Charissa by my side as I faced the Erlking and his elf ministers. Tock was nowhere to be seen as he had been banished to the lands of the dead for his treachery.
The king of the faeries reached out to the nearest branch of the tree and broke off a bit of it. He examined the branch carefully before the elves standing beside him formed a circle and placed their hands on the silvery limb. A soft chant began and soon the silver tree branch glowed with a faint reddish fire. A short minute later, they all withdrew and the Erlking turned and faced me once more with the branch in his hands.
“As the victor of the Wild Hunt, you are now considered a friend of the faerie realm and you shall be welcome here forever,” the Erlking said as he offered the tree branch to me. “May this item guide you through the many other realms that are out there, and may your travels be safe.”
I gently took the branch from him as he stepped back. “Thank you, sir.”
Charissa smiled as she gave me a playful kiss on the cheek. “The next time you return it will be more than just a kiss.”
I blushed and said nothing.
Ray tried to shake my hand but as usual it just couldn’t be done in his present state. “All’s well that ends well,” he said. “Now what?”
I looked at the silvery tree branch in my hand. “Now comes the hard part.”
Chapter 9
We were both standing along one of the pathways leading away from the main clearing. Charissa said a tearful goodbye to me and begged me to stay with her a little while longer but I told her I needed to take my leave and so she remained behind, moping in her chambers. The Erlking and his court continued their endless feasting as we finally made our excuses and walked off. There was still an occasional winged faerie that greeted us as it flew on by but we were pretty much alone now.
As I stood there I looked at the glowing tree branch in my hands. “You know they never told us how this thing operates. Am I supposed to wave it around like a magic wand or something?”
“From what I remember about the myths and legends at school you’re just suppose to use it like a passport,” Ray said.
“What? I’m supposed to show it for stamping when we pass through customs at the airport?”
“You’re supposed to just carry it around with you, you knob.”
“Piss off, you git,” I said as I placed my arms by my sides along with the silver branch. “There’s one other thing that I just remembered.”
“What’s that?”
“Charissa said something to me a while back and now I’m a bit worried.”
“What did she say to you?”
“She said that time passes differently in the faerie realm. What do you suppose that means?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” Ray said. “In many different stories I read it said that when a human stays in the land of the faeries for too long, something like hundreds of years passes by in the real world.”
My eyes widened. “Oh my God, how long have we been here?”
“Well from the time you had your bath to the time we had the feast, and to the time of the Wild Hunt I would say around four or five hours,” Ray said.
“Then we’ve got to hurry up and get out of here!”
Ray shrugged. “Well, you’ve got the branch so we might as well get started.”
“So what do I do? Just start walking with it?”
He nodded. “I would think so.”
I started walking along the path as Ray moved beside me. “So I should just concentrate on London then?”
“Yeah, that ought to do it.”
Sure enough the ground we were stepping on soon became harder than grass as the forest around us began to shimmer and transform itself into more distant trees and long stretches of green. Within moments the path that we were walking along became a sandy, concrete lane and I noticed some slightly elevated stretches of unkempt grass along with a bench not far from the walkway. There were copses of trees nearby. It looked to be late afternoon so there was still some daylight left.
I looked around. I felt that we were back in London but I just wasn’t sure where exactly. It looked like I was on top of a small hill since I could see the city skyline towards the south. “Where in the bloody hell are we?”
“We’re in a park. I think I remember being here before with my dad. This is Parliament Hill, in Hampstead Heath,” Ray said.
“We’re in the Heath? That’s not far from that old wizard’s house then,” I said as I looked around for Ray but he wasn’t there. “Ray? Where in the bloody hell are you?”
I heard his voice from somewhere close. “I’m standing right beside you, you knobhead.”
“But I can’t bloody see you, Ray!”
“Oh, it seems I can’t see my own hands either,” he said. “So it looks like I’m invisible when I’m back in our world, then.”
I sighed. “Bloody silly this is, now what?”
“Well, since you can still hear me it’s no different than before. The only thing we can’t do over here is play the old switch tactic like we did against the Erlking.”
“Great, let’s hope we don’t have to do that again then,” I said while pulling out my mobile phone from my pocket and turning it back on. “Hang on, it says on my phone that about two months have passed already!”
“Well, that’s not good.”
“You’re bloody right it isn’t,” I said as I scanned the city skyline. Parts of the city were still shrouded in mist and I could see distant fires burning over the Canary Wharf. I could see that a number of skyscrapers had been severely damaged and the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral was in ruins. The whole city seemed eerily silent.
“Steve, I can’t see anybody at all. What happened to everyone?”
A feeling of hopelessness began to wash over me. “One thing at a time, let’s get over to that old wizard’s house and get my sister out of there first. I don’t think we’re that far away, are we?”
“No, we’re quite close. It’s just a few minutes’ walk from here.”
“Let’s go, then.”
Since we didn’t see anyone I just decided to walk out in the open as we passed through Highgate Road until I saw the metal front gate of Amicus Tarr’s house a few minutes later. It didn’t seem any different since the last time I was here so I moved forward to see if I could unlock the gate and step into the grounds. But as soon as I stretched my arm to fiddle with the latch on the gate my hand hit something solid and invisible and I quickly drew back.
“Ray,” I said as I slowly put my arm forward and once again felt something solid in the air, like some sort of unseen barrier. “There’s some sort of force field surrounding the bloody house!”
Ray’s voice was very close. “Yes, I can see a sort of shimmering box of energy that isn’t visible to the naked eye and it’s surrounding the place. I think that old wizard must have cast a warding spell of some sor
t.”
“Do you think he knows we’re coming?”
“Possibly. But then again he might have put this defense up for the Fomorians.”
“Well, whoever he put it up for, it’s clearly working,” I said. “Any ideas on how we could get around this? Could I use the silver branch to reappear inside his house?”
“I would have thought that the branch was for travelling between worlds, not from one place to another in the same world.”
“Let me see if I can do it,” I said as I began to walk along the street beside the old mansion. I tried to concentrate and imagined the great hall of his house in front of me but after a few minutes of walking around, the path didn’t materialize. I cursed out loud in frustration.
Ray’s voice still seemed to be right beside me so it was obvious he was following me around. “Nothing doing then?”
I sighed. “Nothing at all. Help me, Ray!”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Think, for God’s sake.”
“What is it you think I’ve been bloody doing all this time, you tosser. Wait,” he said, and his voice trailed off for a minute. “I think I got it.”
“What?”
“I remember going on the Internet a few weeks ago and there was a news article about tunnels and catacombs in Highgate Cemetery.”
“What does that place have to do with this?”
“Well, when I noticed the warding field over the mansion, it only extended from the ground to the roof and it looks like it protects against the silver branch as well. But his defensive enchantment doesn’t cover the underground bit. He apparently wasn’t expecting anyone to come inside that way.”
I placed my hands on my hips and stared down at the pavement. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
Pagan Apocalypse (Wrath of the Old Gods (Young Adult Series) Book 1) Page 10