“Hag-ridden.” I commented, coming to stand by Raven, and wondering if it would simply run into the wards I had set.
The fox stopped. For a moment, it simply collapsed in place, and I could see his ribcage heaving with exertion. Then, with a shudder, he sat up and slowly transformed into a human. Except his tails. Two of them, fluffy, white, and dragging on the ground.
“Kitsune, and a young one.” I was surprised to see him this far from home. Kitsune were Japanese, usually, and I didn’t recall off hand having to deal with any problems there, the Eastern Court handled their own, with methods I tried not to think about. Far more disciplined than Underhill, I knew.
Dressed in fisherman’s slops and a short, belted kimono shirt (which probably had a better name, but I couldn’t recall it) he was swaying on his feet.
“Raven, greetings from the Lady by the Sea,” he began.
We stood still and waited. His eyes weren’t tracking on us, I noticed.
“She is calling on you a second time, to take pity, and remember the people that were once your children. Succor her, in her time...”
“Oh, hell.” I interrupted him and put the rifle in a startled Raven’s hands. With a wave, I took down the wards and stalked toward the boy.
He saw me coming, and his eyes widened as he turned to flee. I grabbed his arm and he went utterly limp, passed out from fear or sheer exhaustion, I wasn’t sure which.
“Why did you do that?” Raven asked in surprise as I slung the kid over my shoulder.
“That was going to take too long, and he was going to die trying. I’m a sucker for the underdog.” I snarled as I carried my burden toward the house, raising the wards behind me.
I didn’t take him in the house. I was taking enough of a risk bringing him this close, and there were creatures you just didn’t invite inside, not even passively while they were out of it. I laid the fox boy down on the bench, instead. Raven, rifle slung on his back so his hands were free, went inside, and then came back out a few moments later.
“Broth,” he offered a mug of warm liquid.
“I think he’s past that.” I was making a spell that I had seen Melcar do many times. But the breathing and heartbeat were slowing beyond just unconscious. I placed the spell on his chest and waited, quietly. Raven standing just behind me, looking out over the clearing. It was very warm and still, only the birds and insects a low murmur in the background.
The boy slowed to a stop. I mumbled ‘dammit’ and went to work on him, chest compressions first.
Raven took my wrists in his hands, stopping me. “He’s gone.”
I nodded. I knew it, but had had to try anyway. It had happened so quickly, here and then not here.
“Who uses up a child like this, just to run her errands?” I ran my hands through my hair, leaving it on end.
“It was the second message. The first one...” he shrugged. “I believed I had more time, to respond.”
“What happened to the first messenger?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, and he ignored it.
“Did you call Bella to come?” he asked instead.
“No, just told her that I was getting better and would return soon.”
“I am afraid that first, I need your help, and hers. I must call a meeting.”
I blinked. I’d had enough trouble wrapping my head around Raven and his mystic connections and spirit world here, unknown to Underhill for ages, now there were more?
“We have... commitments.” I thought of the wedding, and my mother, and the little time I had left before going back Underhill, not that I wanted to. But Bella was there.
“I know. I can help, somewhat, with the time. But I need help.”
I stood facing him over a body, not trusting my ears. “You need help?”
What kind of threat was this, that had the crusty old spirit, who had to have more power than I’d ever dreamed of, who had given me the gift of magic again... what had Raven, of all beings, spooked?
“I am... we will talk of this later.” Raven broke off abruptly and looked down. “We must give him some dignity.”
I looked down as well. Whatever spells had been keeping the kitsune alive long enough to reach Raven’s home were wearing off, and his flesh was receding, leaving only a skeleton with a thin layer of skin over it. It was like watching mummification happen in quick time-lapse.
“What do you have in mind?” I was weary, suddenly. It was apparent there was no saving the kitsune, never had been from long before I laid eyes on him, but it was such a waste. There were other ways to send messages than the death of a person who was not involved. For all I knew, the kitsune had been a vile man. It didn’t matter.
“I will take him to his wild brethren.” Raven stepped off the porch and flowed into the giant bird-form. He turned a grey eye on me. “Bring him,” he croaked.
The body was dry, light. It was like picking up a loose bundle of sticks. I took a moment to check through his clothing for pockets, setting a couple of items aside for later investigation, before taking it to Raven. He clasped the remains gently in his talons and leapt into the sky.
Reunion
I went back to the house, ignoring the things I’d removed, for the moment, and poured a cup of coffee. Then I sat and thought for a long time. One thing about getting married, she came with a family. If Bella had been any other woman, that would have been... I could have handled a vicious mother-in-law. An honorary uncle who some stories said had a wingfeather in the creation of the world? Well, it was never easy.
Raven came back, quietly, and looking as old as I had ever seen him. I poured a cup for him and we sat at the kitchen table together.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I nudged, gently for me.
“Soon. I want to tell once.”
“So, when Bella gets here?”
He looked up at me. “She is coming?”
I nodded. I had sent her a message while he was gone. “I need to go to town. And I’d rather not get Harve to drive me.”
That got a ghost of a smile out of him. “I will call Bob. We need to have him here as well, anyway.”
So, Bob was in on this, was he? That figured. When Lavendar had left Underhill, she would have sought someone powerful for protection. And he had given me that godfather-in-charge vibe when I’d first met him.
“Thanks.” I hadn’t seen a telephone, or wires, but Raven had other resources, I knew.
“How long will it take Bella?” he asked.
“She doesn’t have to drive like I did. So I figure it’s going to take her about as long as...” The door opened behind me and I grinned.
Raven hopped up. “Bella!”
I turned around more slowly and watched her hug him, then she came to me, her face alight with her emotions. ”Will you give us a moment, Uncle?”
He looked at me and cackled as he went out on the porch, closing the door behind him. I held out my arms to her, standing.
She was warm, and solid, and I could hear her heart racing. I closed my eyes and opened my Sight to see all of her. She was growing stronger, and now I could see in her glow a resemblance between her and her uncle, as she shimmered like he did.
“Have you looked at me with the Sight recently?” I asked her, opening my eyes after not very long to reduce the headache.
“I did, once, after you were injured. It was... I didn’t do it again.” I heard a little tremor in her voice.
“Want to try again?”
She closed her eyes, and I kissed her. “Mmmm,” she responded, kissing me back.
“You’re all bright and bronze, shifting warm tones like the earth,” she whispered after a while. “Brighter than I have ever seen you.”
“Are you crying?” I asked, disconcerted at her watery eyes.
“I’m happy.” She cupped my face in both her hands and giggled a little. “You need a shave.”
“I’ve gotten out of the daily habit.” I confessed. “Don’t primp for Raven.”
&nbs
p; She laughed and kissed me again. “Speaking of which, I suppose we should allow him back in.”
“In a few minutes.” I drew her down onto the couch with me and distracted her.
Some time later, I made her coffee, while she went to find Raven, leaving the front door open behind her. I walked out on the porch to find Bob and Bella sitting on the bench while Raven was rocking and nursing his pipe.
“Would you like a cup, sir?” I asked him, handing her a mug full.
“Did you make it, or this old reprobate?” He held out his hand and I shook it in greeting.
“I did.”
“Then I will have one, his’ll strip your gut lining out.”
I looked at Raven, who shook his head in silence. If I didn’t know any better, he was sulking.
One more mug, and I sat in my hammock, as all the other seats were taken.
“Are we all here, then?” I closed my eyes briefly, curious, and got a nasty shock. My eyes flew open and I stared at Bob. “What are you?” I blurted.
Bella looked back and forth between us and closed her eyes quickly. “Grampa?”
His glow was dark, rainbow colors, and not a signature I recognized. I’d seen many creatures, magical, paranormal, and just ‘not right’, but this was a first.
Bob ran a hand over his bald top. “Guess it’s time I told you.”
He was talking to Bella. I held my tongue. He tugged on his ear. “Maybe I should just show you.”
He put the mug down and walked out into the yard, and I was struck by something. Both he, and Raven, were not acting oddly. Something was badly wrong, and it had shaken them. Bob stopped out in the yard, and stretched. I was aware of the usual magical shimmer of transformation, then the form that kept growing, and growing.
Transformations
He put his nose on the railing near me and snorted a little. His scales gleamed in the sunlight. The snort smelled of fish, and I guessed that was his diet in this form.
“You’re a dragon!” Bella stood up, one hand on his nose. He rolled one rainbow-hued eye at me. He was indeed a dragon, his scales running through hues from deepest black to blues, on his belly. He had his wings tightly furled, but I guessed they would span the clearing were he to take off here.
“He can’t speak in this form.” Raven was smiling, again, at our reaction to his friend. “Bob is a western dragon, of European descent.”
Bob drew his head back, and transformed slowly to human again, with a soft grunt. “That hurts. I need to not do that again for a while.”
“I think you’re the first being I have ever heard say anything like that.” I commented.
“Yah. I’m old, and there’s a reason dragons have mostly died out.”
He came up the stairs stiffly and sat down. “But now y’know.”
“So, Raven, now are you ready to talk?” I asked.
He nodded, not looking at us, but off into the distance. “Long ago, there was one people. The people were on the land, and in the water, and they lived all around. The sea in the middle was for food, and the land was for food, and living on, and making babies... I was the Uncle. I was the trickster, who tormented the people, teasing them until they were ashamed and learned humility. It was a simple time. Not good, not bad, it just was.
“Then, others came, who knew me not. They were sometimes good, sometimes bad. The people grew lesser, and some forgot me. Nations came into existence, which was a new thing. My people here,” he made a sweeping gesture at the clearing, “in Aleyska, were the same, once, as the Ainu, and the Itelman, and the Chuchki, and the Koryak. All my children. But time passed, and I have been diminished.” His chin drooped toward his chest.
“Now, I am called on by the people who are across the Bering Strait. There are not many left, it is very few who remember. Only she who called herself the Lady by the Sea can still call me. She is a great Shaman, but cruel,” He looked up at us, his black eyes watery, and I knew he was thinking of the Arctic Fox boy. “Very cruel, and I am too old and frail to go.”
“So you want us to go and see her, find out what she wants?” Bella asked softly.
“Yes, Bella, and you, Lom, as her anchor.”
I blinked, not sure what he meant by that. “Her anchor?”
“Bella is special.” Bob broke in. “She’s both Fae and Dragon. We’re honestly not sure what the mix will bring, but her power is almost as great as her temper.”
“I haven’t seen any sign of the temper.” I looked at Bella, who was very quiet.
“I’ve learned not to let it out.” She admitted. “When I was a teen, it was pretty bad. Lavendar helped a lot.”
“Well, you’re not going without me.” I grinned at her.
“We can’t just... go off and do this.” I knew she was thinking of the ogre nest and how slap-dash she felt that had been.
“We have some time. Not much, but enough for you two to fulfill your obligations.” Raven grinned.
Bella sighed. “How fast do you think Aunt Min and Aunt Mya can pull together a potlatch?”
It sounded like a non-sequiter, but I could follow her thoughts. Getting hitched sounded good to me, too, before we went off on a mission of this level.
“Have you gifts?” Raven sounded like a kid looking for a toy.
She laughed. “I think we can arrange that,” she looked at me and I nodded. I knew vaguely what the custom was.
“We will need to let some people know, Underhill.” I thought about it. “And, sadly, still need to do the Underhill wedding. That’s politics.”
Bella made a face, and Bob chuckled.
“So how long?” Raven asked.
“A week here, and a week there? That gives us enough time to plan the trip, and it can be passed off as a honeymoon in Japan.” I was thinking of the young kitsune. I’d put his things in the bench compartment, maybe his family could be reached and notified.
Bella sighed, “I’d so hoped for some peace and quiet on the honeymoon.”
I shrugged. “That could still happen. Raven, any ideas what we are up against? Bella will put out feelers Underhill, to the Eastern Court. Bob, you have any contacts?”
He looked rather shifty for a second. “I do have one. I will send a message.”
Raven puffed on his pipe. “I think there was an emptiness. I closed off the people and retreated, here. There was a...” He stopped.
I suggested, “A vacuum of power? And something bad stepped in when you weren’t around?”
“It seems so.” He sighed deeply, sending out a plume of smoke.
“So we have no idea what to prepare for.” I rolled my shoulders, feeling the tightness of the muscles that were bunched in anticipation. I like my job, too much. Addiction to adrenaline can get you killed, and more, can get your team killed. I needed to let this pass through me, focus, and prepare. There was time before it started.
“In the first message, she says it comes from the West, and is female. The red tide of the West, she called it, rolling over everything and bringing blood-lust.”
“Communism?” Bella sounded bewildered.
I shook my head. “You have to understand that it was never really about ‘the people’ it was about power. And those who wanted it weren’t picky about how they got it. There were two wars going on, one visible, the other...” I let it go, not wanting to talk about the details I’d seen and experienced. It had been a very unpleasant time, and one of deep divisions. One school of thought had been to support the occult of the Reich, thinking it would allow Underhill to be more visible to humans. Another had thought the wholesale slaughters of Stalin around the same time to be a good thing. Less humans, less interference with the magical beings. Splinters had formed, and festered.
Fairy tales have their roots deep in the land, and Russia’s were bleak for a reason. I knew who I could call on, but it was a long trip, without magic. Even with magic, we would have to be cautious. And, I didn’t know how far east his influence really went.
“We’re g
oing to approach this from another direction.” I told them, after my long pause for thinking. “Bella, I hope you enjoy travel...”
Her eyes lit up. “Especially getting to see both worlds, yes.”
“But first, a wedding.”
“Two weddings,” she corrected with a grin. She turned to Bob. “Can you give us a ride to town? And who has my truck?”
“It’s parked in Mike’s yard, and he’ll be glad to get rid of it, and to see you.”
I stood up and stretched. “Am I coming back here?”
Bob grinned, “Sick of a hammock?”
“Very. No offense, Raven.”
That old joker just laughed. “Well, there might be an air mattress someone could let you use.”
“Now you tell me.”
As it turned out, Mike, who I had not met, but Bella told me had been part of my rescue party Underhill, was delighted to see me.
“Sandra and the girls are in Fairbanks for the weekend,” he explained. “So it’s just me. You can crash in here,” he opened a door and revealed a room with incongruously pink walls, but the art and posters hanging on walls and ceilings were mostly Japanese anime. “We keep meaning to repaint it, she was six...” he gestured helplessly.
“I’ll have my eyes closed.” I reassured him. Bella peeked over my shoulder.
“Jessy’s gone all teenager,” she sounded a bit sad. “They grow up so fast, Mike.”
“Tell me about it.” He closed the door and pointed out the bathroom. “Tell you what. In return for the doss, bring a pizza from Fast Eddy’s?”
“Sounds good to me. I’ve been eating Raven’s cooking all summer,” I agreed.
“What time is it?” Bella asked. Mike looked at his watch.
“Not dinnertime yet. See you guys about seven?”
“We’re going to go open the cabin and take care of paperwork.” She tugged on my arm. She was excited about something. I let myself be dragged away. Life had gone from the slow lane to the fast track evidently.
We did paperwork first, mundanely enough for something we both meant to last a very long time and change our individual lives into something greater, a partnership. There was no need for us to jump through legal hoops, as we weren’t exactly human, but I knew how much it meant to her. It didn’t hurt me, and made her happy. Which I knew she’d do in return for me, in a week, Underhill, with all of Court watching.
Trickster Noir (Pixie for Hire Book 2) Page 17