Last Car to Annwn Station

by Michael Merriam

  He had a momentary look of surprise on his face as he took in Jill’s scars, but covered it quickly. He gave Mae a quick once over with his dark blue eyes before flashing her a boyish smile.

  He turned back to Jill. “Ready to go?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Jill said. She turned to Mae, who was standing slightly behind her. “I might be late.”

  “Don’t stay out too long.” Mae gave her a look full of promises of things to come, trying to add to Jill’s game of tweaking her brother. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Robert’s expression turn sour.

  “I’ll be home eventually.” Jill leaned down and kissed Mae, hard and deep. “Maybe I’ll call it an evening early,” she said, pulling away from Mae and walking out the door.

  “Have fun!” Mae called out, waving goodbye at the door.

  Dear Wall,

  I don’t know exactly what they did to me. There were eight of them, all of them in their special robes and wearing enough in the way of low powered talismans and charms to set my teeth on edge. “Mother” was even in attendance tonight. She chanted the chants with the rest, but it looked like she did not know where she was.

  They brought Chrysandra into their circle at the end. They laid her failing body in the middle, and poured salt water and some of my blood all over her. Her eyes were completely white. I hope she’s still in there.

  Tonight’s the big night. I heard Robert tell “Grandfather” and a couple of the others that he had arranged the perfect sacrifice. They talk too much when I’m around.

  I think, but I’m not sure, that this sacrifice is going to help power the transfer between me and Chrysandra.

  This should be enough words. I need to get the silver ready to play its part. I need to make sure it understands what it should do if I die or vanish from this plane of existence. I was hoping to get some time with Chrysandra, but I guess that’s not going to happen.

  Tonight, I will either escape or die trying.

  Goodbye, wall.

  Jill walked out to the black Mercedes parked near the front door. She turned and waited for her brother to unlock the car, then climbed in and sat in the leather seat. The car smelled new. Robert settled behind the steering wheel and started the big German-made vehicle. He gave her a sour look.

  “This isn’t a costume party,” he said with a frown, exiting the circular driveway and pulling onto the street.

  “This isn’t a costume. I pulled the dress out of mother’s closet.” Jill replied, keeping a calculated coolness in her voice. She was both relieved and distressed at how quickly she could fall back on old mannerisms and survival traits from her youth.

  “Then why the getup?”

  Jill took a deep breath. The superior tone of voice he always used with her grated on her nerves. “There was an…incident. I lost my vision in one eye.” She gave him a nasty smile and reached for the eye patch. “It looks quite horrific. Would you like to see?”

  He shot her a wary glance. “No, that’s all right.” He gave the scars on her arm a quick look before turning to stare out the windshield, suddenly very interested in the dark road before them.

  Jill kept her expression neutral. Her brother was nervous in her presence, a situation that was foreign to her. She thought about pressing him, but decided to change directions.

  “How are Mother and Father?” she asked.

  “If you’d come home occasionally, you’d know.”

  Jill relaxed. This was familiar territory. “So Father is still destroying people’s lives while playing captain of industry, and Mother is still a beloved high-society belle and drunkard?”

  Robert’s frown deepened. “Why do you hate them so much?”

  Jill sighed and looked out the darkness on the other side of the window. “If you don’t already know the answer to that question, I could never possibly explain it to you.”

  “Look, Jill, I know you feel like your childhood sucked, though I don’t understand how. We both grew up with everything we could ever want, but if you feel that way, okay. Still, don’t you think it’s time to stop playing at being an average working girl?”

  “I like what I do.”

  “You need to come home. You need to come back to the life you were born to.”

  She glared at him. “I’m not interested in being anyone’s little trophy wife.” The words came out as a rough snarl.

  Robert twisted the ring on his finger around once before he turned the car up the long driveway toward the cheerfully lit Arneson mansion. “Then don’t be. Look, Jill, there are people here who can give you a boost up. There’s no reason for you to be working for the county when you can be one of the people who really makes things happen.”

  Jill glanced at him as he parked at the end of a long line of expensive luxury vehicles. “Why are you doing this?”

  He gave her his winning smile. “Because you’re my favorite sister.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “I’m your only sister.”

  Robert sighed and turned off the engine. “Mother asked me to invite you and make introductions if you came.”

  Jill stepped out of the car at the same time as Robert. “Are Mother and Father here?” The last thing she wanted was for her parents to be involved in whatever games the Arnesons and William Hodgins were playing. It was bad enough she was going to have to take on her brother. To have to engage her parents as well would be too much to bear.

  “No. They had another commitment.”

  Jill followed him up to the mansion’s front door, which was held open for them by a man in a tuxedo. Inside, they passed their coats to a bored-looking gray-haired woman. The woman offered to take Jill’s clutch purse, but she held onto it.

  Robert leaned toward Jill. “Promise not to embarrass me tonight,” he said into her ear.

  She gave him a wicked smile. “Where’s the fun in that?”

  “Jill…” he said as a distinguished-looking older man stepped forward to great them. Robert introduced him as James Arneson.

  For the next twenty minutes Jill found herself being introduced to everyone in a lavishly decorated parlor and ornate ballroom. She noted that it was a small gathering, less than a dozen people. Jill knew none of them personally, though she knew them all by reputation.

  She made polite small talk with the iron-haired lady of the house while sipping red wine. Maureen Arneson kept looking at her as if she expected Jill to grow horns and attack at any moment. At last the woman made her excuses and drifted away.

  Jill checked her watch. She needed to unlock a window.

  She looked around the room and spotted her brother standing under the crystal chandelier, talking to a short, busty woman with too much eyeliner and hair so black it could only be dyed.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” Jill said, bulling her way into the conversation.

  Robert pressed his lips together. “Jill.”

  Jill smirked. “Brother mine. Who’s your friend?”

  Robert took a deep breath. “This is Ilona. Ilona, this is my sister, Jill.”

  Jill turned to the short woman, offering her best smile and her hand to shake. The woman gave Jill a curious look and took her hand.

  “I am pleased to meet you,” Ilona said.

  “I’m sure Robert’s told you all kinds of terrible things about me.” Jill held onto the woman just a moment longer than necessary, lowering her eyelid and changing her smile from friendly to flirtatious. She leaned down to the woman. “I’m the bisexual, black-sheep troublemaker in the family,” she said in a conspiratorial faux-whisper as she released the woman’s hand.

  Ilona gave a small laugh and turned to Robert. “She comes as advertised.”

  Jill gave Robert a mock glare. She looked back down at Ilona. “Sadly, most of the tales are probably true. But the reason I so rudely interrupted whatever you two are plotting is that I need a bathroom.”

  Ilona pointed at a side door. “If you go out that door and follow the hallway, it is the second door on your left.�
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  Jill nodded. “Thanks.”

  Ilona offered a hand. “I can hold your drink while you’re gone.”

  Jill passed the short woman the glass of wine and strolled from the room, conscious of the eyes following her as she left the gathering behind. She walked down a short hallway, paneled in dark wood. There were portraits along the walls, and the soft string music followed her from the ballroom. She looked at the ceiling and noticed speakers cleverly disguised in the mural of happy people by the lake. A pair of tall tables, each adorned with flowers and candles, stood opposite each other near the bathroom door.

  Jill hesitated. There was something about the placement of the tables that bothered her, but she would have to walk between them to reach the restroom. She lifted the eye patch. The candles glowed with a faint yellow light. They were magical, but she had no idea what the magic was. Steeling herself for an unpleasant surprise, Jill walked cautiously past the tables. Nothing happened—at least nothing she could detect. There was no point in waiting. With a last look down both sides of the long hallway, she slipped into the bathroom.

  It was every bit as opulent as the rest of the mansion, the vanity sporting a black marble top, the faucet a brightly polished gold. Jill suspected the gold might be real.

  No Dixie cup dispensers here, Jill thought.

  She looked at the window. It was shuttered from the inside, but that was easy enough to take care of. She opened the shutter latch and found the window lock. She lifted the window slowly, trying to avoid any loud noise. She supposed there could be a silent alarm, but there was nothing for it.

  Jill opened her clutch purse and withdrew a metal nail file. She jabbed it into the screen and ripped across the soft wire mesh, opening a gash Mae would be able to exploit. She pulled out a red piece of fabric and pushed it partway out of the cut screen. She shut the window and closed the shutter, careful to make sure the latch did not catch.

  She washed her hands, just to make them damp and slightly chilled, and pulled her eye patch back down before opening the door of the bathroom.

  Ilona was waiting for her in the hallway.

  The short woman gave her a humorless smile. “Your brother sent me to make sure you were all right. I think he was concerned that you would wander off.”

  “I do have a history of getting into trouble.” Jill laughed.

  Ilona gave her a measuring look. “Perhaps we should return to the party.”

  “Lead on,” Jill said, following the short woman back to the ballroom.

  “What took you so long?” Robert asked, his face anxious as he handed Jill her wine glass.

  She favored him with a cool look. “Why so nosy?” She started to take a sip of her wine and paused. There was no way she was drinking it after leaving it alone with her brother.

  “I just didn’t want you to go poking about in our host’s home and get into places you shouldn’t be.”

  “Why? Do they have something to hide?”

  “No, but it would be rude.”

  A woman carrying a tray of drinks came around. Ilona and Robert drained their glasses and took another serving of the wine. They each gave Jill a curious look. She would need to find some way to discreetly pour the drink out into a potted plant.

  “So how do you know my brother?”

  Ilona smiled up at her. “We are associates in an exclusive club.”

  “Oh, what kind of club?”

  “Ilona…” Robert started, a warning in his voice.

  “It is a thaumaturgical, spiritual and esoteric research club.”

  Jill felt a shiver go down her body. That the woman was being this open about what they were, practically admitting they were mages, did not bode well for Jill. She put on a mask of feigned interest.

  “Like the Golden Dawn?”

  Ilona snorted. “Those charlatans were nothing. This place is a place of power. All of us in this room, we are power. Those attending tonight are the most powerful of our order.”

  “I’m not a member of your order,” Jill said.

  Ilona laughed aloud. It caught the attention of the entire room. Jill took a step backwards as the other revelers turned and started walking toward her.

  “No, Miss Hall,” a new voice, a male voice, said. “You are not here tonight as a member, even as a prospective one. We have another use for you.”

  Jill turned to look at the source of the words. She found herself staring into the smiling face of William Hodgins. His was not a warm or friendly smile.

  “Sorry, Jill,” her brother said. “It’s nothing personal.”

  She tried to pull away as Robert grabbed her. There was a sharp prick on her arm and she turned to find the gray-haired woman who had taken her coat holding a small syringe. Jill wobbled on her feet as a low buzzing started in her ears. She made an unsteady lunge at her brother, reaching for his throat.

  “You sold me out, you fu—”

  Jill fell to the cool, polished wood floor, landing on her knees. She looked up at her brother. He frowned down at her. Next to him Ilona’s face held unconcealed glee. Hodgins simply seemed bored.

  Jill tipped over, her vision clouding and the buzzing in her ears becoming a high pitched whine. The delicate sound of her wine glass shattering on the floor was the last thing she heard.

  Mae watched as the big black Mercedes carrying Jill and her brother turned onto the street at the end of the long driveway. When the taillights vanished from sight, Mae made a short dash into the kitchen. She dressed for the night and cold, grabbing a few items, including Jill’s baton. She peered out the window, just in case Jill and her brother had returned for some strange reason. Detecting no signs of them, she stepped outside.

  The familiar ringing of a streetcar bell reached her ears.

  Mae swore and jogged down the driveway. Parked in the street was one of the big yellow streetcars, its red door opened wide.

  Mae paused in front of the streetcar and glanced up at the destination sign: Malveaux Express. She climbed aboard.

  “Ten cents, please.”

  Mae smiled at the conductor and fished in her bag for a dime. She dropped the coin into the fare box.

  “Welcome aboard, Miss Malveaux,” the conductor said, handing her a transfer. “We’ll reach your destination in plenty of time.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Lowry.”

  The bell rang twice and the door closed. Mae turned to look at the other riders as the streetcar rolled away with a click-clack. She grinned at the two occupants of the car and walked toward where they sat on the back bench.

  “Kravis. Death. How are you both this evening?”

  Kravis wore a heavy coat over his red shirt. A sword with a short, curved blade lay across his knees. “Ready to take on a few mages.”

  Mae frowned. “You shouldn’t go into that mansion.”

  “Probably not. Is the plan for gaining access to the mansion in motion?” Kravis asked.

  “Jill is already inside. She has a piece of red cloth she’s supposed to put in a window as a sign it’s open. Once in, we find Fay and close the door to Annwn if we can, run if we can’t.” She glanced at Death. He looked somber in his black business suit. There was an expensive-looking leather briefcase next to him on the seat. He regarded her with his star-filled eyes.

  “My business is your business this night.”

  Mae gave him a stiff nod of her head. For all she knew, his business was with her tonight. She hoped not, but if it was her time, she hoped he had plenty of business with others first.

  “I hope you’re not planning to stake me to another tree.”

  Death cocked his head to one side. “Why should I desire to do such a thing?”

  “I’m just remembering the last time we met.”

  “Those were different circumstances, Maeve.”

  “Good,” Mae said, taking a seat on the bench next to Kravis. She gave Death a smile. “I thought I told you to call me Mae.”

  “That was before I impaled you on the Great Oak
in the frozen wastes of Annwn.”

  “Mae’s not one to hold a grudge, are you?” Kravis said.

  Mae turned toward the misshapen creature and raised an eyebrow. “Depends on exactly what you’ve done to cross me. Hang me from a tree in a mythical Underworld, that I can forgive. Kidnap my sister and use her for God only knows what purpose, that will get you killed.”

  “You’ve become a fierce little thing,” Kravis replied.

  “She has always been such,” Death said in a soft voice.

  Mae turned her gaze back to the dark faerie. “Where is my mother?”

  “She has gone into hiding, away from the long reach of those you would confront tonight, and is protected from Rhyania’s hunters.”

  Mae nodded, reassured that her mother would be safe even if the mission went poorly.

  “And Ellie?” she asked.

  “She arrived at Rhyania’s Court seeking sanctuary, but was taken prisoner. Because she is nobility, she was given rooms in the palace, but a prisoner she is. I have heard from a trusted friend that Rhyania refuses to turn her over to the Llysllyn nobles until Mirallyn is captured as well.”

  “Why would she do that?”

  Kravis gave her a hard, grim look. “I suspect that she needs Ellie and Mirallyn alive in order to transfer titles and power over to her before she can merge the two Courts. It might be for the best. If Ellie and Mirallyn cooperate, the Lady of the Falls will likely give them asylum and protection from the Llysllyn nobles.”

  “Arneson Manor,” the conductor called out. “Last stop on the line.”

  “Here we go.” Kravis stood and offered Mae a hand up.