Dreams of the Forgotten Dead

by Eric Asher

  Nixie stepped forward. “Should your clan have need, you are welcome in Atlantis for trade so long as you follow Gaia. We are an empire outside the realm of Faerie, and your king’s punishment will fall at our gates.”

  “A kind offer, my queen, but Unseelie do not breathe well underwater.” A flicker of a smile crossed the Unseelie’s face.

  “Not all of our gates are under the sea. Come to El Morro, and you will be welcomed.”

  The Unseelie Fae placed a hand over his heart and bowed again. “When the goddess of the forests has departed, we will journey to your gates. An honor we do not deserve.”

  “You protected, my friends. You deserve more than a mere welcome, and you will have it.”

  Nixie turned away, and I didn’t miss the slightly perplexed look on the Unseelie Fae’s face. Whatever he’d been through in his banishment, being welcomed by a fairy queen certainly hadn’t been part of it.

  Gaia stepped closer to us as we gathered up our things. “I apologize to you all. I did not sense the Unseelie aggressors. They moved close to the others, and it was a skilled deception.”

  “We aren’t dead, and they are,” I said with a smile. “I appreciate the training, Gaia. I’d like to do that again if you have the time.”

  “Of course, Damian Vesik. Once our lesson becomes natural to you, we may progress to more difficult tasks.” Gaia hesitated, which was somewhat unnerving. “There is one other thing. The threads of magic in your aura are not the only ones you carry. Some I do not recognize, but use caution when binding them to Titan magic.”

  I nodded. I had little doubt of what Gaia had seen. Timewalker magic. I knew less about that than Titan magic, if I was being honest. But I’d seen what it could do, given enough power, and that wasn’t something I wanted to take chances with.

  We said our goodbyes to Gaia and Stump and the forest clan before stepping into the darkness of the Abyss.

  * * *

  The Abyss would always be intimidating. How could that empty vastness be anything else? But I had to admit I felt more grounded on our return to it. Gaia’s tutelage on how the Titan magic could affect the Eldritch things in the Abyss gave me far more confidence that I wouldn’t accidentally speed one up at the worst possible time.

  I could also dull the pull on my being if I focused on the Titan magic. I didn’t let it go completely because I wasn’t quite that confident in this newfound control, but it was easier to focus on the things around me when the pull was muted.

  Foster broke the silence as we continued along the golden path. “I didn’t know there were banished Unseelie. A forest clan that follows Gaia? Did you, Nixie?”

  Nixie shook her head. “No. I’ve heard stories over the years of sects and clans within the Unseelie, but I had no idea they’d banished some of their own.”

  Foster looked off into the Abyss from his perch on Frank’s shoulder. “I wonder if Mom knew. It’s just … it’s not what we were told growing up in Falias.”

  “Falias was isolated even before the Wandering War,” Nixie said. “I’m sure things happened in the other cities that were never known to Falias outside of their spies and whoever their spies reported to.”

  Foster crossed his arms and turned his attention back to Nixie. “Nudd played a long game. If Mom hadn’t sacrificed herself and shown us some of what was really happening, I might be serving under him still. I just … it makes me sad to think I never noticed things like that.”

  “That’s just life,” Frank said. “It’s the same for commoners. We always wish we knew things when we were younger, but that’s part of living. There are a lot of things in my life I would have done different, but if I had, I might not have met all of you, or Sam. It makes the worst of it worth it.”

  I had to agree with Frank. We’d all been through a lot, and some of that I never even wanted to think about again. But it was all of those things together that made us who we were, and who we would become.

  It reminded me of a conversation I had with Sam once about her transition into a vampire, and all the things she might have missed out on because of it. She had laughed at me. I knew she was happy in the life she had now, but there would always be a part of me that wondered what could have been.

  “It’s like Zola always says,” Frank said. “You’re still on the right side of the grass, aren’t you?”

  Nixie smiled at that and continued down the golden path. “That woman does have a way with words.”

  “Let’s go home,” Foster said. “I could use some rest before we go face a basilisk.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. I followed the pull on my being and stepped toward the path’s edge. The stars of the Abyss faded around us until all was darkness, and we returned to the dim light of the reading nook, where a small pile of cu siths, a peacock, and a surprised-looking Utukku waited.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  “Did you find Gaia?” Hess asked.

  I flopped into one of the leather chairs next to her. “Yep. She kicked my ass too. I thought the Old Man was rough, but I think the old Titan might be a bit tougher.”

  Foster and Frank waved briefly to Hess before making their way down the stairs. Nixie took the chair opposite me and stayed to talk with the Utukku. It was Hess who asked the first question.

  “Have you found a way to confront the basilisk?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe. I have a better understanding now of how Gaia’s magic mixes with my own. And Edgar told us about the visions I get through Nugget. I think the combination of the two may at least give us a small advantage.”

  “You do not sound very confident.”

  I rubbed my neck. “It wasn’t all good news.”

  “In what way?” Hess asked.

  Nixie laid her head back against the chair. “It’s probably at least two basilisks in a lair that big.”

  “That would have been the worst of my worries, but I am no longer surprised when the worst-case scenario is the one we confront.”

  I let out a low laugh. “That I can relate to.”

  “You look as if you could use rest before we hunt.”

  “Definitely. And I’m not going after that thing in the dark.”

  “I am afraid you do not have a choice when it comes to the darkness,” Hess said. “The basilisk will remain underground as long as it can, and for all that time, we’ll be in the dark.”

  “You aren’t making me feel much better.”

  “That is not my purpose. My purpose is the Spirit Hunt, and destruction of the creature that threatens our realm.”

  Nixie pulled back her hair as she sat up a little straighter. “Do you consider the realm of the commoners your realm? You spent a great deal of time in Faerie.”

  “The Utukku have always been of more than one realm. Toward the end of my life, I felt more at home here than in the company of Fae. But when the Spirit Hunt is done, and I move on, the spirit realm of the Utukku will become my home.”

  “Until the cycle starts again?”

  Hess nodded. “But I will not know when that has occurred. I had my life here, and I will have another there, and then a new age will come as it always does.”

  Nugget took that moment to honk like an angry goose, startling me in my chair to the point that I might have flailed a bit.

  Hess grinned at me, revealing those daggerlike teeth, and she reached out to calm the peacock. “The morning, then. Rest well, for you will need it before the hunt.”

  * * *

  We needed rest, but there was something else we needed almost as much. It didn’t take long for the delivery to arrive; well, if I was being accurate, two deliveries. Two orders of fried rice and half a dozen egg rolls waited at the center of the Formica table as I cracked open one of the pizza boxes.

  “What is on that?” Nixie asked.

  I glanced down at the pie. You couldn’t really see the cheese underneath all the meat piled on top of it. “Extra stuff.”

  “That is both ridiculous and impressive.” Of cou
rse, it didn’t stop Nixie from taking two slices out of the pie before she grabbed an egg roll.

  I spooned out a small pile of pork fried rice onto a smaller plate for the fairies while Aideen filled us in on the happenings around the shop that day. Apparently, Nugget had grown fond of stalking the customers, and despite his incessant honking, he was quite a hit with those same customers.

  “If Frank had been here, I’m fairly certain he would have wanted to charge admission. Of course, we are already charging admission for people to speak with Nixie.”

  Nixie held her fork out. “That is not entirely true. We are holding to an old custom, and one that is not disrespectful to adhere to.”

  “Not as much as you are disrespecting that pizza,” Foster muttered. “Eating it with a fork. Barbarian.”

  Nixie cocked an eyebrow.

  Foster glanced between me and Nixie before turning his attention to Aideen. “You know I’m right.”

  “I’m going to send you to finishing school when we’re done with this meal,” Aideen said.

  Foster stared at his wife, slack-jawed.

  “Not about the fork, either, but about insulting your cousin over a pizza.”

  “If I was going to insult someone over a pizza, it would be Damian. Who orders this mess? I mean, how can you even eat all of that sausage?”

  I grinned at the fairy. “Methodically.”

  “Methodically? What does that even mean?” Foster huffed and went back to his plate of fried rice.

  “I’m sure if it was fudge, you could take it down,” Nixie said.

  “Fudge on pizza? That’s … yeah, I’d try that.”

  Aideen let out a sigh that sat somewhere between exasperation and disgust. “Tomorrow. You all need to be as safe as you can in the basilisk’s lair.”

  I took another bite of slightly greasy, spicy pizza. “Pretty sure the only way to be safe is to be statuary.”

  “You know what I mean.” Aideen narrowed her eyes.

  A knock sounded at the back door. The deadbolt grumbled at someone before a loud thump echoed throughout the room and the door swung open. A rather annoyed-looking Casper stood in the doorway, red hair tucked away beneath a camouflage patrol cap as she glared down at the deadbolt.

  Her expression softened when she saw the rest of us watching from the table. “Need to teach him some manners, you do.”

  “Grab a chair,” I said, gesturing to the pile of takeout on the table. “And thanks for coming.”

  Casper laughed as she grabbed the chair on the other side of Nixie. “You didn’t give me much choice, did you? Telling me the base might be connected to a basilisk lair?”

  “I know. We just found out ourselves.” I passed her a plate, and she didn’t hesitate to grab an overtopped pizza slice.

  “Park would have come too, but he’s down at Jefferson Barracks for a briefing.”

  I waited to see if Casper was going to expound on that, but she didn’t. “Right. We’re going after the basilisk in the morning. I wanted to let you know there may be more than one. And if it runs away from us, well, you could have a problem.”

  Casper finished chewing her pizza and then glanced at the fairies. “And how likely is this problem? The last problem we had was a mind-controlling fairy infiltrating our base.”

  “Bigger problem,” Foster said around a mouthful of pork fried rice.

  “I believe he is making a joke,” Aideen said. “Or attempting to.”

  Casper winced. “Ouch. Your wife just laid you out flat.”

  I didn’t miss the smile that flashed across Aideen’s lips.

  Foster glanced at her, but he didn’t rise to the bait. “Did you ever get those new gates installed that Park was talking about?”

  “The iron grating in front of the hatches?”

  Foster nodded.

  “Yes, so be careful if you come visit the base.”

  “No, that’s not why I’m asking. The basilisks don’t like iron either. Close them and keep them closed. It may not stop them from burrowing around into a new tunnel and breaching the sides of a corridor, but it will certainly stop the path of least resistance.”

  “Should we contact Aeros for assistance?” Casper asked. “He is already stone, so I imagine the basilisk would not have the same effect.”

  Aideen glanced at me before shaking her head. “No, he is helping the commoners in Denver. The destruction to their airfield and the corpse of the usurper proved toxic. Aeros is helping bury the remains of the usurpers.”

  “I didn’t know,” I said, feeling the pizza curdle in my stomach. “I could take the remains to the Abyss. Get them out of the realm completely.”

  “No. They are too dangerous, even for you. Let Aeros finish his work, sealing them away in stone vaults close to the mantle of the earth.”

  “Zola might be able to get him away to help. Something to consider, is all I’m saying.”

  We ate in silence for a time. Casper told us some of the happenings at the underground base. Their forces had been reduced after the end of the conflict with Nudd, but there were plans to keep soldiers stationed under St. Charles. For some reason, they thought there might be more “shenanigans,” as Casper put it.

  “I bet they didn’t think that would be a basilisk,” I said.

  Casper released a small laugh. “No. No, they certainly did not. It was a near thing, keeping the base here. After the infiltration and Nudd’s defeat, some generals wanted us out of the area. If Park hadn’t fought for it, I think we’d be long gone.”

  “It is good you are still here,” Nixie said. “Alexandra and the others still watch the river, but it is good for the commoners to see defenses that are not Fae. Already, I have seen them returning to the stores and restaurants that have survived.”

  Casper nodded. “I noticed that too. I’d hate to see this old town disappear. There aren’t many places quite like it.”

  I thought about everything Zola must have seen come and go as St. Charles grew through the centuries. How often had major shifts come, like those we had seen in the war with Nudd? Outside of riverboats, I doubted there was much that could compare with what had happened in wartime. I wished Zola was here now, and I hoped her encounter with Philip’s ghost wouldn’t drag her too far into the darkness.

  Casper stayed until the pizza was gone and the pork fried rice met its match. I wasn’t sure how late the hour had grown, but I was quite happy at the idea of sleep as I followed Nixie upstairs.

  * * *

  As tired as I was, sleep did not come easy. And when it did, it was filled with nightmares and visions and sometimes the simple awareness of a not-so-empty darkness. I startled awake for the third time and rubbed at my face.

  A quick glance at my phone told me it was only six in the morning. I sat up on the edge of the bed and took a deep breath. A dim light shone around the doorframe. I cracked it open and headed downstairs, catching a glimpse of Hess and the ghost circle.

  I was almost to the refrigerator when I remembered there was a sink upstairs now. I didn’t need to go down the stairs for a bottle of water. I grabbed one anyway and thought about a Frappuccino, being that I probably wasn’t getting back to sleep.

  I resisted and started toward the stairs, yawning as I made my way up them, and also enjoying the idea of living above the store. Main Street was full of apartments above the businesses below; mine was just a bit less separated.

  When I reached the top of the stairs, I found Hess waiting for me, the veil mirror clutched in her claws.

  “Something wrong?” I asked.

  “No.” She hesitated. “Perhaps, in a way. I wish to take this Utukku on the Spirit Hunt with me. It may return some part of them to themselves and allow reentry into the spirit realm.”

  I didn’t know how to answer that. It was clear the spirit inside that mirror did not lead a peaceful existence. If there was a way to free Aseer without risking those around us, I was ready to support Hess.

  “How dangerous will that
be to us?” I asked.

  Hess looked down at the mirror and ran a claw across the surface. “It is only dangerous to the one who holds it. Leave it in my possession, and the risk to all of you will be minimized. I fear the most dangerous thing you could do is keep the mirror intact and within easy reach of others.”

  I nodded. I was tired, but it made a kind of sense as to why Cara would’ve hidden it away inside a wall. “Bring it with us. If you have the opportunity to free that Utukku and send them on during the Spirit Hunt, take it.” I paused and glanced back to the staircase. “Be sure to tell Foster and Aideen. I don’t want them to think you stole it.”

  “Of course. And should we survive, you can return the handle to them. It will still have the runes, and its provenance will not have been altered, though it will never again imprison an Utukku.” Without another word, Hess made her way to the overstuffed leather chairs before the power of the ghost circle made her more corporeal.

  I blinked at that. She hadn’t been standing in the circle when she picked up the mirror. Apparently, the energy I’d transferred into her ghost still lingered. I stepped back into the apartment and closed the door. I might not get more sleep, but sometimes darkness and silence were all you needed for some measure of rest.

  Much to my surprise, I fell asleep quickly and didn’t wake up again until almost nine.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  The bed was empty when I crawled out of it and headed straight for the shower. We might have cleaned off the night before, but between the blood and mud, I felt like I could use about ten more showers.

  Unexpected battles had a kind of terror and dread all their own. The idea of facing a basilisk would have been unnerving on the best of days, but knowing we were walking into a lair, possibly a nest, had me taking more than one calming breath. In a way, we would be going in blind, but thanks to Edgar and the gift of the peacock from the Sri Lanka clan, we might have a chance.

  Sometimes a chance was all you needed. Sometimes a chance would get you killed.

  As if Nugget had been reading my thoughts, he honked from outside the door.