Realmwalker

by Jonathan Franks

  “Oh, no,” said Ivy. “We have to stop him!” She felt terrified. Tears were beginning to well in her eyes. “Herron, we can’t let anyone destroy The Meadows!”

  Hope put a hand on Ivy’s shoulder to comfort her, and Ivy melted into her and put her arms around her. Hope was startled for a moment, then put her arms around Ivy. Herron frowned at them.

  “The new moon,” said Herron, turning back to look at the sticks on the table. Of course, he had no idea what they meant, but he looked at them as though they could give him answers like they’d given Sen. “Two Realms in one night? Is that possible?”

  “It is. If the Chambers are close enough to one another in the neighboring Realms, I could definitely see two Hearts being taken on a single night. But he’ll have to be careful. Time will be tight.”

  “Who is he?”

  “The sticks didn’t tell me. I know only that he’s an outcast and his magic is strong.” When Sen said the word, “outcast,” he glanced at Hope.

  Hope’s eyes widened. “No...” She said, feeling cold fear build inside her.

  Sen nodded. “I can’t be entirely sure, Hope, but I think so.”

  Ivy sat up, sniffling. Her cheeks were wet, and she left two corresponding damn spots on Hope’s shirt. “Sorry,” she sniffled, and started patting at Hope’s chest with her hand, then gasped and pulled her hand away. “Sorry,” she said again.

  Hope seemed not to notice. “But he... How can you know it’s him?”

  “Like I said, I can’t be entirely sure. But the sticks... They felt like him, when he was here. Looking out for you, but still watching you. Helping you in order to bring him closer to something nefarious. Good on the surface but evil at the core. A sweet iceplum with a center of poison.”

  Hope stiffened. “He wasn’t always like that, you know.”

  “I know. But he’s like that now.”

  Herron interjected, “Okay, enough. Who are we talking about here?”

  Sen inclined his head toward Hope.

  “A fairy named Pepper. He was banished from The Winter Kingdom years ago for murder.”

  Ivy gasped in shock again. “Murder? That’s...”

  Hope nodded. “He was secretly practicing some dark magical arts. We still don’t know what exactly he was doing, but he killed our mayor and trapped his soul, stole his essence.”

  “Skies above,” Herron swore under his breath.

  “How did you know him?” Ivy asked. Her voice was shaky and unsteady.

  “He was my partner. We were lovers.”

  Ivy’s heart felt like it dropped into a pool of ice water. She was sorry she asked.

  chapter 25

  One of the conditions of Emmet’s settlement was that he have regular medical checkups. He had been to a few different doctors. He needed to find one who would accept his Medicaid and still treat him like a human being, even though he was gay, on drugs, and had AIDS. Once he saw Doctor Howard, he knew he’d found his doctor.

  “Doc Howard” was what everybody called him, and Doc Howard was British, also gay, but not on drugs and didn’t have AIDS. He was very handsome and had a pleasant, soft-spoken manner about him. He made Emmet feel at ease. He performed Emmet’s checkup and said that he was still in decent shape, but the disease was progressing.

  Emmet was noticing more and more complications and symptoms and ailments. He wasn’t in the final stages yet, but he knew from watching Donny suffer through it all that he was worsening and he didn’t have long. Doc Howard said that if he took care of himself, he could conceivably go on for another couple of years.

  Emmet celebrated this prognosis by buying speedballs and LSD on his way home. He still hadn’t decided whether he was going to take them together until he got home. Of course I should, he thought.

  -

  Pepper and Hish pored over several maps and carefully measured the distances between every Chamber they could find on their maps. They found the closest two, and started their plan.

  “It’ll be tight,” Hish said. “But assuming we don’t hit any snags, we can definitely be in and out of both before the moon goes down.”

  Pepper started pacing. “That’s too close. There’s too much risk. We might have to space this out for another month.”

  “Pepper, if we space this out a month, someone is sure to divine where we’re going next, and what we’re doing. They may even have a chance to figure out who is responsible, and come after you.” Hish shrugged. “Us. Both of us.”

  “Okay, so we do it in one night. That means The Meadows and The Marsh. They’re the only two that are close enough.” Pepper paced and thought. “We still have the Returning Rings, don’t we?”

  A smile crept across Hish’s narrow face. “We don’t have both of them. Remmis has the other one.”

  Pepper nodded, also smiling broadly. “Then call him back to The Reaping. We have a plan.”

  -

  Andi calmly and studiously pored over actuarial charts, making notes now and then on a pad of blue-lined graph paper, recording numbers, multipliers, calculating risk factor results. Finally, she punched these results into her adding machine and watched the tape get longer and longer as she calculated her mortality rate.

  After half an hour of cross-referencing charts and simple algebra, she figured out that perhaps her doctor was optimistic when he said she had a year or two left to go.

  She dialed Ben’s extension. He was one of her top guys on her own legal team, separate from GLC’s actual legal department. She called him to her office.

  “You’re still a lawyer, right?” She asked him.

  “Yes,” Ben answered hesitantly.

  “That means that if you broke your lawyer-client confidentiality that you could be disbarred, right?”

  “Yes,” he answered in the same tone.

  “Then sit down,” Andi instructed him, “because I need some information on a settlement for an employee.”

  Ben looked surprised, then sat down. Andi told him everything.

  -

  Nai hovered over the hill that looked down on Ivy’s farm. Neither of Ivy’s plots’ new caretakers was doing as well as Ivy did, but Nai had seen worse. But she knew that it didn’t matter much, anyway.

  She flew around her Realm, enjoying the feeling of the sunshine on her face and the breeze under her wings. The Fairies of The Meadows were courteous and respectful to her as she passed. Some gave friendly waves, but all at least acknowledged her.

  When she arrived back at the Sovereign’s Estate, she went to her study, pointed to the fireplace with her first two fingers, rotated her hand so her palm faced the ceiling, and raised her hand with her fingers still straight. The fire became brighter, and she closed the doors and the windows.

  Nai unlocked a drawer in her desk and removed from it a thin leather wrap. She unfurled it, carefully picked up the wooden sticks, and cast them, three times, noting the symbols and positions carefully. She recorded her findings in her journal as she cast the sticks. Then she frowned, slipped a thick book from a bookshelf and looked up the results, not wanting to trust her memory on these particular signs.

  She read carefully, then snapped the book shut. She carefully replaced the book, making sure its spine was aligned with its neighbors, then she walked back to her desk, tore the page out of her journal, and threw it into the fire.

  She had sent Ivy out too early. She would return before the Heart was destroyed after all.

  -

  Larry Clark pulled into his driveway. He decided to leave work early and see if he could talk to Jim. He thought maybe they could see a movie, go have dinner, anything. He still felt horrible for the way their last fight had gone. I never should have said it. It was horrible. And I shouldn’t have slapped him.

  He had seen that Jim had set up the computer Larry had bought for him. Maybe that went a little ways to smooth things over. But Larry knew that ultimately, he would have to suck it up, admit to himself that at home, he really didn’t know what he was do
ing, that he was lost without Alison, and maybe he and Jim could figure it out.

  He went inside and saw that the house was mostly dark. He went up to Jim’s room and found it empty. He looked through the rest of the house, checked the basement, but Jim wasn’t there.

  Irritated, Larry sat down on the porch swing and lit a cigarette. He looked up at the stars, then saw a light turn on in a window across the street, at the Summers’ house. He saw the Summers girl, Genevieve, walk into view, then turn around. A different pair of hands took her shirt off, showing a pink bra underneath. She backed up, arms around a boy, kissing him, then turned slightly, perhaps from bumping into a desk or her bed. She sat down on whatever it was and the boy came into view.

  “Jimmy,” Larry said. “Son of a bitch.”

  Larry watched Genevieve’s hand reach up and grab the front of Jim’s shirt to pull him down to her, but Jim stopped her, distracted. He walked to the window, looked down at Larry. Larry looked up at him. Jim closed the blinds.

  Larry took a drag from his cigarette, stomped it out, got into his car, and drove away.

  -

  Hope sat on the peak of Sen’s roof, staring at the mountains, hating Pepper and still hating herself. She heard a noise behind her.

  “Hope?” Ivy asked.

  Hope didn’t say anything.

  “Do you want me to go?” Ivy asked her.

  Hope still didn’t answer, but she hoped that Ivy would stay. Ivy did, and sat down next to Hope.

  “Are you okay?” Ivy waited a second and said, “It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. I’ll just sit here with you.”

  They looked at the mountains together for a while. Ivy enjoyed watching the fog of her breath in the cold.

  Finally, Hope broke the silence. “Pepper and I were together for years. We lived together. We hunted together. We defended this city from all sorts of threats together. Then it turned out that he was one of those threats. He was practicing something dark, something evil. When he killed the mayor, it was a scandal. It was a shock to everyone. You just don’t do that kind of thing. Murdering a fairy is wrong, condemning a fairy’s human to death like that? How could anyone do that?”

  Ivy put her hand on Hope’s knee and let her continue.

  “They tried him. It didn’t take long. They talked about executing him, but they couldn’t bring themselves to kill another fairy. We’ve all heard about what can happen, blindly killing some fairy’s counterpart. It could kill who knows how many others. They couldn’t do it, so they banished him.

  “That was almost eight years ago. I don’t know where he ended up. They gave me the chance to go with him, but after what he’d done, I could never be with him again. It took me a long time to get over it all. And now that I’m back in the community, he comes up again. I’ll never be rid of him, will I?”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Ivy said. “How could you have known? It sounds like he had everyone fooled.”

  “But I was his partner. How could I not have seen it? We shared our house, our bed… I couldn’t believe it when I first heard, when they first came for him. I thought it was a mistake. But it wasn’t. He’s dark.”

  “I can tell. He’s destroying Realms in order to… Well, in order to do something, anyway.”

  “Those Realms, the Realms with no Heart, they’re not actually destroyed.”

  “I know,” Ivy said. “They go to The Void. But it’s hard living there. The essence of the Realm is gone, so it’s hard to grow food and the animals grow more feral. That’s what they say, anyway. But how would anyone know? Nobody’s come back from The Void.”

  “Maybe someone has. You can get there. Maybe there’s a way of getting back.”

  “So you think we could undo what he did?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Would that help you feel better?” Ivy asked.

  “Maybe.”

  “Sen says that Herron and I have to go back to The River on our way back to The Meadows. That it’s, ‘imperative,’” Ivy imitated Sen’s voice and shook her head from side to side.

  Hope tried not to, but she smiled anyway. “Why?”

  “Because he said that his readings only go so far and so deep. We really do need to consult a proper Oracle in order to figure out what he’s doing and how we can stop him. Our fairy Oracle is gone, or dead. There’s only one Oracle left we can talk to.”

  Hope looked at Ivy. “Another Oracle? Where? In The River?”

  “Yeah,” Ivy nodded. “The Mer have an Oracle, too. He’s the one we have to talk to.”

  “Skies above,” Hope swore. “They don’t take too kindly to strangers, I hear.”

  “They have no feelings at all. I don’t think they take too kindly to anything.”

  They sat for a while longer and looked at the mountains. Ivy’s hand was still on Hope’s knee.

  “Come with us,” Ivy said.

  Hope didn’t answer.

  “You’ll feel better if you do something about this. If you do something to stop him.”

  “I don’t think Herron would approve.”

  “Herron’s not the boss of me.”

  “He’s in love with you, you know,” Hope said.

  “I figured that out just today,” Ivy said. “But today, I think I also figured out my heart wants someone else.”

  Hope turned to look at her. “You don’t beat around the bush, do you? You are very direct. That takes a lot of courage.”

  Ivy said, ”I guess you’re right. Well, when you know what you want, you gotta go get it, right? And what I want right now is to be with you. And to save my home. And you can do a lot for both of those things.”

  “You don’t even know me.”

  “No, but I have a feeling about you. We’re connected, and you can’t deny it. I know you feel it, too. I know that you’re smart, and that you’re beautiful, and that you’re a provider and you take care of people, so you have a good heart, and you’re trusting, because you led two strangers to your seer. And I know that you are a genuinely good person because what happened horrified you, and years later, you still blame yourself for something you had nothing to do with. You feel like there was something else you could have done. You have integrity.”

  “You think I’m beautiful?” Hope winked at Ivy.

  “Yeah,” Ivy smiled back at her.

  Hope put her hand on top of Ivy’s and squeezed it. “You are, too.”

  -

  Carol Gates made sure the AV cart was in her room on the day the computer club met. Gen and Jim came loaded with equipment that day. Gen was carrying Jim’s Commodore 64 and Jim had his new Amiga with its separate keyboard and mouse.

  “The all in one solution is much easier to carry,” Gen teased.

  “I know. But it’s not upgradable!”

  “You need to upgrade your keyboard?”

  “Well, you never know. Maybe in twenty years they’ll have flying keyboards made of laser beams or something.”

  Gen wrinkled her nose at him. When they got to Mrs. Gates’ room and saw the TV was there, they looked at each other and laughed.

  Mrs. Gates asked, “What’s so funny, you two?”

  “We thought we were all clever,” Gen said, “bringing two computers so more than one person could use one at a time. But we only have one TV!”

  “That’s a problem,” Mrs. Gates agreed.

  Eighteen kids came to that meeting, all crowded around the one TV that they hooked up to Jim’s new Amiga. They were amazed at how colorful Shadow of the Beast was, and how its parallax scrolling would revolutionize video gaming forever.

  It was a good day.

  -

  Remmis broke the seal on the letter he’d just received via messenger bat. The bumblebee bats stood roughly to a fairy’s waist and were trained for swift, accurate delivery. The seals on the letters were enchanted by the postmaster to direct the bat’s sonar direction finding to the recipient of the letter. The minimal magic involved nearly always directed the bats tr
ue and made letters more difficult to intercept.

  He read the note, decrypting the code in his head as he read. His presence was requested at The Reaping for an extended period, and he must absolutely arrive no later than a week before the new moon. That meant he’d have to leave in the next couple of days.

  He’d have to spin this so as not to arouse suspicion. He formulated a plan, and hurried off to deal with giving the news to Ambassador Veen.

  Veen blasted him with questions about where he was going, how he could leave The Sky at a time like this, what could be more important than what was going on with the Heart. Finally, Remmis answered Veen’s questions to his satisfaction. Remmis left the Council Hall and ducked into an empty hallway. He made sure we was alone and unobserved, then he twisted the ring he wore on his right middle finger and vanished.

  -

  It didn’t take long after Andi started on her chemotherapy treatments before she started getting sick. They told her to drink plenty of fluids, to drink lots of water, but the taste of water made her gag. All of those people telling her to stay hydrated didn’t know what they were talking about. Water turned into a horrific substance.

  After her doctor scolded her for severe dehydration, another cancer patient at the hospital suggested that she make Kool-Aid, so she tried that, and was finally able to stay more or less hydrated. The overly sugary taste masked the disgusting chemical taste that lingered in her mouth.

  The taste of toothpaste also made her gag and she couldn’t stand having it in her mouth. Listerine didn’t bother her, though. Again, she thought it had a strong enough flavor to overpower the taste of chemicals that seemed branded on her tongue and gums, and she decided that not brushing probably wouldn’t have a serious long-term effect on her health. But she did use her mouthwash three times a day.