Gallowglass
by
Jennifer Allis Provost
Gallowglass
By Jennifer Allis Provost
Published by Bellatrix Press
Copyright 2017 Jennifer Allis Provost
All rights reserved
Publisher’s Note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
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Prologue
Karina
“This can’t be happening.”
Chris paced back and forth across my living room, doing his best to wear a hole in the carpet. We usually hung out in his larger Manhattan apartment, but the paparazzi camped out in the lobby had ruined that idea. Actually, all of this was happening because Chris’s ex-fiancée had gone on every talk show that would book her, and spilled her guts about their relationship. That meant that Olivia had ruined things.
“I just…” Chris stopped and scrubbed his face with his hands. “I can’t lose my job too. I just can’t. God, Rina, what am I going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered. Not the best response, but my mind was reeling with my own drama. I hadn’t even told Chris about my alcohol-fueled late night hookup with Jared, and how I was terrified he’d tell my advisor and somehow get me kicked out of my program. I didn’t even know if Jared could get me kicked out of my program, but he was a TA and I was just a student. Based on how the school viewed things between Chris and his ex, they didn’t like those enrolled dating anyone, much less a faculty member.
No matter what Jared pulled on me, Chris was much worse off than I was. I was still a student at Carson University, but Chris worked there. He had graduated years ago—with a doctorate in Shakespeare, of all things—and currently taught Elizabethan literature. He was also a bestselling author, which, until recently, had been a great side job.
Olivia had been one of Chris’s students. He admitted being attracted to her as soon as they met, but he’d waited until the last day of class before asking her out for coffee. Fast forward three years and one lawsuit later, and they were having a very public breakup, one that the university was not at all pleased with.
My stomach growled, and I remembered the coffee and bagels I’d picked up earlier, and left on the floor outside Jared’s door. “Come on, let’s go to the diner,” I said. “Everything is always better on a full stomach.”
“Fine,” Chris grumbled. “I just hope no one recognizes me.”
“The only people that will recognize you are the cooks.” I almost said that he wasn’t that famous of an author, but that wasn’t what people were recognizing him for these days. I grabbed my wallet, looked inside and swore; I’d used the last of my cash earlier that morning, and my stipend wouldn’t be in my account for another two days.
“I’m broke,” I said. “Can you pay this time?”
“No idea,” Chris replied. “Olivia’s lawyers threatened to freeze my accounts.”
“Can they even do that?”
Chris shrugged. “Does it matter? It’s over. Everything is just…over.”
I took a deep breath, and assessed the situation. It wasn’t good. “Okay, I’ll just make us some coffee here,” I said, then I heard a clang at the door.
“Don’t open it,” Chris shouted.
“It’s just the mail slot,” I said. I scooped up the mail, and noticed a large blue envelope. The return address read Spiritual Research Organisation of the United Kingdom. I’d never heard of them, but then again I was only familiar with the US-based organizations. Intrigued, I ripped it open.
“I mean, plagiarism?” Chris wailed. “She’s suing me for plagiarism? I teach this crap, of course I didn’t plagiarize anything!”
“Did you mention that to your lawyer?” I asked as scanned the contents of the mailer.
“Yeah. About a minute after that the school put me on administrative leave.”
I should have said something then, or at least gasped or grunted in his direction. Instead, I stared at the paperwork from this Spiritual Research place. The cover letter explained that the board of directors had come across my master’s thesis on ley lines, and were offering me a grant to continue my doctoral work in the UK, primarily Scotland. The grant would cover all of my transportation and living expenses, and included a stipend for food and other necessities…and a traveling companion. Best of all, I could book my flight as soon as the board received my signed paperwork.
I could get away—far away—from Jared, and the mistake I’d made. Chris could go someplace where no one thought he was a criminal. We could get our lives back, if only for a little while.
“Chris,” I said, “Do you want to go to Scotland? Like, now?”
Chapter One
Karina
“I can’t believe you’re dragging me to another old rock.”
I glared at Chris. Why had I brought him along, again? “It’s not an old rock. It’s a church. And since we’re in Scotland, it’s called a kirk.” I would have said more, but I needed to concentrate. This driving on the wrong side of the road business was for the birds.
“Kirk,” Chris repeated, rolling the word around in his mouth. “And, what are ‘kirks’ made of?”
I scowled at him, almost veered into a ditch, and jerked the car back onto the road. I’d grown up in northern New Jersey just over the water from New York, the Mecca of public transportation. I’d done more driving during these last two weeks in the United Kingdom than I’d done in my entire life. “Chris, do you have to be such a jerk all the time?”
“Rina, do you have to be such a bad driver?”
“Stop drinking all that complimentary Scotch, and you can do the driving.”
“When in Rome.”
He had a point. Nearly every place we’d visited in Scotland had either presented us with a few samples of the local whisky, or boasted a friendly proprietor with a flask at the ready. Add these samples to all the pubs we’d visited, and the many pints we’d downed, and my liver was starting to ache.
“Besides,” Chris continued, “if I was driving, you wouldn’t get to drag me to every known fairy sighting in the UK.”
“You liked Stirling,” I reminded him. During our tour of Stirling Castle’s grounds Chris had made full use of that Shakespeare degree by randomly quoting the Scottish play, despite the guide’s many reminders that MacBeth was a work of fiction. After the third time he shouted “Out, out, damn spot!” I was worried she’d deck him.
As for me, I was working toward a Ph D in geology at Carson, just a few buildings over from where Chris lectured about dead Elizabethans. Since I was technically in the UK to research my thesis I was mostly interested in Stirling Castle’s location on the Stirling Sill, a quartz-rich expanse of bedrock that ranged throughout the countryside. Though the ghost stories were cool, too.
I’d
always been interested in supernatural occurrences, which was the main reason I’d applied to Carson. It was one of the few North American schools that studied mystical subjects as well as the mundane. I’d ended up majoring in geology and minoring in alchemy; both subjects concerned the earth and how its elements worked together, though it was hard to do any real alchemical work in the states since the transmutation regulations had gone into effect over one hundred years ago. Back when railroad barons had still been a thing, some politician had gotten the idea that alchemists would go around transmuting all the base metals into gold, thus using up all the iron and subsequently bankrupt the industry. My advisor speculated that the politician had tried transmuting metals into gold himself and failed, and had a case of sour grapes. All I knew was that if it really was that easy to create gold from things like iron filings and aluminum foil, instant noodles wouldn’t be my go-to dinner.
When the packet about the research grant had arrived in my mail slot, I knew it was the perfect opportunity learn more about my minor, and fine-tune my thesis. That, and putting an ocean between mine and Chris’s problems was about the only thing keeping us sane.
My brother didn’t believe in anything that he couldn’t see and touch and smell, never mind that his department chair was a scholar so old he’d studied under Aristotle. That was the rumor, anyway. I’d always found it ironic that the least magical guy in the world taught at the most renowned magical university on the east coast. Chris was of the opinion that all magic had died out centuries ago, and magical creatures along with it. Most shared that viewpoint, even those enrolled in alchemy and other metaphysical courses, which is why I kept most of my ideas to myself. I didn’t need some nonbeliever casting a critical eye on my work. My work just needed to get done.
“At least real people lived at Stirling,” Chris said as we pulled into the car park. “What sort of imaginary creatures inhabit this kirk?”
“No imaginary creatures.” Not letting yourself be baited is a crucial survival tool for younger sisters. I pulled up the emergency brake, pocketed the keys, and jammed my water bottle into my daypack. “There was a reverend here in the seventeenth century called Robert Kirk, and he had dealings with the local fairies and elves. I guess this place is something of a nemeton,” I said as we got out of the rental.
“Nemeton?”
“You know, a magical place alongside a church,” I explained. Chris gave me a look over the roof of the car, raising a single eyebrow. That had always irritated me, since my own eyebrows refused to act independently. Chris must have some mutant extra muscle on one side of his head. My brother is a freak. “Anyway, the reverend wrote a book telling everyone their secrets, and it angered the fairies so they imprisoned him in the tree at the top of Doon Hill, just past the kirk. They still call the tree the Minister’s Pine.”
“Anyone can write a book,” Chris grumbled. “I’ve written several.”
I bit my lip; Chris had just enough midgrade liquor in him to be itching for a fight, and anything I said about his crumbling literary career, good or bad, would add fuel to the fire. After a few moments of silence, I said, “The walk starts with that bridge.”
Chris and I started walking toward the stone bridge that spanned the River Forth. “Did you get a pamphlet about this place?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I rooted around in my daypack, and pulled out the wad of information supplied by Spiritual Sights of the UK, the tour group my research grant had booked on my behalf. I was glad that I’d opted for the cheaper, self-guided package, and hadn’t saddled a hapless tour guide with my brother’s foul attitude for the duration of the tour. That sort of torment was reserved for family.
I pulled out the slightly rumpled pamphlet and handed it over. Chris opened it, scanning the paragraphs with an English professor’s ease. “The reverend wasn’t taken by fairies,” Chris said. “He had a stroke while he was walking around the hill.”
“You know where the term stroke comes from?” Without waiting for his smart-ass reply, I continued, “It was thought that a fairy stroked your cheek. That’s why only one side was paralyzed.”
“Thank God for modern medicine,” Chris muttered. We reached the remains of the kirk, and headed toward the cemetery. Chris might think I was a loon, but he readily agreed that gravestones were cool. After we poked around for a few minutes, he announced, “Look, your man’s buried right here. Case closed.”
I walked over to where Chris was standing, and gazed at the minister’s grave. It was a headstone coupled with a long rectangular slab that was set flush to the earth. The slab was engraved with a shield, and the inscription, Hic Pultis Ill Evangeli Promulgator Accuratus et Linguae Hiberniae Lumen M. Robertus Kirk Aberfoile Pastor Obiit 14 Maii 1692 Aetat 48.
“Can’t these people write in English,” I muttered. “What is that, French?”
“Latin. It says, ‘Here lies the accurate promulgator of the Gospels and light…no, luminary of the Hibernian tongue, Robert Kirk, pastor of Aberfoyle, who died May 14, 1692, aged 48’,” Chris translated. I guess it hadn’t been a waste of his time to take eight years of Latin. “Do you know why they called him a ‘luminary’?”
“He was some sort of language expert, and translated things like the Bible and the Book of Psalms from Latin into Gaelic,” I replied. “I think he was the first to do so.” Chris grunted; while he would never lower himself to read a book about fairies, he maintained healthy respect for his fellow scholars. After a suitable moment of silence, I suggested we climb the fairy hill.
“We’re here, so we might as well,” I said when Chris whined. “Besides, the walk will burn off some of that booze.”
Chris grumbled as he followed me toward the hill. After a far longer and more difficult climb than I’d anticipated we stood at the top of Doon Hill, gazing at the Minister’s Pine.
The tree was, in a word, magnificent. It was old and stately, like a Scottish version of Yggsdrasil, and wishes, scrawled on white or colored bits of cloth, were tied to the branches and tacked to the wide trunk. More offerings were nestled around the gnarly old roots, and shiny coins and colorful bottle caps were jammed into the bark.
“Some walk,” I grumbled, digging in my pack for my water bottle. The water was warm, but it was better than nothing.
“So, they say the preacher’s still in here, huh?” Chris leaned close to the trunk, and picked at a coin. “Why hasn’t anyone tried to chop it down, set the poor guy loose?”
I shrugged. “To keep from angering the fairies?”
Chris barked a laugh. “Yeah. Or, they don’t want to kill this golden goose of a tourist trap.” I glanced around at the packed dirt path and discarded crisp packets; Disneyland, this was not. “This stuff is all so lame, Rina. Honestly, I don’t know what you see in all these bedtime stories.”
I fingered one of the cloth prayers, scrawled in a child’s hand on a red strip of cloth; it read ‘save my Mum’. “They remind us of where we came from, where we’re going. They’re comforting.”
Another barking laugh. I suspected that Chris had had more complimentary whisky than he’d let on. “Comforting? That’s your explanation for all of this nonsense—that it’s comforting?”
“Of course,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. Chris would sober up soon enough, and my normal brother would be returned to me. I hoped. “Why would people keep doing these things,” I gestured at the tree, all of the flapping bits of cloth prayers and the offerings scattered about, “if no one ever got anything out of it?”
Chris looked from me to the tree, and back at me. “If all this goddamn magic shit is real, then why is my life over?” he ground out. “You think I didn’t pray for an answer? For Olivia to come back to me? I did. Every single day, I did. You know what I got?” His voice cracked, and he looked toward the horizon. “Nothing. Because there’s nothing to get.”
He stalked down the hill, muttering away about the uselessness of magic and prayers. I watched him until he disappeared around a curve, t
hen I turned back to the tree.
“Don’t worry,” I said, patting the rough bark. “I believe in you, Reverend Kirk. I know what really happened. And I’d rescue you if I could.”
Chapter Two
Chris
I walked down the hill toward the rental car, mad at myself for lashing out at Rina, mad that she’d brought me to this God awful tourist trap, mad about so many things.
I was sick of being an angry jerk. My situation was the fault of exactly one person, and one person only: Olivia.
Olivia, whom I’d loved more than I thought I could love someone.
Olivia, who’d filed a lawsuit against me and was slowly, methodically ruining my life.
I tripped over a rock, and caught myself against a tree. Once I was steady I grabbed the rock and flung it as far as I could, and watched it drop soundlessly into the brush. Just like my life, the rock went out with a whimper rather than a roar. Shit. I’d do anything for a good roar.
I leaned against the tree, and gave myself a little pity party. In the past month I’d failed as an author, teacher, and man, and I just couldn’t wait to find out what else life had in store for me. All the whisky in Scotland couldn’t make me forget how I’d screwed up, nor could it help me fix things.
I heard Rina on the path behind me, and felt like an even bigger jerk. Rina had just had her own bout of life kicking her in the arse, and was she wallowing like a pathetic sot? No, she was out, working hard on her degree and moving forward. Rina was the one person who’d never doubted me, and the only one who had always had my back. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know if I would have survived Olivia leaving me, and the rest of the fallout.
I straightened up and ground the heel of my hand against my eyes, not that I’d been crying. I’d moved past tears some weeks ago. I wanted to be strong for Rina, not some loser whose life was crumbling to bits. She’s always been there for me, and I would be there for her.
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