by Sean Cullen
Suddenly, his ankles were clamped in a powerful grip. His teeth slammed together as his forward motion was violently arrested. Tentatively, he looked up to see the moss-encrusted trunk of a tree mere inches from his nose.
“Yikes.” He let out his breath and twisted to see Charlie grinning, holding his ankles in her hands. Her black boots had gouged two deep furrows in the frozen ground.
“That was fun.” Charlie giggled, breaking her hold.
Brendan pushed himself to his feet, brushing the dirt furiously from his pyjamas. “What’s the big idea? You could have killed me!”
“But I didn’t. Lighten up.”
BLT, circling overhead, piped up. “That was amazing! You were really warping, Brendan. Until you face-planted.”
“I didn’t face-plant! She tripped me!” He brushed snow from his T-shirt.
BLT hovered in front of his face. “You’re missing the point. How did you manage to warp like that?”
Brendan stopped and thought about what the tiny Faerie had said. “I don’t know. I just did it. I didn’t think about it.”
“Maybe you should think less all the time,” Charlie said, arching an eyebrow. “Thinking: good. Too much thinking: bad. Let’s go.” In a flash, she was speeding away again.
“Where are we going?” Brendan cried. He set off after her with BLT clinging to his shoulder.
He caught up with her just as they reached Queen Street. An all-night streetcar rumbled past. Charlie leapt across in front of it, waving at the startled driver. Brendan sailed across a second later. Before the driver could reach for her warning bell, they were speeding down a darkened side street.
Brendan sped down the middle of the road. Charlie took a more adventurous route, leaping lightly along the roofs of the parked cars. Her footfalls were so gentle that she didn’t set off a single car alarm. The vehicles didn’t even shift under her weight. Brendan was so engrossed with watching her that he almost didn’t see the police car cruise around the corner ahead of him.
“Brendan!” BLT squeaked. Brendan snapped his head forward and saw the looming grill of the cruiser just in time. Without a conscious thought, he sprang into the air, clearing the flashers with a metre to spare. He skidded to a halt, his bare feet sliding on the icy pavement.
“Whoa. That was close,” he gasped.
He didn’t have time to dwell on his narrow miss. Red light bathed him as the police cruiser slammed on its brakes, slewing to a stop on the slippery street. The red lights on top began to spin and the driver’s door swung open.
“Stay right where you are!” the policeman shouted as he climbed out of the car.
Brendan froze. He’d never been yelled at by a policeman before.33 He’d also never been out in his pyjamas and bare feet in the middle of the night before. How was he going to explain himself to the constable walking toward him, flashlight in hand? How was he going to explain this to his parents? Brendan blinked as the beam of the flashlight rose to glare into his face.
“Uh … ” He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but he didn’t know what to say.
In the end, he had no opportunity to speak. A dark shape flashed by between him and the policeman. The flashlight went spinning from the constable’s hand.
“Wha—?” Before the officer could register the flashlight smashing onto the pavement, the shape streaked by again. His weapon belt snapped open and the heavy leather holster bearing his gun, Taser, and walkie-talkie thudded around his ankles. The dark shape blurred by once more before stopping to reveal Charlie standing directly in front of the startled man.
“Evening, Officer,” Charlie said sweetly and pushed the man in the chest with both hands. The constable stumbled on the belt at his feet and fell backwards onto his butt with a loud whuffing sound. Charlie whirled around and dashed past Brendan, laughing merrily.
“Run, dummy!” she called over her shoulder.
Brendan and the shocked officer stared at each other for a few seconds in disbelief. At last, the policeman’s face registered anger. He scrambled to his feet. Brendan didn’t wait any longer. He turned and desperately warped away as fast as his Faerie legs could carry him, following the sound of Charlie’s laughter.
She led him south, blazing along residential streets where Humans lay sleeping in their beds, Christmas lights twinkling on their porches and windows. From one backyard a dog barked, sensing their passage, though by the time the bark came, the two Faeries were long gone. On and on, Brendan chased after Charlie’s blurred form, gaining slowly until they plunged under the expressway, into the parkland that bordered the lake. Brendan finally caught her at the running track that snaked along the waterfront. He fell into step with her. They loped easily along the trail, heading to the centre of town. In spite of his annoyance, Brendan had to admit that being out in the cold night, flying along with this strange Faerie girl was just a teensy bit enjoyable. But he suppressed that feeling, holding on to his anger as best he could.
“What are you doing? Are you trying to get me arrested?”
Charlie threw her head back and laughed. “You should have seen your face.” She pointed at him, giggling. “You looked hilarious!”
“Hilarious? I almost had a heart attack.” Brendan frowned. “I have to live among Humans. That means I have to obey their laws and not … assault police officers!”
Charlie managed to get her laughter under control. She looked sideways at him, puzzled. “You really do think that, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Brendan said.
“Okay. You have to be a law-abiding Human citizen. But you have a duty to your Faerie side, too. You’ve got to live up to your potential and use your gifts. And you have gifts. I have the spirit of the stag in my legs, Brendan. Not just anyone could catch me the way you did.” She turned north when they reached the docklands. Brendan matched her stride for stride. “Try to admit to yourself that you’re having a good time for once in your life, eh?”
Brendan didn’t answer. He didn’t know what to say to that. He was enjoying himself. His whole body sang with joy from the race they were running through the darkened city. He couldn’t deny how good he felt, but he didn’t want to show Charlie that he enjoyed any of it. “You’re fast,” he said with grudging respect. “Are you a Warper, too?”
“No.” Without missing a step, Charlie pulled up her right sleeve to reveal the tattoo of the stag. “I am a Shadow Dancer.”
“Shadow Dancer?”
“It’s a one-of-a-kind Art. I’m the only one of me. I can take on the traits of my Shadow Animals. Speed from the stag.” She bared her other arm to show a bear tattoo. “The she-bear gives me strength.” Pulling up her sleeve further, she revealed the boar. “And the boar, she gives me cunning. You don’t mess with the boar.” Smiling fiercely, she raced ahead, across the expressway, mercifully traffic free, and into the rail yards. Brendan willed himself to run faster.
“I don’t plan on having the chance,” he called to her back. Charlie jerked to a halt. Brendan drew up beside her.
“Brendan, please.” Charlie’s voice became softer. “I know my showing up was a shock, but I promise I’ll behave myself, honest! I just want to see what the big fuss is about you. Everybody is talking about you, you know.”
“Who’s everybody?”
“Births are rare among the Fair Folk. And you come from two very powerful parents from two powerful factions.” Charlie shrugged. “A lot of Fair Folk are coming to the Clan Gathering just to get a look at you. Powerful Ancient Ones. Some of them haven’t left their homes for many years, but they’re making the trip to see you.”
“Oh, crap. Why can’t people just leave me alone? All I want is to be left alone to figure out what’s happening to me. I just want to be normal.”
“Well,” Charlie said, smiling, “there are a lot of different kinds of normal. And you aren’t any of them, Brendan. Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
She pointed. “Up!”
They s
tood at the foot of Rogers Centre, the domed stadium that was home to the Blue Jays baseball team. The white curve of the roof glowed dimly in the moonlight.
“Up?” Brendan gulped.
“Up!” Charlie repeated, trotting toward the sheer concrete wall.
“You’re nuts!” he moaned.
After a moment’s consideration, Brendan shook his head and started after her.
33 Policemen are trained to be calm and not raise their voices. If you are being yelled at by a policeman you have very likely done something very wrong or have frightened them badly. No matter what the reason, the situation cannot be good. Try not to get into situations that require the police to yell at you. Unless you’re hard of hearing.
CHARLIE’S STORY
The city spread out like diamonds strewn on a black velvet carpet below him. To the north, bank towers and condos loomed. Brendan could make out Old City Hall, the Queen’s Park legislature, and the weird angles of the Royal Ontario Museum Crystal. To the south, the dark waters of the lake stretched away, broken only by the occasional ship’s lights and the glow from Ward’s Island. The wind was stronger up at the apex of the dome. Brendan and Charlie sat on the edge of a shell-like section of the domed roof, dangling their feet over the rim.
“Pretty cool, non?” Charlie asked.
“I guess so.” Brendan watched as BLT flitted here and there, nimbly avoiding the lunges of Tweezers. The crimson-eyed ferret leapt playfully at her from the tiled surface.
“I like this city,” Charlie said, stretching her arms above her head. “I haven’t been here for a long time. They have been busy.”
Brendan shrugged. He had no idea how long it had been since Charlie’s last visit, but even in the last ten years, a lot had been going on. The banks were constantly vying to build the highest skyscrapers as their headquarters. Probably a hundred or more condos and hotels were under construction, and the waterfront was being developed from east to west. So many people crammed into one place. He recalled his trip under the lake with his Silkie34 friend Oona and the devastation she’d shown him that the city’s Humans had caused. As she carried him under the waters of Lake Ontario to escape Orcadia, Oona had pointed out the lifeless desert the lake had become due to the pollution Humans poured into it. Unless something changed drastically, even more damage to the natural world was to come. He couldn’t subscribe to the violence that Faeries like Orcadia wanted to resort to in order to make that change, but he could understand her frustration and anger.
Brendan tried to shake off his gloomy mood. The city could be beautiful, too. The skyline was a jagged string of lights. Buildings had been strung with Christmas lights as well, adding splashes of colour to the night. The CN Tower soared only a few metres away. How many wonderful hours had he spent with his family at the ball games held beneath this very dome? No, there was good and there was bad. Over the last few strange weeks, he’d been grappling with his two natures. Trying to balance them was becoming more and more difficult. He wondered if he would ever reach a place of peace within himself.
Charlie broke in on his reverie. “You didn’t seem to have any problems using your warp abilities tonight.”
“Not until you tripped me, anyway.”
Charlie laughed.
“Who says I have problems with my powers?” Brendan asked defensively.
“Friends of mine,” she answered cryptically. “But you managed okay tonight. You almost beat me in that race.”
“Almost? I was gonna smoke you when you tripped me.”
“Yes, well. You go on dreaming.” She laughed. “Either way, my point is, you were able to use your powers with ease. Why is that?”
Brendan thought about that question for a moment, staring out over the lake to where Ward’s Island slumbered, a dark, low line. The airport beside it was lit up with spotlights, although no planes were allowed to take off and land in the wee hours of the morning.
“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that. I don’t know what it is. Greenleaf, Kim, and Saskia, they’re the ones trying to teach me. They keep telling me I have to clear my mind and not think too much. Which is impossible! I mean, just not thinking about thinking anything is thinking about something. You see what I’m saying?”
“That’s why I thought I’d come and check you out. I had a lot of the same problems. Tonight, I didn’t give you any time to think about what you were doing. Woke you up, threw you out a window, made you angry. You didn’t have time to think. You just did it! See? I’ve been through the same struggles myself. I told you, we have a lot in common.”
“Why do you keep saying we have so much in common? Who are you, really? Where are you from, really?”
“Really?” Her eyes twinkled, deep and blue. Despite his annoyance, Brendan couldn’t help but find those eyes very attractive. “I’m not from Quebec. I am from France. At least, it’s the first place I remember. I think I was born in the fifteenth century.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Brendan asked. “You think? You don’t know?”
“Well, remember when I said we had a lot in common? I am like you. I was placed in a Human family.”
Brendan sat up. “You? You were adopted by Humans, too?” She nodded. “Who did that to you?”
“I don’t know.” She smiled sadly. “I am not so lucky as you. I never found out who my Faerie parents were. An old peasant couple raised me in Brittany.35 That’s in the north of France, on the English Channel. They were hard-working people, salt harvesters. They always knew I was not a normal child. They found me on the beach crying in the rain. My real parents were nowhere to be seen. They took me in and raised me. They had no children of their own, you see. They had a son who had died young, so they called me Charles in his memory. As I grew older, it became harder and harder to hide how strange I was. People began to talk. They whispered of witchcraft and devils. The village priest became suspicious. I didn’t know that what I could do was strange or bad, and I started to feel ashamed. My parents’ life became difficult. So they did what they thought was best … ”
“What did they do?” Brendan could easily imagine what it would have been like to grow up not knowing what he was. At least he’d had Wards and glamours placed on him to hide his true nature even from himself. And he lived in a world that was a little more forgiving of strangeness.
“They put me on a ship to the New World.” Charlie’s eyes were far away. She gazed out over the lake as if she were on that ship now. “The passage was a long one. Many died but I thrived. I loved the ocean. For the first time, I felt truly at peace. I could sense the creatures of the deep swarming around the ship: the million tiny minds of the little fish travelling together in their schools like a cloud of lights in the water, the giant, clever thoughts of whales drifting far below. In the night, I would sit in the prow and the dolphins would come to me, pacing the ship, calling in their silly voices and making jokes, mocking me because I was a fish that couldn’t swim.36 I found I could understand what they were saying. The sailors liked me because they said I brought luck. La Fortuna, they called me.
“We sailed across the Atlantic and into the great mouth of the St. Lawrence River, arriving finally at the tiny village of Hochelaga.”
“Hochelaga? That’s Montreal, isn’t it?”37 Brendan had read his history. Canadian children had to learn all about the early explorers in school: Cartier, Champlain, Henry Hudson, and their contemporaries.
“Oui, exactement! It was not so big a town back then, just a little knot of huts at the bend of the river with a tiny church and a cross on the top of the hill. They needed people to settle there. Fur trappers and voyageurs came in their canoes, and the native people, the Iroquois and the Mohawk and the Huron, brought animal pelts in for trading. For a time, I was welcome there. I had some skills as a healer and they needed me. I liked the wilderness. I could run there and be free. I could speak with the animals and learn their language. I would be gone in the woods for long weeks learning about the wild pl
aces from them.”
“What happened?”
“Again, the priest of the village could sense I was different. He started to turn people against me. He made everyone think I was a devil and that my gifts were from Satan himself. He said I consorted with demons in the woods. The native people were friendly to me, but this only made the priest believe I was somehow evil. He put me on trial and made the villagers agree that I should be executed. Burned at the stake.”38
“But you escaped.”
“Obviously.” Charlie laughed. “An Iroquois band raided the village and stole me away on the night before the burning. I travelled with them for many years and they treated me well. Their Shaman said she knew my kind. She called me one of the Old Ones. I learned much from her about how to control my powers. She gave me these.” She held out her arm to display the animal tattoos. “She told of a time when the Old Ones and the People were friends and shared the Earth, before a war between our races divided them.”
“Ariel told me a bit about that.”
“Ariel would know. He was there.” Charlie’s face darkened. “The Humans from the Old World had forgotten those times. They came to the New World with their cutting and burning and gouging of the Earth.” She shook her head. “Soon, there was nowhere for the Iroquois people to hide from the whites, and they became sick in body and sick in spirit. They forgot the Old Ways. Before that time, however, I went my own way, exploring the wild places. I found that I could come to the cities and live among the People of Metal for a while at a time, leaving before they noticed I didn’t age like them or was different. It’s easy now. The Humans don’t pay as close attention as they once did. More and more of our people came to this land. As I met more of my kind, I found a special teacher and came into my powers completely.”
Brendan was intrigued. “A special teacher? Who was that?”
Charlie shook her head, not meeting his eye. She became guarded. “One of the Ancient Ones. You will meet him in good time. He is coming to the Clan Gathering. But I’ve talked too much. The night is waning.”