Got Luck

by Michael Darling

  “Wait! Go back,” I said.

  Erin dutifully moved her fingers in the opposite direction around the bowl. She had never stopped her song.

  “I know that guy!” I said.

  Erin stopped moving and the blue light of her fingers illuminated the surface of the water with a wavering light. The face was distant, but I recognized it. He had a sour expression on his face and a triangular patch of beard beneath his lip. Bright red.

  “His name is Amad and he works for Milly Mallondyke,” I said.

  Erin stopped singing and pulled her hands away from the bowl. The image faded and there was an ethereal sound in the air, like the ringing of a bell in reverse. Also cool.

  Erin swallowed thickly. Her breathing was heavy like she’d run a mile or two. “I know him as well. In the Faerie Realm, he is known as Caimiléir,” she said. “Among other things, he is a necromancer and an enemy of the Throne. He was sentenced to banishment but pled for mercy as the King’s nephew. The Alder King forced him to renounce his path and set him upon a new path of tasks to demonstrate his fealty. As far as I know, he has yet to complete his trial of penance.”

  I thought for a long minute. Amad—Caimiléir—was my cousin, possibly. He had seemed rather weak and almost comical in person. And he hadn’t had a Stain. As I’d discovered, mortals sometimes had a Stain but the Fae always did. I stowed the thought for later.

  “Well, we can connect him to Charles Mayer and the bullet he shot at me. We know he works for Milly Mallondyke. If we assume the people responsible for the tattoos did them both, we still don’t have a solid link with between him and the murder of Barry Mallondyke. But it’s a start.”

  “Got. Stay away from him,” Erin said. There was sudden quaver in her voice and an urgency in her eyes. “He’s an Eternal. One of the few comfortable in both this realm and the Behindbeyond. He has followers and comes here all the time. Béil is bad, but she doesn’t allow herself to be summoned here unless she really needs to and she can’t tolerate being here for long.”

  “Wait. Summoned?”

  “Yes. Halflings like you and me can come and go between realms whenever we want. Eternals have to stay in the Behindbeyond and can’t come to the mortal realm unless they’re summoned by somebody who’s already here.”

  So, somebody brought Béil here. And somebody brought Amad. Good to know.

  “Caimiléir wants power. He doesn’t care if it’s in the Behindbeyond or here, and he doesn’t care who gets in his way. If I had to guess who tried to attack you during your Quickening, it would be him. As a way of hurting the King.”

  The concern in Erin’s eyes was sweet, but I also saw she was deadly serious.

  “I’ll stay away from him, if I can,” I said. But if Amad did kill Barry Mallondyke, I might not be able to avoid a throw-down. I had an obligation to my client.

  I changed the subject.

  “Can you look at the casing too?” I asked. “Because a little boy was apparently involved in delivering it to me.”

  “All right,” Erin replied.

  “Don’t exhaust yourself.”

  “I won’t.”

  She put the casing into the water and sang the spell. The images danced while we watched and after a minute or two, Erin found him. Qui-Gon had been remarkably accurate. The image floating at the surface showed a boy, about ten years-old, with sandy hair and a shirt that looked exactly like something out of Robin Hood. He must be the boy who’d delivered the casing. I wished he could jump out and tell me who he was. He looked familiar somehow and I felt it should be easy to place him. But I couldn’t.

  “Do you recognize him?” I asked Erin.

  She ended the spell again and shook her head. She was breathing heavily again. I was going to owe her another meal to recharge her physical batteries. “No. Do you?”

  “I feel like I ought to.”

  “Well, in any case, we have even more reason to see Keeper now,” Erin said. “To find out more about you and to find out what Caimiléir is up to.”

  We unlocked the door and I followed Erin into the main area of the lab. Sean Graver had returned. If he noticed us coming out of the back room together, not at all sneaky, he didn’t show it. He didn’t even look up from the report he was writing.

  “I’m going out for lunch,” Erin said.

  Sean looked up. “Sounds great! Have a good one!”

  I gave Graver a quick stink-eye on the way out, but he’d already gone back to his report.

  Out in the hall, I told Erin, “I had a one-sided conversation with that guy where he didn’t say a word. But you say you’re going for lunch and he goes all chatterbox for you.”

  Erin winked at me. “It’s good to be the boss.”

  “Guess so. Are you tired from the spell?”

  “Some spells are easier than others,” Erin said. “Healing takes a lot of energy because there’s a huge physical effect. Psychometry is about thoughts. It’s all mental, so it didn’t take as much out of me. Actually, it’s nice that we’re going to the Behindbeyond. We recharge our power there from the energy around us. We don’t need to sleep to gain our powers back quickly.”

  “What if I cast a spell there?” I asked.

  “Easy as pie.”

  “Let’s go.”

  We decided to take my car. Erin settled into the passenger seat like she belonged there.

  “Nice,” she said. I told her to check the glove box and choose something to play. She flipped through the selections and slid a disc into the CD player. Van Halen. I smiled.

  “No, I will not discuss David Lee Roth versus Sammy Hagar,” she said. “I like them both.”

  I just pulled out of the parking lot. Still smiling.

  “So who is this Keeper? Is that his name? Or what he does?”

  “Yes.” She was laughing now.

  “Okay. And where is this place? Where Keeper is?” I asked.

  “It exists in many locations,” she replied. Enigmatic on purpose.

  “Ok. Where is the one we’re going to?”

  “Closest door is Key Largo.”

  “That’s about an hour and a half from here,” I said.

  “Yes. If you think like a mortal,” Erin said. She was taking great delight in my lack of experience. “Otherwise the nearest portal is only ten minutes away.”

  She gave directions and we soon arrived at a pretty bungalow surrounded by tall fences drenched in bougainvillea.

  “Whose place?” I asked.

  “Mine,” Erin replied. “Come in.”

  The interior of Erin’s house was decorated in white with aqua accents. Instead of a beach theme, however, she had memorabilia from old movies all over the place. Posters and props hung from the walls or sat on shelves, and an ancient arc light projector stood in an alcove. It was like being in a 1940’s boardwalk movie house.

  “Awesome,” I said.

  “Glad you like it,” Erin replied.

  She had a familiar poster with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman hanging next to the window. I stood next to it and admired it. “Hey, was it me who mentioned Casablanca first?”

  “It was you,” Erin replied. “One of the things that made you interesting. Or made me wonder if you were looking in my windows at night.”

  I shrugged. “Either way.”

  Erin laughed. “Give me a minute. I’m going to change.”

  She disappeared and re-emerged literally sixty seconds later. When she said a minute, she meant a minute. The last dress she’d worn in the Behindbeyond had been a green gown with a leaf pattern. This dress was like a waterfall. A pattern of ripples in a gorgeous shade of blue cascaded from shoulder to hem and she had heels to match. Her hair flared out away from her face to create a wild mane of flowing locks. She had redone her makeup, giving her eyes a smoky allure that made the whole package brea
thtaking.

  “Whew,” I said. “Wow.”

  “Glad you like it. Again.”

  I looked down at my clothes. They were nice, for South Florida, but I looked like a street beggar compared to her. She was out of my league as the human Erin. But compared to this gorgeous creature from a hidden realm, I wasn’t even in the same universe. “What do I wear?”

  “You’re fine,” Erin said. “The Behindbeyond, or An Taobh Thiar Agus Níos Faide when you’re there, is hopelessly chauvinistic. You can wear whatever you want and nobody will think less of you. But me, as the wife of the Alder King’s son, I have a different standard.” She held her hands up and turned slowly in a circle.

  On impulse, I stepped in and wrapped my arm around her waist. “You’re the royalty.”

  Erin put her hands on my chest. She didn’t pull away—but she was ready to push.

  “Got. I’ve had a couple of days now to think about things. I wasn’t sure how to react when all this happened. In a lot of ways, it was kind of exciting on its own. But I’m not sure this will really work. As a marriage, I mean. Of course, I’ll be your helpmeet in the Behindbeyond. I won’t cause dishonor to you. I’m just . . . I’m not sure if . . . I need some time. Is that all right?”

  I looked into those warm toffee eyes. I wanted to be with her. She was in my arms and it was very, very nice. Part of me—a small part—wanted to enforce my claim to her body. But I couldn’t be that guy. I sighed inside. Men don’t get their feelings hurt. But if a bruised heart felt anything like I felt right now, it would suck.

  I’d never let her know. I’d keep it light. I cleared my throat and said, “There’s an old Japanese saying: ‘The man owns the house but the woman owns the bed.’”

  Erin laughed, deep and throaty. Good. She didn’t know what I was feeling.

  She needed time and I would need to give it to her. I let her go.

  “Is that a real Japanese saying?” she asked.

  “No,” I had to admit. “But it’s good, right? Nice combination of sensitivity and pathos.”

  “It’s good,” she said. “Let’s go.”

  She led me to a storage room with a wood floor. In the center of the floor was a silver inlay that looked to be permanent. An empty circle. Against the wall was a set of shelves with a collection of silver patterns that looked like they fit into the circle.

  “This is like the portal I made,” I said. “To get to the Behindbeyond.”

  “Exactly. Instead of making a portal every time from scratch, I use these. Different patterns are for different destinations.”

  She took a pattern off the shelf and dropped it into the center of the circle. It was very similar to the design that came out of me. Same kind of design but instead of a real feather, rock, cup of water, and candle, there were symbols at the compass points.

  “Would you care to do the honors?” she said.

  All righty.

  I knelt down and touched the circle. I took a moment to make sure I remembered the word that Madrasceartán had etched into my mind. Then I took a breath and fed a thread of power into the silver. I said, “Oscailte.” The whole pattern flashed to life and a column of blue light shot up to the ceiling. The gate pivoted down into the floor.

  “That was easy. When I made mine, I had to put blood into it.”

  “Silver doesn’t need blood, it’s a natural essence of the Earth herself,” Erin said.

  “I like that.”

  Erin took my hand. I tried to keep it light. Like we were friends. She said, “Don’t forget to call me Fáidh in the Eternal realm. It’s a matter of honor.”

  “Okay,” I replied. “Fáidh it is.”

  “Shall we?”

  I squeezed her hand, and together we fell in.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Keeper

  Our ninety-degree turn put us onto a wooded path. Immense oak trees towered over everything, their trunks were at least thirty feet in diameter and they soared to least five-hundred feet tall. A few stray leaves sailed down through the air, each one the size of a kite.

  “This isn’t Key Largo,” I said.

  “I didn’t say it was. I said Key Largo was the closest door. Come on. I’ll show you.”

  We followed the path around the trees. There was an inn on the other side. Maybe more of a lodge. Or a mansion converted for public use. It had a thatched roof and mullioned windows and couldn’t have been more filled with charm. A sign hanging from a post by the road said “Corrchnámhach.”

  Erin saw me reading the sign and said, “Newcomers refer to this place as ‘The Angle.’ That’s the meaning of the word you’re trying so studiously to read.”

  “Gotcha.”

  We pushed open the heavy door to find the place stocked with patrons. The room was constructed at odd angles. It had pillars in what appeared to be random locations. There were tables with odd assortments of individuals eating and drinking and talking. There were no musicians visible, but I heard an unobtrusive and simple melody playing. At the center was a bar with seven counters facing each of the seven sections where the patrons could sit. I just stood a pace or two from the door and tried to take it all in.

  Erin pointed to a nearby door. It had a palm tree carved into it. “That door exits into a janitor’s closet in Key Largo,” she said. “The door is always open, if you know where to look. It doesn’t take any will or word. This place is a sanctuary, open to all.”

  “That’s fantastic,” I said. “How many doors are there?”

  “There are seven direct doors. Other doors exist that lead to the seven doors. Have you heard of ley lines?”

  “Uhhh.”

  “Guess not. You can think of them as lines of supernatural power that connect areas of the world that are significant to the Fae. Places of historical or mystical importance. There are lots of minor lines but only a few major lines. Where those lines cross is called a nexus. Sometimes you’ll get more than two major lines intersecting. Those places are the most important. There’s only once place where seven ley lines intersect.”

  “Let me guess. Right here at The Angle.”

  “Correct. And they generate the power needed to travel from one place to another using the ways between the doors. You’re a quick learner, underling.”

  “Careful. That kind of nickname could stick to a guy.”

  “You’ll just have to deal with it then.”

  “Very well, helpmeet. So where do all these lines come from?”

  “Okay. So the Earth has her own magic, but she can be affected by magic as well. The ley lines are bands of magical power, almost like magnetic fields, that circle around and through her.”

  Holy whoa. Ley lines are the Stains around the Earth.

  I didn’t have time to geek out about my revelation. I needed to listen.

  Erin continued. “And ley lines are not straight. They curve and bend from any number of influences and they’re also affected by belief. A lot of the changes over the centuries have dealt with what people believed, where they lived, and what they did. For example, a ley line was once located in Greece. As power shifted westward with the Roman Empire, the mythology and belief shifted with it. That ley line moved from Greece to Italy.” She pointed at a door with, no kidding, a pizza carved into it. “That door will take you to an alcove underneath the Coliseum in Rome.”

  “Why not the Vatican?”

  “That’s a different set of beliefs,” Erin said. “Beliefs aren’t necessarily incompatible with each other and systems can even overlap, geographically as well as philosophically. But they are expressed in different ways.”

  “I see.”

  “By the way, the source where Key Largo is located now was once located in Bermuda,” Erin said.

  “Bermuda Triangle?” I asked.

  “Exactly. Science has removed a lot of the my
ths surrounding the Bermuda Triangle. The source shifted towards Florida as the beliefs are stronger in Florida now.”

  Erin indicated a large group of retirees wearing golf shirts and polyester pants. They were drinking beers and Bloody Marys.

  “So the source is in Florida now because there are more old people?”

  “You could say that.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Vampires.”

  “You must be joking,” I said, moderately aghast.

  Erin grinned. “Think about it,” she said. “Vampires are among the oldest beings on Earth. Even they age, albeit slowly. Eventually, they need to find a place where they can blend in with the local populace. And, due to the latitude in southern Florida, there’s a more consistent cycle of day and night there than almost anywhere else. They need nighttime to travel and feed and the nights in Florida don’t vary much during the year.”

  “Okay.” I stared at her. “If you hear what sounds like bubble-wrap popping inside my head, that’s just my brain exploding. So I’ll just deal with all this at a later date.” I took another peek. “They look like attorneys. Shall we get a table? Then you can tell me what other creatures of the night are stalking the Behindbeyond.”

  “Like werewolves? Basilisks? Various forms of other undead?” She had to be teasing.

  “Those exist too?”

  “Didn’t you say your brain was exploding? Let’s just say there are fewer fictitious creatures in existence than you might think. Come on. Let’s see if Keeper can speak with us.”

  We moved toward the bar. As we went deeper into the building, I saw that the ceiling was very high. Or . . . “Hey, are those stars?” I asked. “In the middle of the afternoon?”

  “This is a special place, remember? It’s the most powerful nexus that we know, and the ley lines aren’t all parallel to the Earth,” she pointed up. “Some are perpendicular. Besides, some customers don’t walk.”