“Anything in there?”
Nat shook his head. “Computers. Cameras. Take some time to find footage.”
I took a couple of deep breaths, thinking. “I may know who has Erin,” I finally said. “He might have Brandy and Carlene too.”
“You know where?”
“I wish I did. There’s a place. It’s important to this guy. I’ve been trying to find it but I haven’t had any luck yet. I’ve got no other lead.”
“We should go.”
On our way out, we searched the dance floor and the conveyor just in case. No sign of the girls.
We made it to the exit. I made a mental note to chastise MacPherson for operating a club with no discernible security. Cheap and stupid. But this was really all on me. I’d lost Erin and Brandy and Carlene. Me.
We went out to Nat’s SUV and rode home. It was the longest, most silent ride of my life.
Chapter Thirty
Halfling Ninja
Nat dropped me off at my house. As I got out he said, “Carlene introduced me to Brandy. We’ve been dating for five weeks. They’re both important to me. When you find something, call me.” I closed the door and he drove away. It was the longest string of words I’d gotten out of him in two years.
He had every right to assume I’d let him know. But if I found the girls where I suspected I might find them, I couldn’t tell Nat anything. I hated this situation. I’d brought Nat in to help, and he’d brought in the girls, and now they were missing, and I could lose Nat’s trust in the bargain. But there was precious little that I could tell him about any of this.
I ran inside the house. It was after 3:00 a.m. but I got Max out of bed anyway. I told him very quickly what was happening. Then I asked him if he would make sure to take Sandretta with him someplace safe if everything went sideways. And find Nat and take him with them, too.
I’ve been afraid for myself before plenty of times. I’d been afraid for combat buddies. I’d been afraid for fellow officers. I had never, until now, been afraid for another person quite the way I was afraid right now for Erin and the other women. The fear in my veins was like an electrical wire running down every branch of my system. The feeling galvanized me like no feeling I’ve ever had before. I should have been exhausted, but I was energized because people needed me and I had to come up with a plan. I had to believe that events were nearing their culmination and I had Amad worried if they were taking Erin. I was getting close.
From my house, I activated the portal and went to the Behindbeyond.
Corrchnámhach was just as busy as before. It took me only moments to find Keeper.
“The look on yer face tells a troublesome tale,” he said. “Come with me.”
We went to a quiet room and there was already food and drink. Water. Exactly what I needed.
“You heard about Caimiléir and the little deamhan he summoned?” I asked.
“Aye. He claims he can control them and wants to summon one to the mortal realm. He thinks it will return the human world to a belief in myth again, and by their belief, increase our power. And fertility.” Keeper was shaking his head. “Controlling a wee deamhan for show is not the same as controlling the monstrous one he’ll need to summon next.”
“He was rebuffed by the Alder King,” I said.
“As he shoulda been.”
“My father made him Uncourted and Unblessed and I think that’s what he wanted. I think he’s ready to open the Jeweled Gate. It’s been a huge undertaking and I’ve been wondering what else he hopes to gain. I mean, he doesn’t strike me as a person who would do all this just for the good of his people, I don’t buy it.”
“’Tis simple lad,” Keeper replied. “If Caimiléir’s ploy comes to fruition and proves the King wrong, Caimiléir dethrones the King.”
The import of Keeper’s words stunned me.
“How do you mean?”
“A king is only as powerful as the number and strength of his followers,” Keeper replied. “’Tis the same for us Eternals. The greater a king’s holdings, the more subjects he has, the greater his power. For Fae Kings, the belief of the followers is just as important as any land or money or hereditary right. Our lords are rulers of the metaphysical just as they are rulers of the real.”
Now it made sense. Caimiléir wasn’t just concerned with returning his people to their former glory. He wanted to be their king. That’s why he was willing to be so patient. He wanted to be the lord of this realm and the mortal realm as well.
Oh man.
Not good.
“I don’t think there’s much time now. He’s taken Fáidh and at least two other women.”
Keeper was all business.
“Well, lad, we were hoping to find the gate before he completed it. Now, if he’s got it done, as ya think, he’ll be wanting to open it. That said, there are things ya must know. The gate requires a lengthy ritual to open. He has to start at moonrise and continue until moonrise tomorrow. Depending on location and time in the month, that’s usually more than twenty-four hours but less than twenty-five. There will be blood required at the last stage. Blood to power the gate and blood to feed the deamhan.”
“If the gate is big, that’s a lot of blood.”
“Aye. How long has it been since Caimiléir was seen?”
“Two hours at least.”
“Then time is growing short.”
The knot of dread in my gut was growing larger. If the blood wasn’t needed until the end, the girls had only a few hours to live.
“I need to know more about wards.”
“Dinna Fáidh teach ya?”
“She taught me enough to come up with a plan.”
I told Keeper what I wanted to do and how I thought it could be accomplished. As I spoke with him, he repeatedly ran a stocky hand from the crown of his head to the tip of his beard, rubbing his face and scratching his whiskers.
When I had finished my explanation, he squinted at me and bobbed his head to the side. “’Tis a very dangerous game to play,” he said. “Even if it works, there’s a chance he’ll best ya. Or the deamhan will best ya both.”
“Do you see an alternative?” I asked.
“Can’t say I do,” he replied. “But keep the risks in mind if ya would follow this path. Once ya have set foot upon it, there’s little choice but to see it to the end. And that end may be very bitter to ya.”
“I know.”
Keeper nodded. “Then we’d best get to work.”
* * *
It took almost two hours of painstaking effort, but it was all I could ask for.
I looked at the results. “It’ll work,” I pronounced.
“It’ll have to,” Keeper replied. “I’m glad I could help this much. I wish ya good luck.”
All I could do was nod. I didn’t have any words.
Keeper sensed the reason. “Go save her lad. And if ya can, save yer realm as well.”
I choked out two words: “I will.”
I departed Corrchnámhach. Just outside the door, I looked up into the open sky and admired the patriarchal oaks. Dawn was not far off in this realm. The clouds were edged in a pale pink, and the first swallows took gliding swoops over the quiet places in the nearby stream, catching bugs and leaving circlets on the surface of the water with the tips of their wings. I stored a mental image of this winsome place, cementing it inside my brain so I could recall it in detail.
In case I never saw it again.
I took a deep breath and went back home. Home to the mortal realm.
* * *
I showered and changed. The scalding water was purifying and fresh clothes made me feel ready for battle. Black jeans, black shirt, black running shoes. Halfling ninja. I took a flashlight that clipped onto my belt. In my pocket I put the silver shard from Amad’s serpent, along with the healing medallion and my
shield coin, which I had recharged. I had Keeper’s chain and pendant around my neck. Atypically, I actually made sure I had my gun and even an extra clip.
Before I left, I called Milly’s number and left a message telling her I had a good lead, I needed to follow up on it right away, and I would get back in touch with her as soon as I could. That way, if she never saw me again, she would know I had been trying to complete my task.
Erin’s house was empty. I went there not expecting to find her but more as a way of reassuring myself that I was being thorough and diligent. And confirm my worst suspicions. She hadn’t gotten amnesia or something and been brought home by the police. She was gone. The space was empty of life and warmth. I dutifully went through every room, checking for anyone or anything out of place, before going back to her portal room. Her stack of gate sigils sat there on their shelves. I could drop one onto the silver circle and be gone to a far-off place where there were no lunatic knights summoning deamhans. No kidnapped friends. No impending doom on a city that had been good to me.
I wasn’t tempted for even a second.
I’d been thinking about MacPherson’s properties. The two that were near each other with the piles of dirt and the unfinished building bothered me. Where had all that extra dirt come from? What if there had been a huge excavation project on the one property and they had hauled all the dirt away to the second property? Had they then built a structure over the hole in the ground?
What was once above is below. What was below, above.
The surface of the land had once been above ground but now it was below. And the dirt that had been below ground was now sitting above. Could it be that simple?
Maybe.
One way to find out.
When I’d been to the site before, I had only given the place a cursory examination because it seemed to have been abandoned. There could easily be a way to get belowground that I hadn’t noticed. But now I’d know what to look for. And the excavation could be fairly deep since that land had to be at least thirty feet above sea level. Not a problem for a contractor like MacPherson who had an army of workers and a fleet of equipment at his disposal.
I drove over to the property, parking two blocks away. The sun was about three hours from rising here so the night was full and deep.
The structure sat on the property like the skinless skull of a giant prehistoric animal, faintly gray and empty with open eye sockets and an attitude of neglect. Looking at it from a distance, I could imagine the rest of a skeletal body going for a hundred feet or more beneath the dirt. I really should avoid giving myself the willies. There are enough terrible things in the world that are real.
There appeared to be no activity. If I was wrong, I would have to scramble to find the right place before it was too late.
I checked the sky, remembering Keeper’s words about the timing. The moon showed a sharp, curved edge just setting. It would have to make its way back around to the eastern horizon before time would be up. Somehow, that realization didn’t do anything at all to ease my fears.
I crept closer, taking cover behind a stand of trees at the edge of the property. If I was lucky, I’d be able to find the girls and get them out. After that, once they were safe, I’d deal with Caimiléir and his gate.
If you do stakeouts long enough, you get a feel for places and their character on the outside, which can tell you a lot about what is happening on the inside. I sat for thirty minutes behind the trees waiting for something to reveal itself and I got nothing. Usually, that meant that there was nothing there to see after all, but in this case—here in this place—it made me more nervous instead of less. A ward could be set so that nothing could be observed behind it. I knew that from the fireball lesson at my own house. And the fire I’d caused on top of MacPherson’s building. The flames had gone unnoticed outside until the ward had collapsed.
This place had been built by human beings and existed in a world where things constantly changed. Sometimes it’s subtle, but something will be different over time. A leaf will shudder with the invisible passage of air. Shadows will shift with the changes in the surrounding light. Looking at the building was like looking at a painting. It was too perfect. Too immune from influence. Too set apart from the world around it.
This had to be the place. I crept closer and finally saw it. The pattern of the ward. I touched it, in case it was meant to keep me out, but my hand passed right through. It was just a ward to keep the place looking innocent. Yay me.
I entered the empty husk of the building. My senses were on high alert, and I hurried from the shadow of the wall to the space behind a stack of lumber without trying to identify a ward. In moments, I found what I was looking for. Stairs. A forklift sat conspicuously nearby, burdened with building materials covered in plastic. The stairwell had been underneath.
The stairs went down about eight feet to a hallway that went straight. I couldn’t see where it led, although there was a utility light on the floor at the bottom of the steps to light the way. The stairs were on the narrow side and steep.
I knelt at the edge of the opening, opposite the top steps. Then I laid on the ground and eased my head down into the opening. I got a quick look, upside-down, at the hallway. All I could see was the area illuminated by the utility light and, beyond that, a pool of darkness.
I was going to be entering a tunnel, basically blind.
If I needed to see in the darkness, I had my flashlight, but I didn’t want to use it unless I had to. My heartbeat threatened to explode through my eardrums as I descended the stairs. This all felt bad and wrong and stupid in every way conceivable. I had no choice but to press on. The hall felt ridiculously long and I must have gone about a hundred yards before stopping, leaving the comfort of the utility light far behind.
I put my hand on the wall, trying to remain silent as I felt my way into the blackness. Somewhere, echoing up through the black, I heard a man’s voice and then a woman crying.
That’s when the world erupted in painful, blinding light.
Chapter Thirty-One
Béil
It was morning now. We were lying in bed, enjoying the quiet. She was wearing the satin nightgown with the little bow in the small of her back that I’d bought her for our fifth wedding anniversary.
“Want some breakfast?” I found myself asking.
“Are you cooking?”
“Pancakes. Bacon. Eggs. Anything fancier, you’ll have to go elsewhere.”
“That sounds absolutely great.”
I got up and donned the world’s most comfortable bathrobe. The pink marble floors were never too cold, so I went without the matching slippers and padded down to the kitchen barefooted. Saturday was always Stail and Láir’s day off. It was my job to make breakfast and I loved doing it. Soon the bacon would be frying and the pancakes would be golden and the eggs would be fluffy and the kids would come down and join us.
I was pouring a third round of pancake batter into the griddle, making Mickey Mouse shapes, when I felt a pair of hands slide around me. Her hands were small and warm on my chest. I turned around and kissed her. “Minty,” I said.
She smiled and took a step back. She moved her hair out of her face with her fingers. Her hair was long and straight and shiny and somehow managed to be perfect even first thing in the morning.
“You are so beautiful, Béil,” I said.
And she was. All soft and sweet. A kitten who’d retired her claws.
I was still married to Erin of course. But she and I had not been able to have children. Béil was my courtesan, which was all she ever wanted. We had been lucky enough to have twins, a boy and a girl, who were the absolute apples in Grandpa Alder King’s eyes.
“What are you thinking, my darling?” Béil asked. Her speech pattern was smooth. I was glad for her.
“Honestly?”
“Sure.”
“I’m th
inking there’s a good chance I’m dead. Or dying.”
Béil sighed and folded her arms. “Why do you say that?”
“This is all an elaborate fantasy.”
“What if it is?”
“I don’t know. I can remember things from the past several years that are impossible. The Alder King granted permission for you to become my courtesan. We traveled to some of the most beautiful places in An Taobh Thiar Agus Níos Faide. We had two children and their names are April and Alex. My father asks for my advice about running the kingdom. I make breakfast every Saturday morning. I just correctly pronounced An Taobh Thiar Agus Níos Faide.”
“It’s wonderful, don’t you agree?”
“Sure. It’s great. But these are all things you want. I have all these memories and I’m feeling all these feelings. I love you and I love the children, but I know that something terrible just happened to me. I’m in the mortal realm right now—or my body is. And this existence, all this stuff, isn’t any kind of thing I’d come up with on my own. It feels real but logically, this can’t be happening.”
Béil stepped into me and wrapped me up in her arms. “But it all could happen. All of it. I can make it happen.”
“Even children?”
Béil smiled. “If you roll the dice often enough, you’ll hit the jackpot.”
I had to pause. She had abilities and powers that I might never understand. I believed that she probably could make things happen as she wanted somehow.
“All this could be yours,” she continued. “More. But you’re right. These are all the things that I want. I’ve made them real for me because I know what will make me happy. I know what I’ve always wanted. Since we were children, remember? So talk to me. Tell me what you want. I can make it real for you too. Not just in a dream.”
She raised her arms over her head, her fingers describing intricate patterns, and the entire scene changed. Béil was joined by a dozen beautiful women. “All yours,” she said.
“If you think that’s what I want, you haven’t been paying attention at all,” I said.
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