by Jeffrey Cook
Somewhere between 'Though Dylan Thomas did it very well' and 'The learning curve can be a little steep,' was the sound of wings, a whole murmur of them, and a club swinging.
Despite their efforts to get ahead of the conflict, Robin seemed to be very motivated to slow them down. Now, as the gang came up behind them, the music provided an excellent soundtrack for a redcap attack on the small figure of Robin, who evaded their assaults with inhuman grace and quickness and disappeared again.
They continued walking, and soon Ashling wasn't bothering with her twists and turns anymore. They were just walking in straight lines. Megan was relieved, but she started being more observant about her surroundings—albeit observant in her own fashion, her eyes glancing from detail to detail to detail until she felt completely overwhelmed. But one feature, she quickly went back to—and then completely stopped in her tracks.
“Ashling,” she said.
“What?” The Count circled back a little, since Megan had stopped, and flapped to hover in the air at conversational distance.
Megan pointed. “Does Faerie normally have what looks like dead pixels from an HD screen just hanging in the sky?”
Ashling looked. “Not this part of Faerie, no.”
“Dreamscape illusion?”
“Dreamscape illusion.”
Cassia groaned. “Should we muss Jude's goggles again?”
“We should probably just stand here a moment until we hear the—“
There was a solid 'whumph.'
The scenery shifted, and the chase was back on as the redcaps aggressively tried to run Robin down. Megan and her friends just tried to run.
Chapter 27: Up the Storm
Finally, they approached a hilltop, when Robin appeared again, this time holding a torch in each hand. The giggle sounded almost tired.
"Persistent and resourceful,” he said. “This really might be a good show. Well, except that I've still agreed to do a job. So, something, something, fire, scarecrow." He dropped the torches, and fire swept down towards them, igniting the grasses.
"Is that an illusion?" Megan called.
"Do you want to risk it?" Lani shouted back.
Ashling jumped off of the Count's back, grabbing onto Megan's hair to keep herself balanced on a shoulder, and started humming. Megan had done more with winds, but knew the song. She hadn't practiced it a lot, but started into it anyway. As she did, it occurred to her precisely why she hadn't practiced it much. Quick, powerful gusts of wind she could do. Swirling winds she could handle. She'd even managed some small, personal rainstorms. This was something else entirely—not only calling up strong winds and rain, but trying to maintain control of all of it. Lani would say something about it having a lot of moving parts, or something.
Clouds gathered, and the wind picked up, blowing from behind Megan. It wasn't as focused as most of Megan's wind spells, but it didn't swirl, and she wasn't going for a single blast this time. Whatever Robin had that was driving the fires downhill instead of up and towards him, the winds disrupted it, and the fire's approach towards Megan and her group was blunted.
She struggled with notes and concentration on the song a couple of times, but Ashling kept coaching her, shouting in her ear over the winds and helping her along. The fires started climbing the hill, and spreading to the sides, though none of it touched Robin, parting and burning the grasses around him. Though blunted, the fires were still approaching Megan's group, and she knew she couldn't keep it up forever, or even for all that long.
Despite the difficulties, Megan sang louder, practically shouting the ancient lyrics to the skies, getting into even greater musical complexity. A couple of times, the winds shifted, but she kept managing to rein them back in, and within several seconds of her call to the skies, the rains started. It began as a drizzle, and then turned into a full torrent.
The fire was too intense already for the rains to put them out entirely, but as long as she kept singing, they didn't spread as fast.
Robin shouted something down to her from the hilltop, but she couldn't understand a word as she continued fighting to keep control of both the winds and the rain, even as she could feel the magical effort she was having to put into the song tiring her even faster.
That was when Peadar showed up again, charging up the hill towards Robin. Robin Goodfellow drew what appeared to be a wooden sword, and the two engaged in a fierce battle, Robin dancing among the fires to limit lines of approach, keeping the fight a one-on-one as the other redcaps and the hag continually shied away from risking the fires to go after him.
Somehow, the wooden sword took hits from the wicked club, and Peadar certainly seemed to take its threat seriously. As far as Megan could tell, Peadar was the better fighter, but any advantage that gained him was countered by Robin's reflexes, and the fact that Robin was fighting mostly defensively, just trying to stay out of easy reach.
They fenced and fought, with Megan continuing to call down the rains. Ashling had to hold on tight, frequently shouting into her ear to help Megan remember the words, and remember the music. Despite the help, and some practice, this was a stronger spell than Megan was used to, and a number of times, she felt like she was on the edge of losing control of it. If she did, she didn't know if the rains might stop, and a windstorm might whip the fires up, if a true storm might develop while they were in the open, or if it might simply stop. Her voice wavered, her throat grew raw, but as the flames died down under the rains, she started to rein it back in.
Without the fires, the redcaps started to close in on the fight, and Cassia charged up the hill to help, backed by Maxwell. Exhausted, Megan staggered, almost falling before Lani caught her, and helped her remain standing.
As the crew surrounded him, Robin looked towards Megan, then at Peadar, and smirked once more. "Good fight, Boy Scout. Let's do it again some time." And he disappeared.
Megan expected more cussing from the redcap, but instead, he just looked her way, and nodded. It took her a moment, but she realized, given the lack of the effects of the redcap gaze, that he wasn't looking at her, but somewhere over her shoulder. She turned to look.
As she did, Robin reappeared, wooden sword in hand, readied to strike. "A lovely day, a lovely dance, Princess. I didn't want to do this, but..." He paused, as a tiny arrow grazed his arm, leaving a shallow cut. The arrow continued on, hitting the ground not far from Peadar. Robin paused, looking in the same direction as Megan, to see Gilroy, standing on an apple tree, bow in hand.
Peadar took the tiny arrow from the ground, placing it into his mouth like it was half a toothpick, point-first. The redcap grinned. “Tastes like rabbit.”
“Oh come on, that barely drew blood!”
“Barely. Good to the last drop.”
Robin glared, almost like a petulant child, as the redcap sampled his blood. Megan remembered, from that first chase, how that worked. Illusions, trickery, or no, the redcap would be able to follow that quarry flawlessly.
Robin Goodfellow clearly recognized the fact too, and he dropped the sword. "All right, all right, you've got me. I'm out.” He reached into his pocket, pulled out far more black cloth than should have been able to fit in such a pocket, and tossed it at them. “I'm throwing in the towel. His mortal majesty can play this game alone."
Peadar nodded, and the hag turned her ring back the other way. Peadar made a shooing motion, "Very good. You may go now."
Megan would have thought what followed odd, had she not seen the Queen and King, after her aims last year had been thwarted. The petulance disappeared, and Robin bowed, deep and formal, to Peadar. "Well played, Boy Scout. Well played. Next time." And with that, he was gone.
Megan turned back to regard Peadar, but it was Lani who spoke. "So, what now?"
The redcap gestured back over his shoulder with one thumb. "The portal to the market is just up that way. There'll be guards from it any time now, coming to see what all of that was about. We're good?"
Megan took a deep breath, then nodded. "S
o long as he'll leave us alone now, your debt is paid."
Peadar grinned, waving to his crew, with Gilroy moving to settle on Peadar's shoulder. "Come on, boys and girls," Peadar called, "More fun another day. We have to go fishing."
Megan was pondering those words and putting the shroud in the pack when the Unseelie band reached them, and Peadar paused a few feet from her, ignoring Ashling's glares at Gilroy.
“One thing you and I can agree on, Highness: in the end, it always pays to be a team player,” Peadar said, and then the group set off again.
Chapter 28: Clearance
True to Peadar's comment, various faeries coming from the Market showed up not long after the end of the fight, investigating the smoke. By then, Robin, as well as Peadar and his crew, had departed. Megan assumed whatever she'd interrupted with her calling-in of the debt had to be pretty important, because the Unseelie mob seemed in quite the hurry, once they'd verified that all was considered paid. Whatever the case, Ashling seemed a lot more relaxed once all of the sprites were out of sight.
The Market wasn't completely shut down when they got there, but some of the vendors were packing up their merchandise, and a few were taking down their tents. The oddity wasn't some of the dealers trying to get a head-start, it was what was left once a tent was removed. Instead of the usual small messes, or empty lots, once there was no longer a tent in place, it was like there was nothing there: small pockets of self-contained vacuum that Megan could only sort of absorb out of the corner of her peripheral vision, because any attempt to stare at any of them found her looking somewhere else. Eventually, the unoccupied space seemed to get smaller and smaller, until tents that had been a few spaces apart before were now neighbors. Megan didn't begin to comprehend how any of it actually worked, but Lani's comments—about how the market could appear and, when done, vanish—finally made sense.
“I wonder if there's any more edible hats left. Maybe they even have some closing down sales,” Ashling said. “Some of the best are at a big purple tent that's smaller on the inside. No time to go see if they're still open, I guess.”
"Smaller on the inside?” asked Megan, more than a bit hoarse, but feeling the need to ask. “Why would you do that?"
"Well, they cater to a more diminutive clientele. Sprites, pixies, brownie children, so on, so forth. Some of us feel much more comfortable when we can check out things just for us, without feeling loomed over."
"So why don't they just have a smaller tent?"
"At the price of this real estate?” Ashling threw her arms into the air. “You'd be stupid not to fill it up."
"I guess so." Megan had more questions, but her throat still hurt, and she still felt like she needed about a week's worth of sleep. "I just hope the map people haven't closed up yet."
"Cartographers," Lani said.
"They won't have," Ashling assured Megan, "With the weirdness of the market, and paths, once it's closed down, a lot of people need directions. Or want maps for the rest of their vacation. They do great business right at the end. Plus, there's the satisfaction part."
Megan hated to ask, but couldn't help herself. "Satisfaction part?"
Ashling nodded enthusiastically. "Goblins love telling people where to go."
Megan just sighed and accepted the water bottle Lani offered her while they walked.
True to the pixie's comments, the section of the market with most of the cartographers was still full. Megan noticed that in the adjoining area, where she'd spent most of her time when she'd had a chance to browse, the art dealers were mostly still open as well. It looked like a lot of the people buying full-sized paintings or statues were picking up their purchases now that they were getting ready to leave. She started to meander that way for a few last looks, but a tug on her shoulder from Lani reminded her that they were in a hurry and had more important business.
Megan drained the rest of the water, and followed. It took a while to find the correct shop. Not all of the shopkeepers were terribly willing to help competitors, while others were every bit as helpful, and verbose about it, as Ashling tended to be. Most of the latter weren't very helpful either. Finally, one goblin peered at the map and said “Go try Xurde.”
The girls, the cats, the Count, and Justin followed his gestures to a large red tent, outside of which stood a woman with bright blue eyes and golden curls—her eyes were literally glowing with azure light, and her hair looked like actual coils of gold wire—in clothes made of leaves and flower petals. The sign hung up on the front of the tent simply read "Here Be Dragon."
“Excuse me,” Cassia said to the woman, smiling in a very Cassia fashion. “Are you Xurde?”
The woman blushed. Megan assumed that was what she was doing, at least. What it looked like was some unknown hand etch-a-sketching pink roses across the woman's cheeks as she smiled demurely.
“No,” she said. “He's inside.” She looked at the half-map Cassia was carrying. “That looks a little like his work, though. Let me show you in.”
In contrast to the tent Ashling had described, this tent was far larger inside than out. It was as wide as the teahouse tent had been, but much more open, and was deeper and higher as well. A good third of the huge space was simply to accommodate the bulk of a brownish-red dragon, who lay on the far end of the tent, focusing most of his attention on writing on a map that was tiny compared to the creature, with a similarly miniscule stylus, clutched delicately between the tips of two claws. The booth had four more bright-eyed, golden-haired women, one of them laying on her front near the dragon, with a pile of maps in front of her, while she drew on the mostly complete-looking maps.
"So, a dragon who makes maps?" Megan whispered.
"With a little help," Ashling said.
"What's she doing?" Megan asked, as they approached.
"Drawing the bridges in. It's still a bit of a sore subject for some dragons," Ashling said.
That was all the whispering they got in, as the woman from the front announced them. The fact that she announced them as "Princess Megan and entourage" drew a smirk from Lani and a blush from Megan.
"Oh yes?" the dragon rumbled, looking up, squinting at the group. At first, Megan thought that smoke was rising from his nostrils when he spoke, until she studied the dissipating mist long enough to notice faint ice crystals in the breaths, disappearing not long after coming into contact with the warm air.
Megan did her best to curtsey, feeling like it was probably the appropriate gesture, though it felt awkward. Lani did it far better, and Justin, as usual, had no problem pulling off a very formal-looking bow.
The faeries and animals were less formal, though Ashling seemed quite pleased, waving enthusiastically. “Afternoon, Xurde.” Megan wondered how she managed to pronounce the name so easily, but she was not going to ask and hear Ashling take five minutes to explain that obscure Spanish dialects are easy because they're so similar to Corvid.
"You seek a map? There is little time left, but perhaps something remains in stock. The girls can help you,” the dragon suggested.
Megan was grateful, both for the sake of her voice, and so she could continue marveling at looking at a real, life dragon, when Lani stepped up to answer. "Actually, we need to see some records. We have half a map. We're trying to find out where the original was purchased from, and find out who it was that bought it."
"Show us the half-map,” the dragon said.
Cassia drew out the torn map, holding it up.
Xurde was silent for several seconds, finally responding, "We sold that map. A very old one. Before my egg-time, even. It was not cheap."
"We figured out some of that. But we need to know who bought it, originally," Lani said.
The dragon turned his attention back to the map he was drawing, and one of the other girls spoke up. "I'm very sorry. We don't give away customer information. Store policy." As she spoke, Megan's heart fell. They'd come all this way, and it seemed like such a good idea.
Undaunted, Lani continued speaking
to the dragon instead of the shop girl. "Oh, we don't want you to give it to us. We want to buy the information."
The dragon looked back up. "That's another matter entirely. What do you offer?"
Megan fished out the silver dollar, holding it up while Lani explained. “We need to look into your purchase records or something for the map. Find out who he was, what he paid, something."
Xurde looked to the girl who'd spoken about customer information, and nodded. She fetched a wooden box, opening it up to reveal three stacks of tattered, soiled $20 bills, bound together with twine.
“The guy paid in twenties at a place like this?” Megan asked, a little surprised.
"D.B. Cooper's lost ransom money is always welcome in this establishment," the woman explained. "It was sufficient to pay for that map."
Lani missed it, but Megan caught the emphasis the woman put on the word 'that'. "Wait, what do you mean that one? Just the half, and he paid for the other half with something else, or..." she interrupted.
"No," the woman explained, glancing at the dragon with a questioning gaze. Xurde studied the silver coin, when another of his hoard of girls held it up for him, then he nodded, apparently finding their payment sufficient for full disclosure. "The Cooper money paid for the marked map of the wights of Mag Tuired. This—" she dug to the bottom of the stack and pulled a folder from the box. She opened the folder and took a piece of paper from inside, showing a doctoral certificate for a Brian Angus O'Neill "—covered the payment for the map to Falias."
Chapter 29: Fal Stone
Once they verified that the cartographers had told them everything they knew about Dr. O'Neill, the group left the tent to discuss their next moves.
“Don't understand,” Megan said a little hoarsely as they walked.
“Care to narrow it down?” Cassia asked.
“Why would one secret map cost a historic treasure stash, and one just cost a copy of his PhD papers?”