“If it’s the Unseelie realm…”
“That was my first thought, especially as it was one of the Draconis who grabbed your friend, but it’s possible it is not.”
I stared across the shore, looking at the ground on the other side. It was rocky and unremarkable. Then again, I had discovered within the magical world things that appeared one way, which could often be something different in reality. It was possible that even though it appeared rocky, it was different. It was possible it was nothing but a magical mirage.
It might be my imagination, but the water appeared to be growing wider.
“The Draconis would’ve had a way of crossing, wouldn’t it?”
“It would have,” he said.
“Then can we use the same technique?”
“The Draconis would’ve carried with it something to allow its crossing,” he said.
“What sort of item?”
“Unfortunately, I don’t know.”
“How did you travel between realms?”
“We would cross from the other side,” he said.
“Can we do that now?”
“Do you think you have the necessary power?”
“I need neutral ground,” I said, looking around. There was nothing like neutral ground here, and nothing other than the still knee-high grasses that swept out in front of us. The grasses ended abruptly at the rocky shoreline of the stream, and thankfully, there weren’t any more of the same flowers anywhere else. Every so often, I noticed copses of trees in the distance, though the trees always appeared far off, and they never came any closer. It was almost as if the trees themselves were moving away from us, trying to prevent us from getting too close to them.
“I suspect you don’t necessarily need neutral ground in order for you to do what you did, but it would make it easier.”
“I don’t have the power to cross the Veil unaided.”
“Have you ever made a circle of your own?”
“Yes.”
“With the right trigger, and perhaps the right spell, you could cross the Veil.”
What if I could have someone else make a spell coin to allow me to cross? Would I be able to use those to go back and forth? “You had your people using coins, didn’t you?”
“We have spells for many things, Dr. Stone.”
“Even for crossing the Veil?”
“Crossing the Veil is one of the most beneficial spells we have. The crossing itself requires a lot of energy, and we found it’s best to conserve ourselves for making such a crossing. If we don’t, we come over here weakened, and it takes considerable time for us to restore ourselves. As I’ve already said, taking time on this side of the Veil isn’t always the safest thing.”
“What about—” I never got the chance to finish.
“There,” he said.
I looked in the direction he was pointing and saw something in the distance. It wasn’t clear, but it did appear different from what we had seen before. It was almost as if the stream ended. John Adams hurried forward, making his way along the stream, and as he went, I followed. The ground blurred past once again. Each step felt like it was dragging us dozens or more, and then we stopped.
It was a bridge. Then again, it was a bridge unlike anything I’d ever seen before. It appeared to be made of stone, but it had stone and earth and grasses growing out of the side. Beneath it, the stream seemed to just disappear.
I made my way to the other side of the bridge, looking to see if I could determine where the water came out, but there was nothing. It looked the same as the other side.
“If this is it, let’s cross,” I said, making for the bridge.
John grabbed my wrist, squeezing more tightly than he needed to, but he kept me from starting up to the bridge.
“What?” I asked.
“I think this is where we have to cross, but I worry this isn’t where we want to cross.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Do you see the way the water changes here,” he asked.
“It pours into an opening in the bridge, before disappearing.”
“Have you ever seen anything quite like that before?”
I shrugged. “We are on the other side of the Veil,” I said.
“We are, but there are things that are the same on both sides. The fact that water is pouring into it suggests to me this bridge is collecting the power of the ley lines.”
“For what purpose?”
“I have no idea, but before we cross, I think we need to know.” He crossed his arms, standing in front of the bridge, a spell building off of him. I could feel the effect of his spell, but that wasn’t the only sense of magic I detected. There was more, and it came from somewhere else behind us.
“I think we have to figure this out quickly,” I said.
“What was that?”
The cold continued to build on my skin, intensifying. “I think we need to figure this out quickly. Something is coming.”
16
I turned behind me, looking in the distance, but there was nothing but the grassy plain stretching out from us. There were some trees, but not nearly as many as there had been. Even as I watched, it felt as if the trees began to disappear, fading away. That didn’t seem as if it should be possible, but then, we were on the other side of the Veil, and over here, many things shouldn’t be possible.
I couldn’t tell where the sense of magic was coming from and could only feel the way it burned along my skin, the distinct sense that continued to leave me tingling with it. I wanted nothing else than to get away from it, but in order to do so, we had to cross the bridge. If I were honest, I wanted nothing more than to cross to the other side of the Veil, to get back to what I knew, and maybe even return to work. I would have loved to sit and have a glass of wine, to relax, to do nothing else other than to have an evening of quiet.
Reaching into my pocket, I sorted through my coins. Each time I used one, it diminished my potential strength. I worried I was going through them far too quickly. What would happen if I ran out of them here? I’d be limited to my own strength, and that wasn’t a lot compared to everything else on this side of the Veil. I needed a combination of protective and defensive spells, and I sorted them until I had two fistfuls of coins, enough to keep me protected and defended if it came down to it.
John Adams remained studying the bridge. Power continued to pour out of him, and whatever spell he was using on the bridge left me with a chill which I could trace to him, though I had to wonder if there was more to it than what he was doing.
“John?”
“I’m still not certain whether this is going to be safe for us to cross,” he said.
“I don’t think we have any choice,” I said.
The cold had continued to intensify, and now I could almost taste it. It was something physical, something intense. The longer we stood here, the more I was certain we couldn’t remain. If we did, some awful thing would take place.
John glanced behind me. He focused, and a surge of magic came off of him. “Oh.”
“What is it?”
“Time to take a chance,” he said.
“What kind of chance?”
“Would you rather face an army of the Seelie fae or would you rather face the unknown across this bridge?”
“I would rather do neither,” I said.
“Unfortunately, Dr. Stone, that is not a choice.”
An army of Seelie fae coming was unsettling, but not as unsettling as the unknown. I didn’t even know what he meant by an army of Seelie fae. It could have been nothing more than a couple, but if there were more, what would they do with us? Most likely, they would restrain us, which would keep me from going after Darvish, Barden, and Kate. If that happened, there would be no way of getting them the help they needed.
As the sense of cold continued to build behind me. I took a deep breath, and then started forward. I had no choice but to do so, but rather than going forward without doing anything, I pushed ou
tward with magic, trying to trigger whatever spell might be on the bridge, at least wanting that knowledge ahead of time. The bridge seemed to move under my feet. It was like walking on a moving walkway at the airport, though this was an undulating presence, something different and strange, almost unpleasant, and unsteady at the same time. As I walked, I checked to see if John Adams was following me, and thankfully he appeared to be doing so. He held his hands out in the strange position, and I couldn’t help but think he was prepared in a way I wasn’t.
The bridge continued to move. I widened my stance, prepared for the possibility I might be thrown free of the bridge. It was almost as if it was something alive. “Why do I feel like the bridge is moving?”
“Because I don’t think this is a bridge,” John said.
“What is it then?”
“Keep going, Dr. Stone.”
“John?”
“I think this is a troll.”
“I thought trolls lived under bridges.”
“Not all stories are real.”
“From what I’ve heard of the other side of the Veil, most stories are.”
“Most are, but not all. And—”
John didn’t have a chance to finish. Something changed, the bridge began shifting, throwing us forward. I scrambled to follow the nature of the movements, not wanting to be thrown free. As I did, I barely managed to keep my footing. John followed me, lunging forward, grabbing for something to keep from getting thrown free. When he did, he reached out, using a spell.
As soon as he did, the bridge trembled again. The power within it tossed me forward, throwing me up in the air before I landed again. I scrambled forward, hands and knees, crawling along the bridge. With each step I took, I thought I was getting closer to the other side of the shore, but it looked impossibly far. When we’d been on the ground, it had seemed as if the shoreline was so far. This was more like a river and trying to get across it was like crossing the Mississippi River, though doing so going the wrong way on a moving walkway.
The ground continued to shift, and I scrambled forward, lunging, and still couldn’t find any way of getting across. John caught up with me, and he pushed me. The shove sent me staggering forward again. I glanced over at him, glaring angrily at him, but he ignored it. “Keep moving,” he hissed.
Power built from him, but it didn’t seem to help in any way. He held onto that power, but what was it going to do for him? If we couldn’t reach the other side of the shore, that power wasn’t going to do him any good. I scrambled after him, trying to keep up with him, and at the same time, holding onto the triggering spell. The coins in my hand were forgotten, and other than trying to hold onto them in such a way that I wouldn’t lose them, there wasn’t anything else I could do.
Another step, and this time, the bridge again shifted, and when it did, I started to fall. John grabbed me, keeping me from dropping into the stream. As I fell, something tore along my arms, and pain bloomed. I tried to ignore it, forcing it out of my mind, but the sense of pain was almost overwhelming, and I could think of nothing else. I continued to try to climb, struggling to get back to my feet, and John held onto my arm, pulling. He did so with more strength than I would’ve expected from him, and I grabbed on, using his arm as leverage, and pulled my way back up to the top of the bridge.
John stared at me for a moment, and when he looked convinced I wasn’t going to fall again, he dropped down to his hands and knees and scrambled forward. I mimicked him, doing the same thing as I crawled forward, holding on for dear life.
As I did, the sense of magic continued to build behind me. I tried not to think about what was coming, or whether the army of Seelie fae was there to harm us or for some other purpose.
Then, the shoreline came into view. Why had it taken so long? Could it be the optics of this place had made it so strange? John Adams lunged, jumping, and he reached the far shoreline. He disappeared into nothingness. I called after him, searching for where he’d gone, and even though I didn’t see anything other than the shoreline, I continued to make my way after him, needing to reach him as quickly as I could.
And then I was there. I lunged, jumping the same way that John Adams had jumped, and prayed I would reach the ground. As I jumped, the bridge disappeared, throwing me forward. I tumbled and went rolling away, staggering to my knees, trying to survive the fall. I crashed to the ground with more force than I wanted, my breath knocked out of me.
I spun around, looking back behind me, and saw the bridge standing. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Clumps of grass clung to it, earth leaving strange lumps growing off of it, and what had appeared to be the sides of the bridge had been nothing other than oddly shaped legs. There was a strange-looking head that swiveled toward us, looking in our direction. I hastily dropped a spell coin, pushing power into it, trying to send a protective spell through it.
“That’s a troll?” I gasped.
Somewhere near me, John Adams chuckled. “That is. And it has grown powerful.”
“How did it grow powerful?”
“I understand what was doing now. I should’ve realized before.”
“What was it doing?”
“Feeding.”
“Feeding on what?”
“Magic.”
I managed to get my feet, and I looked around. The ground on this side of the stream was dramatically different from the other side. There was no grass—not like over there. There were small clumps of spiky shrubs, thick leaves growing up from them, and I had landed in a space between them. The ground was hard and cracked, dry, as if it had never seen the rain. Even the sky had changed, no longer sunny and bright, but overcast and dreary.
Turning my attention back to the stream, I looked across it, searching for evidence of the Seelie fae, but I saw nothing. That had to be the effect of whatever barrier there was between the realms, but it was unsettling nonetheless. “What would a troll do to us?”
“If we don’t move, it won’t notice us,” John Adams said.
“Are you sure?”
“Not entirely, but I suspect it feels movement more than it can see it.”
I couldn’t help but stare at it, wondering if it was going to come after us, but it stood there as if completely unconcerned that we were there. “What do we do now?”
“Like I said, we have to wait,” he said.
“Because it can’t see us.”
“Correct.”
I mimicked his quietness, worried I wasn’t going to be as quiet as he was, and worried the troll might suddenly see us, though there didn’t appear to be eyes on its head. There didn’t appear to be anything resembling a face on it. Now I thought of it, there didn’t appear to be anything it could use as a mouth, which made it feeding off the magic of the stream more understandable.
The size of the thing was terrifying. It was an enormous creature, and as large as it was, I couldn’t help but think it would barely notice if it stepped on us. It was the kind of thing that would not even be aware of us.
The sense of magic continued to ease around me, but I had a worried thought. What would happen if there was another magic coming from this side of the stream? We wouldn’t be able to run, not without drawing the attention of the troll, but at the same time, there didn’t appear to be anything else we could do.
I hesitated, holding my breath, worried that even breathing was drawing the attention of the troll, but it didn’t seem to be paying any attention to us. The longer I stood there, the longer I remained frozen in place, the less certain I was that we were going to be able to get away.
And then, the troll settled back down. It happened slowly, first with it dropping to its haunches, and then from there, the troll went down even further, lying again over the stream, stretching itself out, and making it look as if it were little more than a bridge once again. Even in this form, it still looked unusual for a bridge, and I couldn’t help but stare at it, wondering if there was any way it made sense as to what it was.
John A
dams breathed out. “I think it’s safe for us to move.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s gone back to feeding again.”
“How do you know so much about trolls?”
“I have made it my business to know about creatures on this side of the Veil, even if I will never be able to counter them. It’s better to know what they are, if only to know how to avoid them.”
I stood motionless, waiting for a few more moments, half expecting the troll to suddenly start moving again, but it didn’t. It lay in place, feeding off of the strange power of the stream. The longer I stood there, the more I recovered, finally breathing more steadily.
Turning around, I started after John Adams. “Can you still detect Barden?”
“Even better on this side,” he said.
“You think he’s in this realm?”
John Adams frowned. “I hope so, though it is possible there is another border in between us.”
“How will you know?”
“We’ll know.”
“Do you recognize the realm?”
“Unfortunately, there isn’t anything about this realm I identify,” he said.
I made my way carefully through the barbed brushes, staying away from the needles on them, not wanting to get poked, but wanting to get moving. As I did, I joined John and could feel the power burning off of him. He was holding onto a spell, though I didn’t know what it was. Likely a protective spell, the same way I had thrown down a protective spell, though it did worry me that he was as concerned as I was. This was supposed to be someone who could handle anything on this side of the Veil, and for him to be worried left me just as worried.
“I don’t like how long this is taking,” I said.
John and glanced over at me. “You’re worried about the time passage.”
“Aren’t you?”
“Seeing as how I was a prisoner to Barden, I don’t know that it matters how long it takes me.”
“If you hadn’t attacked us—”
John Adams frowned at me. “I don’t think it matters.”
“It matters to me,” I said.
“Fine. Are we going to keep going, or do you want to continue to berate me over what happened previously?”
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