Secrets and Spellcraft

by Michael G. Manning

  He considered putting on his gambeson and mail, but they might complicate the next part of his plan, so he stuck with what he was wearing. Stopping beside a shade tree near the road, Will sat down for a rest. “Tailtiu, Tailtiu, Tailtiu, thrice called, come to me,” he said quietly. Deep within, he could feel a connection as his message reached his fae aunt.

  A strange subliminal knowledge came with the connection. “East,” he said aloud, naming the direction that was tugging at him. The congruence point she would emerge from was somewhere in that direction. Will left the road and set off across a field of barley, hoping he wouldn’t upset any farmers if they saw him.

  He walked for half an hour before he spotted a familiar figure coming toward him from the opposite direction. He waved.

  There was a sly smirk on Tailtiu’s lips as she came close and looked him up and down. “It took you long enough to call me.”

  I missed you, thought Will, but he didn’t dare voice such an opinion. “I have a problem.”

  His aunt ran a hand along her side and down one hip, turning languorously to give him a good view of her attributes. “And I’m sure I have what you need,” she answered in a sultry voice.

  “I see you haven’t changed.”

  Tailtiu’s expression didn’t change. “I’m immortal. That should go without saying.”

  “I need to use another unbounded favor.”

  She smiled. “What do you require?”

  “Ten days of service,” he said quickly.

  “Ten?” Her brow furrowed. “Last time you only required three days for one favor.”

  “I could ask for a lot more than that,” said Will. “Do you have an objection?”

  “A counteroffer,” she replied. “I’ll give you thirty days of service if you sweeten the deal. I want an hour of your time and I’ll promise that you survive without permanent harm.” Tailtiu drew closer, her eyes hungry.

  “No,” Will said firmly, fighting his instinctive urge to back away. He had learned from past experience. Any sign of weakness and her predatory instincts would grow stronger, making Tailtiu even more difficult to deal with. “I could ask for a year. Would you prefer that?”

  His aunt pouted. “I wouldn’t agree to it. Length of service is negotiable.”

  “Then I’ll require a limited task if that’s not amenable to you. Would you like to go to Muskeglun for me?” He already knew what her answer would be. Traveling to the turyn-starved realm was a near certain death sentence for the fae.

  She sighed. “Fine, ten days then.”

  “I’ve changed my mind. I’ll need fifteen days.”

  “Is this how you haggle?” she asked curiously. “You wanted ten a moment ago.”

  Will took a step closer, until their noses were almost touching. There was anger in his eyes. “No. This is how I demand. Next time I make a generous offer you would do well not to irritate me.”

  Tailtiu licked her lips and her stance shifted, bringing her closer, until her body just barely brushed against his. “Every time we meet, you get better,” she said softly, her breath caressing his cheek. “I look forward to the day you blunder into my grasp.” She looked down, drawing his eyes to her hands, which were far too close to Will’s vulnerable regions.

  A second later her attitude changed, transforming in an instant. Tailtiu laughed. “Very well, fifteen days, and you won’t ask me to enter Muskeglun—ever.”

  “Deal.”

  “What do you need?”

  “How quickly can you get me home?”

  She frowned. “I can’t use the same route I took to get here. Parts of it would be too dangerous for you.”

  “Fine. How quickly can you get me home—safely?” amended Will.

  “A few hours, but you need to take off the armor. You stink of iron.”

  “It’s under my clothes. It won’t burn you.”

  “Unless you wish the trip to take a day or more, you’ll remove it. Some of the beings we’ll be traveling near wouldn’t take kindly to the presence of so much iron.” Her tone indicated she wouldn’t budge on the issue, and since they had finalized their bargain Will knew she wouldn’t try to deceive him.

  “Fine,” he said at last. He pulled off his tunic and removed the brigandine, baring his chest.

  As he stored his armor in the limnthal she commented, “You should get rid of the trousers too. They look uncomfortable.”

  He shook his head, putting the tunic back on and belting it around his waist.

  “The buckle is iron,” observed his aunt. “Put that away too.”

  “You were never this particular before.”

  “If you want to get there quickly, and in one piece, you’ll do as I ask,” she warned him. “There are places in Faerie that are far more dangerous than those you’ve been through before.”

  Will relented, removing his belt and storing it as well. He replaced it with a short length of rope that he tied in its place. Tailtiu shifted, becoming a giant doe, and she knelt to make it easier for him to mount. “Hold on tightly,” she cautioned.

  “If we’re going to do this frequently maybe we should have a saddle made.”

  Her head turned to the side and she fixed him with one eye. “You’re not putting a saddle on me unless you start mounting me in other ways.” She took off before he could reply, forcing him to lean forward and throw his arms around her neck.

  After a short run, she stopped near a farmhouse. Will could see a congruence point beside a tree in front of the house. “Do you think they’ll see us?” he asked.

  “Who cares?” responded his aunt. She walked to the congruence and shifted them to Faerie. “I couldn’t care less what they think.”

  Fair point, he thought. Will examined their surroundings. They were in a rough, stony desert that was far different than any of the other places he had seen in Faerie previously. Before he could ask about it, she began running again, and a few minutes later they crossed through another congruence point into what he thought was probably his world. “Where are we now?” he asked.

  “Some place in Shimera,” said Tailtiu. “I don’t keep up with the human names of places. There’s a city to the north of us, but we won’t be going near it.”

  “Shimera?” said Will with some alarm. “Are there demons here?”

  She snorted. “If we went to one of their temples, probably, not out here in the countryside.”

  They traveled through Shimera for a quarter of an hour before entering another congruence. When they entered Faerie this time, Will was shocked by the cold. Snow was everywhere and the sky was black. “Wasn’t it daytime in Faerie?” he asked.

  “My world is not like yours,” she reminded him. “This is the land of night. The sun never shines here. Try not to speak until we pass back into your world.”

  She moved forward slowly, finding her way through drifts that rose as high as her belly. Will adjusted his eyesight to see better, for the stars above were dim. He noticed dark shapes moving across the white snow, flitting between the trees.

  Tailtiu kept going, until suddenly a pair of dark shadowy figures blocked her path. They were vaguely humanoid in shape, but Will could make out nothing of their features. “Why do you interfere?” she asked. “Would you risk the wrath of the Forest Fae?”

  One of the figures pointed at Will. “Give him to us,” pronounced a thick, raspy voice.

  Tailtiu turned her head to look at Will. “Show them the limnthal.”

  He did as she asked, nervously holding out his hand and summoning the glowing enchantment. The two figures backed away at the sight of it and Tailtiu said, “He is a wizard. The accord still holds. Do not interfere with us again.”

  The shadows vanished.

  “What were those things?” he asked.

  “Not here.” Tailtiu resumed her pace, taking them through a copse of snow-covered trees. The land descended, sloping and then rolling gently upward again, interrupted only by white-capped stones and scrubby bushes. Will could hear st
range noises in the distance, unearthly howls that were nothing like anything he had heard before. Tailtiu increased her speed as the ground leveled out.

  Glancing back, Will saw something on four legs behind them. It was some fifty yards behind, but it was coming closer. “There’s something following us,” he said quietly.

  “Shhh.” His aunt kept her pace steady.

  The thing behind them broke into a ground-eating lope, closing quickly. Tailtiu broke into a run and the beast snarled, racing after them. “I thought the accord protected us,” said Will.

  Tailtiu yelled back. “The next congruence is close. When I shift, keep going. Don’t stop. I’ll follow when I can!”

  “What are you planning to—” Will found himself flying as Tailtiu shifted into another form, causing him to tumble across the snow-covered ground. In a panic, he scrambled to his feet and looked back.

  The beast following them was roughly canine in shape and features, though it was hard to say for certain as its body was covered with shifting shadows. It slammed headfirst into a massive brown monster that rose up where Tailtiu had been only moments before.

  A bear? Claws and teeth raged as the two beasts tore into each other. Will was paralyzed for a moment, torn between doing as he had been told and his desire to help his companion. Blood, both red and black, sprayed across the pristine white snow. If he’d been wearing his mail he might have gone back, but the sight of the blood and claws made up his mind for him. He’d be shredded in an instant if he tried to interfere.

  Will took note of their trail and turned to run in a straight line along the course Tailtiu had been following. He fell repeatedly as he tripped over limbs and rocks hidden by the snowfall, but he clambered to his feet each time and rushed on. Behind him the air was filled with a cacophony of grotesque growls and unearthly screams. Worse, he heard more howls in the distance, as friends of whatever it was that Tailtiu was fighting began to answer the dark beast’s cries for aid.

  He almost missed the congruence as he ran, spotting the telltale shimmer just as he went past it. Fighting his fear, Will stopped and turned around. “I found it!” he shouted, hoping she could break away and follow. His only answer was a horrifying collection of snapping cracks, as though something massive had been broken. Silence followed. “Tailtiu!”

  There was nothing to be seen, until a moment later a large, brown form broke through the nearest clump of bushes. Tailtiu limped toward him on three legs, leaving a trail of blood behind. Her face was terrible to look on, for the flesh had been ripped away on one side, revealing vicious teeth covered in blood. She stumbled as she moved, staggering on unsteady paws.

  Forgetting his terror, Will ran in her direction, closing the distance. He had just reached her side when he heard branches breaking as something massive moved through the trees somewhere nearby. “You’re almost there,” he told her, but the bear collapsed.

  She was too big for him to carry. “Shift,” he told her. “Let me help you.”

  Her one good eye focused on him. “Fool.” Then her flesh melted and flowed, changing into the familiar shape of his aunt. One of her arms was limp, a bloody mush of flesh and broken bones, but her face was worse. The skin was gone on one side, hanging down from her chin, exposing her teeth and jawbone. Ignoring the gory vision, Will knelt and picked her up, then ran for the congruence point.

  He could hear the heavy breathing of something behind him as he ran. He covered the last ten feet and shifted them through the congruence point without ever looking back. Warm air washed over him, and they fell onto soft earth covered in dry leaves. They were back in his world, though he had no idea where they were.

  “Will you be all right? Can you heal?” he asked.

  Tailtiu used her good arm to lift her torn cheek, pressing it back into place. After a few seconds it seemed to reattach itself, though it was still a bloody mess. “It’s too slow here,” she told him. “I need to go back to Faerie.”

  “Can I help?”

  A wicked look appeared in her one good eye and she pointed to her torn lips. Will nodded and leaned forward, keeping his lips pressed firmly together to avoid getting any of her blood in his mouth. Fatigue washed over him as she drew strongly on his turyn, draining the life from his body, but he didn’t fight it. He worked with her, offering up as much of his energy as she could take.

  Just before he collapsed, she pushed him away. “Enough.”

  Will lay beside her, expanding the outer shell of his turyn to enable him to recover his energy faster. He watched as she sat up, her body slowly healing. “Where are we?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” she answered. “I only know that the next congruence leads to a place in Faerie that’s close to the one near your house.”

  “I don’t understand how you plan a route when you don’t know where anything is.”

  “I know Faerie,” she said simply. “I know all the places where our worlds touch, where they are in Faerie. As long as I know which one I wish to reach, I can get there by moving back and forth, but I don’t know where all those places are in your world. Very few of them are important to me.”

  Her answer made a certain strange sense, and he was too tired to question her further about it. There were other things that were more important. “What were those things?”

  “The ones we spoke to were darklings. The creatures I fought were fel-wolves.”

  “Why did you have to fight them? The first ones listened to you.”

  “Why don’t you talk to dogs?” she said, answering his question with one of her own. “You talk to people but not animals. The darklings are intelligent, they’re part of the accord. Most of the beasts in Faerie don’t talk, therefore they aren’t bound by contracts. They live according to only their appetites.”

  “So the darklings are fae?” he asked.

  “In a sense, as is everything living in my world,” she replied. “My people are closer to your kind—they were human once. The darklings came from somewhere else. They’re fae now, but they are not like us.”

  That got him to thinking. “Were they demons then? Demons that moved to Faerie and transformed?”

  She shook her head. “No. Demons can’t survive there. Their essence is inimical to ours, but you have the right idea. The darklings came from a place of shadow and they made their part of Faerie into something similar, a place of cold and dark things. That’s why the fel-wolves like it near them.”

  “The more I learn, the less I know.”

  “You’ve barely begun to drink from the cup of knowledge,” said his aunt sagely. “You know nothing, and yet, even if you knew everything I do, you would realize that your knowledge was but an insignificant drop in an infinite sea of mysteries.”

  That was pretty profound, coming from a merciless, sex-starved, psychopathic killer, thought Will. “I think I like your people better than the darklings,” he said.

  Tailtiu laughed. “That’s why we’re more dangerous for your kind. Beauty does not equal kindness. Whether you’re dealing with the Forest Fae, or the darklings, it’s the same. Both are driven by hunger, and neither have any sense of mercy or kindness.”

  “I still like you better,” he said stubbornly.

  His aunt gave him a sly look. “Keep thinking that way. It will only make it easier for me to get what I want, and afterward, I’ll devour your heart.”

  The deadly cold in her eyes made him shiver involuntarily. Maybe she’s right. He decided to change the topic. “What would have happened to you if you hadn’t escaped, if I had left you there?”

  “It would have been unpleasant. I cannot die. They’d have torn me apart and eaten their fill. Recovering could have taken a long time. I wouldn’t have been able to complete my service to you for many years.” Slowly, she got to her feet. Her arm was still a mess and she was favoring one leg, but she lifted her chin proudly. “Still, I bested two of them. It was their numbers that made the fight impossible.”

  Will’s turyn had recovered,
so he stood as well, moving closer so he could offer his shoulder. Tailtiu draped her good arm around his neck. “How long will it take you to heal?” he asked.

  “Here? Far too long. Better that we go to the next crossing. It will take us to a place close to my home. I can recover quickly there.”

  They resumed their journey, limited only by her limping pace.

  Chapter 25

  The rest of the journey didn’t take long. The next portion of Faerie they entered was green and heavily forested, a reflection of the Glenwood that Will had grown up in. Tailtiu began to move more easily within minutes of their crossing, and by the time they reached the final congruence point back to his world she seemed to almost be back to her old self.

  “This congruence leads to the forest near your home,” she told him. “I can go partway with you, but as you know, I can’t approach the house itself.”

  Because of the Cath Bawlg, the goddamn cat, he thought quietly. “Stay here,” he replied. “You should finish healing.”

  “You should let me heal you before you leave,” she informed him.

  “I wasn’t injured.”

  “You were already hurt when you called me. It’s a small wound. Let me take care of it.”

  He nodded. “Fine.”

  She reached out her hand, then paused. “You won’t burn me again?”

  Will remembered the first time she had healed him. He’d had severe frostbite and had been close to death. She had put him to sleep, and while he was unconscious his body had turned her magic against her. “As long as I’m awake, you’re safe,” he told her.

  She put her hand on his shoulder, and power trickled through her fingertips, moving through his wound and causing his flesh to burn and itch. The sensation was painful at first, but as his wound healed it became first pleasant, then pleasurable. Her turyn continued onward, coursing through his veins and quickening his heart rate. His eyes widened and his lips parted with an involuntary gasp. “That’s enough,” he said, struggling to control himself.