by JM Guillen
A creepy little store with the Gaunt Man within, I sarcastically thought.
“A table,” Rehl mused aloud.
“What else has leaves,” he spoke slowly, “that can be turned? Oh, and maybe we don’t say the answer out loud, just in case.”
A book. The answer came to me suddenly, and I knew Baxter must have been able to read it on my face. He gave me a wicked smile.
“Now walk that answer back through the rest of the riddle. See if it fits.”
Whatever magic Jax used, the poetic lines came easily to mind, simple to remember.
“My back unbroken, reaching for the sky,
My roots deep, seeds planted by one long dead,
Leaves turn in golden autumn, turn in verdant spring,
Silent with fragments of deep knowing,
Speaking without sound, rustles in the wind,
Wrought by one who can never taste my fruit.
What am I?”
“It has a spine—an unbroken back.” I said to Baxter. “Its author could be one long dead, who will never get to taste its fruit.”
“I think so too.” He nodded. “But ultimately, it’s your call, Liz.”
“Jax?” I took a step toward the creature, who had chosen to lie upon the log as me and mine spoke. “I have an answer for you.”
“I only accept correct answers.” He gave me a lazy smile and sat up on the log to stare me squarely in the face. “Speak, Glamour-wrought. Daughter of Aiden, tell true.”
I paused for a moment, almost afraid to speak.
“The answer is a book.” I gave him a soft smile. “Specifically, an old book whose author has now left this world.”
“Oh, sweet and clever girl.” His smile grew ever wider, and his eyes shone with a mysterious light. “Yes, yes, and three times yes.”
That tingly sensation, the one I had felt when he first asked the riddle returned, stronger this time. For a moment it sang in my body, before it filled me with a pleasant buzz, not unlike a nice glass of wine.
“Three answers sought, and three to be wrought.” Jax gazed at me and his eyes shone merrily. “What would you ask, in-between girl?”
I had actually considered that. I’d narrowed down to a few all possible questions, which I still believed far too many. Whatever Alicia knew about Jax and his people, she had certainly done us a favor when she had wrangled more answers out of him. Furthermore, due to his intricate description of those answers, I felt certain I could trust them.
Mostly, anyway.
I gave Alicia a nod and hoped she would instinctively understand what I wanted. It was vital for Abriel remember every single thing Jax said, every nuance of his answer.
She nodded back.
Once she had, I stared Jax in the face and spoke. “I want to bring my father home, and I need to know the best way to do that.” I bit my lip. “Jax, where is my father, and how can he be returned to me?”
Please don’t let that be two questions, I begged inwardly.
Colorless light danced within his eyes, a shine that hinted at patterns I did not understand. For a moment, Jax seemed very far away and grew still as stone.
When he spoke, his voice no longer belonged to him. It had lost the poetic cadence that seemed to weave through Jax’s words and instead resounded with a deep baritone. Strangeling whispers echoed at the edge of his syllables.
“Aiden Shepherd… has wandered far from the realms of men. He is beyond the Twilight… in fell Ar’Ghosa. No art or guile you now possess can take you to him.” He paused. “Yet, if you choose your path well… and heed your mentor… You may see him again.”
My eyes filled with tears at the words. No art or guile you possess…
“That’s a remarkable amount of information.” Baxter glanced at Alicia. “If it can be trusted?”
“There’s no way to really know.” She paused. “Abriel’s truth isn’t the same within the Twilight.”
“I trust him.” Rehl said simply. “Too much rigmarole to bullshit.”
I shook away the tears, pleased for one thing at least. Jax’s answer had helped clarify what I thought might be one of my next questions.
I cleared my throat.
“My mentor, Simon Girard, has also gone missing. If I am to ever see my father again, then I must heed the lessons of my mentor.” I paused. “Jax, where is my mentor, and what is the best way for me to retrieve him?”
This was the test. If my questions actually counted as “double questions,” Jax wouldn’t be able to answer this last, as that would mean he gave four answers instead of three.
Again Jax’s voice sounded as if it came from the depths of the world. It echoed through the hollows of the earth and carried with it none of his poetry, none of his simple rhyme or meter.
“Simon Girard… rests in the stronghold of your most… dire enemy…. He sought out the Gaunt Man… to end the oath you made with him. Now, he rests within Fallen Leaves, stripped of movement, speech, and power.” For a long moment, Jax paused and stared into nothingness with those empty, black eyes. Within their depths, colorless flame danced.
Apparently, I worried for naught. My many years of dealing with malevolent game masters and their wicked, word bending genies wouldn’t come in handy, it seemed. I thought he might be finished, but he spoke again.
“You will have to take him, Elizabeth Shepherd… else he will suffer undying. The Gaunt Man knows your love of him… and prepares for you to come to Fallen Leaves.”
“Fuck,” Baxter breathed.
“Language.”
I, on the other hand stood speechless. I stared at Jax’s wide, distant eyes and wanted to scream.
Suffer undying. Horror trickled up my spine at those words. What had Mister Lorne done to Simon? How long had he been trapped, while I fucked around with wolf-spiders and pizza parties?
I clenched my hands with white-knuckled rage. I had to get him. Had to.
No matter what it cost.
I realized my three friends all stared at me. I had no idea how long I’d stood there silently as I trembled with unfocused fury.
Breathe, Liz. I focused and grasped the Wind and took what comfort I could in that tumult. Like my rage, it thundered within me, an infinite storm of wrath.
“Liz,” Rehl whispered. “We’ll get him. We’ll get them both.”
Oh. The tears came, then.
Three words. Three words that meant I wasn’t alone.
Rehl knew what he said; he had to. This had been perhaps the strangest few days in his entire life, a trial by fire he’d stumbled into with eyes closed.
Yet he’d come out with his heart strong, guns blazing. He’d been more than some Blake Runner-style action hero; he’d been a true friend.
He had stood next to me when he didn’t even know what we fought against. He had been True before I had even shared all of my truth.
I blinked back tears that had nothing to do with rage. I nodded once at him and glanced to Baxter and Alicia.
Baxter gave me one slow nod. Alicia smiled slightly.
They were in this.
“Um,” I cleared my throat, and turned back to Jax. My mind raced as I considered the best way to ask my question. I only truly needed one piece of information, but it would be smart to get as much out of him as I could.
“Jax, I need to levy an assault against my most dire enemy.” I parroted his words back to him. “I need to do this and emerge with my mentor intact, so I may find my father.” I paused for just a moment, in thought. “Where in New York can I go to find the store ‘Fallen Leaves,’ and what shall I do to win Simon Girard safely away?”
Jax twitched and stared first to the left, as if he watched some small hummingbird hover there, and then quickly glanced up. When he turned to me with those haunted eyes again, the uncanny smile on his face made me shudder.
“I said he prepares for you… and it is true. The Gaunt Man expects you will have some method of finding Simon Girard… and so has planned well for your co
ming.” Jax reached upward, as if he attempted to grasp something I didn’t see. “As such… he has hidden Fallen Leaves in the hopes of making it difficult for you. The longer you wait, the more prepared he will be…”
“Where, Jax?” I demanded in a stern tone. I had to make certain he answered my specific question.
“Fallen Leaves has many doors… it was constructed from a piece of a world that is nothing but doors and darkness… Yet while the Gaunt Man may move those doors, he may never close them…” Jax drifted dreamily and for a moment, I wondered if he would ever get to the point. “One such door rests near the roads Flatbush and Lincoln…” He paused.
“Jax?” I questioned.
“Or Flatbush and Rutland. He casts a veil about himself, darkling hid.”
“But here, in the city?”
“Yes. In the place you call Brooklyn.”
Brooklyn, I mouthed at Alicia.
She nodded.
“You have a great many weapons and tools at your disposal,” he nearly muttered, and shook his head as if uncertain. “Yet I cannot see them all. For this reason… cannot tell you every tool you should use.”
The Aegis, I thought. It protects the things in the attic, and Jax can’t see them.
I found that intriguing.
“Your stalwart allies will go with you regardless of what you say or do. Plan well, as Simon Girard would have you plan. In the end, two things will be your greatest weapons.”
I leaned forward, so intent was I on what he would say next.
“The first is knowledge. The Gaunt Man is no man… not in truth. Yet he bears an intricate understanding of the workings of the human heart. He is a creature that wields affection, loyalty, and the desperation love can bring as weapons.”
“Okay.” I felt like I knew this already.
“Your second weapon will come to you under great duress…” Jax’s voice faded, drifted. “You’ll come to understand the value of one who asks of you a boon.”
“We didn’t ask for more riddles.” Rehl sounded legitimately irritated.
“Right?” I scowled and turned back. “Jax, we need to know…”
But the slender man no longer sat upon the log, staring into nothingness. Only shadows lay there.
“Gone?” Baxter looked around, dismayed.
Jax, Black Horn Jack, whoever he was…
Had vanished.
From right in front of our eyes.
7
“It’s bullshit.” Baxter walked behind Alicia and the light of Abriel shone over her head. While it might be a fact that her Truth may not have been as reliable in the Twilight, the physical light of her helped more than a little.
“I get it,” I grumbled behind him. “What did he say exactly? ‘Three truths, and the shadows of those truths’? That sounded like he promised to be pretty damn specific.”
“He also said ‘Three explanations, freely given, of whatever the Sight shall tell,’” Alicia reminded us. “Perhaps Black Horn Jack found himself at the end of his power. I found him remarkably accessible for one of the Faire Folke.”
“It wasn’t much like ‘The Sapphire of Evensdawn’ module,” Rehl said thoughtfully. “I half assumed Jax would spend all of his time trying to wriggle out of his agreements or steal our shadows.”
“The Fair Folke are remarkably trustworthy.” Alicia vacillated for a moment. “If one understands their ways and is cautious.”
“How do you know so much about them?” I stepped over a large root and basically blindly followed Alicia, trusting to Abriel’s memory. “You said Simon didn’t really think much of Black Horn Jack.”
“He didn’t.” Alicia pushed the auburn hair away from her face. “However, Rufus Brighton, the last person I bonded to before Alicia, had a fair amount of dealings with one of them.”
“That sounds like an interesting story,” Baxter said.
“Rufus had dealings with a woman who embodied the nature of Winter.” Alicia glanced back over her shoulder. “She was a cruel thing, but fair in her own way.”
“There!” Baxter pointed through a patchy hedge. “That’s a street lamp. I know that’s a street lamp!”
“Baxter might actually be right.” I stepped forward and peered through the mist. It didn’t seem quite as cool here, and some of the grass beneath my feet looked a little more autumnal than it had a few moments before.
“Looks like we just made our way out of Faerie.” Rehl grinned. “Immortal memory wins the day!”
“Twilight.” Alicia corrected him. “We don’t know if the place we just left had any true connection to the land under the hill.”
“I’m just happy back in a place that has tacos,” Baxter jibed. He glanced at his watch and stopped in place, his eyes wide.
“What?” I asked.
“Thirty minutes.” He stared at me with disbelief. “There’s no way we were only gone for thirty minutes.”
For a moment, we all just gaped at each other.
“Man, I don’t even ask questions anymore.” I shook my head. “If we just saved ourselves the three hours it felt like we tromped around in the Twilight, then I suppose that’s all for the good.”
We bantered and bickered as we walked through the Ramble, and made our way back to Rehl’s car. We piled in and drove for a good five minutes before Baxter decided perhaps we should get serious.
“So…” He fidgeted in his seat. “What’s the play, Liz?”
“I am not the party leader here,” I jibed. “That’s, what, based on intelligence, wisdom, and charisma?”
“In this case, I think it’s based on the person with the magical powers.” Bax poked my side and I squealed.
For long moment I went quiet. “I want to go get Simon as soon as possible.”
“That makes sense,” Alicia agreed.
“I think tomorrow night. Pretty late, so the streets will be as deserted as possible.”
“This is New York.” Baxter turned to me. “City never sleeps, man.”
“I know.” I sighed a bit. “It’s just the best I can do.”
“So what time do we meet at Knucklebones?” Rehl kept his hands on the wheel and gazed out into the slightly rainy evening. “Gotta gear up and get ready.”
“Jax did say your stalwart allies would go with you no matter what you did,” Baxter reasoned. “I suppose it’s impossible to fight fate.”
“I don’t think you should.” I glanced at Rehl, and then turned in my seat to take in the other two. “I’m the only one Lorne cares about. He’ll slaughter you like sheep just because he wants to.”
“We’ve been present twice when he sent his errand boys to fetch you.” Rehl still didn’t take his eyes off the road. “This last time, he sent something after Alicia to terrify her into accidentally outing you.”
“He might come for us anyway.” Baxter pulled himself forward in the seat. “You can’t assume we’ll be safe just because we don’t come with you.”
“Besides.” Alicia grinned as she spoke and I glanced up to see her freckled face. “Abriel knows where you’ll be. We’d just follow anyway.”
“I know.” I gave my friends a slight scowl. “I knew it when Jax said so. There’s no way you guys would actually stay behind.”
“Then why even talk about it?” Baxter leaned back in the seat, satisfied.
“In case one of you dies, obviously.” I gave him a sharp look. “Now I can always tell myself I tried to keep you safe and your own stupidity got you killed.”
“It would be my bravery.” Rehl nodded. “But Bax, yeah. It would probably be his stupidity.”
“You say this to the guy who solved the riddle?”
“Liz,” Alicia spoke softly and leaned forward so I would hear her over the boys’ bickering. “Without the Aegis, you won’t be able to channel as much power as you have been.”
“I know.” I chewed on my lip. “I’ve thought about that.”
“There are other enchanted items within Simon’s cabinet we s
hould consider taking with us. But until we head over to Fallen Leaves, Knucklebones is the only place you remain unseen.”
“Dammit.” I hadn’t considered the personal cloaking device on my wrist. My only thought had been how hard the thing let me punch.
“Watch your language.” Alicia pushed at my shoulder playfully. “It’s more difficult to learn Empyrean if you are a person who indulges in course thoughts.”
“Let’s just survive tomorrow night—then we can talk about my education.”
“We have a good amount of preparation to do,” Alicia said with a tilt of her head.
“Yeah, and we’re assuming we’ll have time to do it. What if that goon and his wolf-spiders somehow communicated where Knucklebones is to Mister Lorne?”
“If Lorne knows where the store is, one would assume the place would already be under siege.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“Not to mention the fact that you shot me in the leg!” Rehl waved one hand emphatically to make his point.
“I only shot you a little bit. You showed me your leg, and you only had a couple places where it grazed your calf. It turned red; the shot didn’t even break the skin much!”
“I asked you not to shoot me!”
“Boys, boys. You both get to go to the big dance.” I glanced at Rehl. “What you think about early afternoon? We all go home, get some good sleep, then you pick up the crew and get them over to Knucklebones sometime around one or two?”
“That’s feasible.” He glanced to his mirror. “Is that cool with you two?”
“I can make it work,” Baxter agreed.
“I’d like to stay at Knucklebones, if that’s all right.” Alicia still leaned forward, close to me. “Abriel would like to tally what Simon may have taken with him, and what we have available.”
“Fine with me, as long as you don’t mind my snoring. There’s only the one bed, after all.”
“Nice.” Baxter glanced up at Rehl, who chuckled like every boy ever.
“They’ve caught us out, Alicia.” I rolled my eyes. “Because we’re going on a dangerous mission tomorrow, this is the night we’ve decided to consummate our secret passion.”