Dance By Midnight (16 page)

I held up my hand. "Yeah, yeah, moths and flame and shit. No magic."

Correct.

"So…I'd be going in there with no access to magic or any means to protect us?"

It is the only way to hide what you are. Samantha would still be able to use her magic. They do not view human magic as a threat.

Sam blinked. "I would? They don't?"

Not in their world. But your guns can do damage. I suggest using them.

Sam reached out and patted Mike's shoulder. "Looks like you're on point."

I have one more warning. Do not eat anything while in Alfheim. The food is created with the essence contained in the dust. Do not even drink water. Be aware not only of the temptation of food, but of the lure of the dust. One touch of that dust against your skin and you will be forever owned by whatever creature held it.

Got it. Don't eat, pray a lot, and love the idea of going home.

"Do we have a guarantee Maab's going to uphold her promise of a wish?" Mike crossed his arms.

She will have to. The Faeries are very serious about their oaths, and if she believes she has that mantle then you three will become less important,
he looked at me.
But this will only be true as long as she cannot see your power. In order for you to get away from her, you must return here. I cannot help you if you do not return to
this
Cairn into my lair. If you try and return through the main entrance, you will suffer.

"And you'll get us back home with no problems?" Sam leaned her head toward Hob.

I will do my best.

"Why?" Everyone turned to look at me. I shrugged. "Sorry but why? Every weird ass creature I've met since I woke up to this existence has either tried to take my power, eat me, or kill me. Why are you helping?"

Hob hung his head.
I am…lonely.

That…wasn't the answer I was expecting and I felt like shit for being such an ass. "Lonely?"

I live as part of this pool. As part of all the pools before the Cairns. I see what comes and what goes. They do not acknowledge me; they simply believe I am there to serve them. I have been lonely for so very long, with no one to talk to. When I saw the Cairn destroyed, I believed this existence would come to an end and I would find peace. But then I heard your footsteps and saw in the pool the spriggan chasing you through the remnants of the Cairn. I took a chance and made myself known to the Sentinel.
Hob turned and looked at Sam who smiled at him.
And she did not run in terror. She came to me and spoke to me, she thanked me and hugged me…when we pulled you to safety.
He looked back at me.
I am an urisk and I crave companionship. I see life go by but I cannot touch it. And you…
he turned to all of us
. You saw me as something more.

If I wasn't careful I was going to get teary eyed. To my surprise Sam opened up her arms and gave Hob another hug. His black form shimmered and I thought I saw features in that blank black face. Or maybe it was my imagination.

Hob pulled away. He looked embarrassed.
I want to help you so that you will come back now and then? And talk to me?

Mike and I glanced at one another. I stuck out my hand to Hob. "How can we refuse?"

ALFHEiM

We had a plan and the stupidity to see it through.

Now all we needed was to make the mantle. Hob prepared an area for us. And by prepared, I mean he moved away grass, dirt and flowers until only stone remained. Sam built a fire in the center of the clearing, and then used one of the partially burnt pieces of wood to draw a pentagram around the fire. I sat to the side, trying to figure out how I was going to do this. Thomas put the mantle into the book, so how did I use it to make a facade?

I wasn't going to be able to use the book in Alfheim, so I figured I'd better make good use of it now. While Sam worked, I closed my eyes and asked the book how to make the mantle. Seemed simple enough. And as always the book appeared, the pages flipped, until they landed on the new page, the one Thomas had slipped in.

That's when things got a bit fuzzy. Up until then I just had the intent, put some feeling behind it and spoke the language of the
Grimoire
, or at least the earlier parts of the
Grimoire
. There were a lot of languages in this book. But this time I moved without thinking. I knew on some level the
Grimoire
was in charge, or at least I suspected it was. I reached out to Sam and asked for a vial of the dust.

She handed one to me. I poured it onto the stone in front of me in the form of a rectangle. Then filled it in until the bottle was empty. I felt Sam's and Mike's eyes on me as I held my hand over the square and felt something weave and tumble down my arm. A glance at it and I wished I hadn't looked.

Tiny white spiders oozed out of my skin and crawled to my hand. They jumped onto the square and began spinning webs. Red silk. Hundreds of them came. There were so many of them they fell over each other. My body was locked where it was, a conduit for the book of total annihilation.

Damn coffee table reader.

The rectangle glowed red, sparkled and then the spiders vanished. The book let go and I was on my feet, shaking the ick off of me like a girl who just found a bug in her desert. After I finished my little fit I looked at the stone.

In place of the dust lay a perfectly folded red mantle. Or a facade of it. With a glance at Sam and Mike I tentatively touched it. The fabric was as soft as silk. Spider silk. I held it between both hands. "It feels real."

It is real. The dust is what will convince Maab it is the veil she seeks.

I refolded it and handed it off to Mike. "You keep it. You need to be the one to ask for the exchange."

He took it as if it were made of glass and carefully tucked it into his back pocket. "It's not going to disappear in there is it?"

It should not. But there is always a chance. If the facade does vanish, I would suggest building another one quickly.

No shit. I would have suggested going ahead and making another one. But my muscles ached when I moved them. My shoulders and lower back hurt and I was pretty sure if I laid down, I'd fall asleep. And I did not want to sleep in a Cairn. There were just too many things in the place that set off my danger meter.

"So would this wish she offered be different than the actual exchange between the mantle and Brendi?" Sam asked.

The two are different. Maab made the pronouncement a long time ago. Mike's exchange is separate and Maab gave no terms.

Sam brushed the pentagram away with her boot just before she carried water from the stream in one of the glass bottles and doused the fire. "I think we need to get going."

Yes. Once you pass through the gate you have to cross over the wastes to get to Alfheim.

"Wastes?" Sam and I said together.

She took over. "You didn't mention wastes before. What are the wastes?"

Hob held out his hand and a small, flat disk formed out of whatever he was made of.
This is a compass, but it only works in Alfheim. It will point you to the Queen's home.
He handed it to me. It looked just like any ordinary compass…except for the runes on the face. At the moment the needle didn't move no matter which way I turned it.

"Hob…don't avoid my question. What are the wastes?" Sam tapped her foot.

I slipped the compass into my back pocket and glanced over my shoulder, half expecting to see a wing back there. I was relieved I didn't.

The wastes are what is left of the warlands.

"Warlands?" Mike had pulled out his huge gun and checked his magazines again. "You mean there was a war in Faerie?"

We were invaded a long time ago by another world. They came with rules after they destroyed the Sentinels.
Hob turned to Sam
. They did not win, but neither did the Faerie. Soon after they sealed this world away, others left by the war appeared in the ruins. All manner of creatures you would know if named.

"You mean like this Charybdis?" I remembered him mentioning that.

Yes. Charybdis has gone through changes and taken control of the wastes and all manner of creatures. She is very strong. It is why she is the Queen of this realm."

"Are these creatures dangerous? Other than her?"

Yes. And all of them would love the chance to take you, use you and ride your dead shell back to your world. So I would advise caution.

I started to say something but Sam put a hand on my shoulder. "Is there any way to avoid the wastes?"

Hob put a finger to his chin.
There is a way—but I do not know if it still works.

"What is it?" She kept her hand on my shoulder.

The Faeries create a pathway—a line—that gives them a corresponding end. If you were to find that correspondence point, and if Maab did not destroy it, then it is possible to avoid the wastes. But if you take the wrong line, another Faerie's perhaps, then I don't know where you would end up.

Mike chuffed. "You mean teleport. Maab set up a teleporting thing."

"Sounds like a ley line." Sam looked at Hob.

Yes. They are Ley Lines. I can show you where it might be.

Sam pulled her hand back. "We'll risk it. Uh…is the way we're dressed fine?"

Yes
. Hob glided across the grass to the stream where he walked on top of the water to the opposite shore and gate. Myself, Sam and Mike went through the water but weren't even wet when we stepped out on the opposite side.

Hob touched the lock on the gate and instantly the chains fell aside. The gate doors creaked open, swinging away from us toward what looked like a park in Autumn. There was even a bench in front of an oak. I looked around at the cave Hob lived in and noticed it wasn't so much the Cairn encroaching on the world of Alfheim, but the opposite. Faerie had spilled through the gate like ivy running under the neighbor's fence.

The Ley Line Maab used will be marked. Since I cannot leave the Cairn, I do not know what the mark is. But you will know it when you see it.

Sam reached out and hugged Hob again before she stepped through the gate. Mike shook his hand and gave him a pat on the back. When he and I faced each other, his face shifted both shape and color. With his back to the others, they didn't see Hob look at me with the face of Thomas.
Heed what I said, Guardian, about the wish. The future's not written in stone.

He reached out and embraced me then, and I inhaled a spicy, musky scent I hadn't noticed before. When he stepped back, Hob's face was back to the black, blank facade of a department store mannequin. I gathered my wits—which of course had tried to abandon me in a moment of OMG!—and walked through the gate to join Mike and Sam.

The lush jungle we stepped into didn't last long. Within a ten minute walk the high grass and thick, gnarled trees disappeared and were replaced by…nothing. The landscape shifted into barren, cracked dirt. Miles and miles of it. Even the color of the world changed from lush greens, blues and whites to burnt orange, brown and black. In the distance we could see a cityscape that looked like any other cityscape. The sky behind it looked ominous. I hoped like hell that wasn't where we were supposed to go, so when I took the compass out of my pocket, my heart fell into my feet when the arrow pointed in front of us.

"That's Fairyland?" Sam pointed to the looming city. "Looks more like…escape from New York or something."

"According to this, that's Alfheim," I said. "But I'm beginning to think none of this is really Faerie like we learned about it as a kid."

"Uh uh." Mike shook his head. "So…I'm assuming that area between here and there is the wastes?"

I think we all agreed on that assumption. So we drew our weapons, except for me. Because if I used my weapon I'd wake up bad things. "Hob said Maab's line would be marked. Do any of you see an obvious mark?"

We dispersed along the border, keeping on the grass and looking desperately for something—

"I found it!"

Mike and I hurried over to Sam who stood directly in front of the path back to the Cairn. She pointed up. Floating about a foot or two above us was a large sign that read,
Quack Like A Duck
.

"That can't be serious."

I looked at Sam and quacked.

And found myself at the gate of the distant city.

What the—

A small pop of air and Mike appeared. Then Sam.

"Did anyone else just have a fast forward moment?" Mike looked around us while I stared up at the huge double doors to the city. I couldn't see the tall buildings and spires we'd seen in the distance. The only view we had was of a massive wall. Why would anyone need a wall that big?

"Yeah…and I'm not sure it's making me comfortable." Sam held her knife with the blade down. "There's a smaller door to the right of the larger one. Try that one."

"You want me to ring the bell?" Mike approached the door but he didn't sound all that confident.

"I don't see a bell." I came up behind him.

Mike tried the knob and it turned. With a glance back at us he pushed it in. Nothing spectacular happened. No explosion or attack of killer bees. We simply stepped through another door into a thick, humid garden. Butterflies in colors I've never seen on butterflies came to greet us as we stepped in.