Impervious (City of Eldrich Book 1) (21 page)

Chapter 37

T
he
current round
of trouble started not long before John’s exile. But the roots of the story lay in the first contact between Fahraya and the human world. Fahraya wasn’t a separate world or dimension, like most of the other worlds accessed through the Eldrich gateways. It was a bubble of space time, a tiny dimension clinging to the human world. It had no separate existence.

Its inhabitants had once been human until a magical accident split them off from the wider world. Magic, much like radiation, could force genetic mutation, causing strange results. The people developed wings and became smaller, although many other species in Fahraya did not. Like the giant snakes, which were only giant relative to the now tiny human residents.

“So how long have they been on their own?” Meaghan asked.

“We don’t know for sure,” Melanie said. “The magic accelerates genetic change, so the split could have been relatively recent, but they’re a Stone Age culture which suggests they’ve been alone for some time. You’ve looked at the treaty scroll?”

Meaghan wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

Melanie smiled. “It’s pictographic. Fahrayan is not a written language. Their history and folklore are passed on orally, through sagas and stories, chanted or sung. All the written treaty does is reference, through crude pictograms, the much more detailed song that contains the agreed-upon provisions.”

“So, no writing,” Meaghan said.

“No writing, no metalworking, no agriculture, no manufacturing,” Melanie answered. “The usual lack of progress found in magical cultures, although the Fahrayans are a somewhat different case. Their world is so harsh, so poor, that without magic they couldn’t survive. Unlike worlds and species that never grow because they use magic as a crutch.”

“It’s a total dump,” Natalie said.

Melanie nodded. “It’s not fairyland.”

“So, why can’t they magic up a better world?” Meaghan asked.

“Because they aren’t practitioners, like witches and wizards, who use magic as a tool. They’re a magical species,” Melanie explained. “Without magic they can’t exist, at least not in their current form. But they have very limited ability to manipulate it.”

“So, who’s doing the magic?” Meaghan asked, confused.

“Nobody is,” chimed in Natalie. “The magic is just there, like background radiation. The Fahrayans are used to it, they evolved with it, and their bodies can’t function properly without it. They can’t fly without magic. But the rest of us—humans at least—can’t go there without getting fried.”

“Unless we’re impervious,” Meaghan said.

“Exactly,” Natalie said.

Meaghan scowled. “If they need magic to fly, then how the hell do they get around over here? Emily says a bunch of them attacked her brother. And I saw Jamie with my own eyes. And other people have seen them or there’d be no stories about fairies with wings, right?” As she said Jamie’s name, Meaghan felt the panic bubble up. She pushed it back down.

Melanie jumped in. “The Fahrayans lose their ability to fly if they get too far from a gateway. Their wings are ridiculous if you understand typical avian anatomy. They shouldn’t be able to fly at all with them, but somehow they do. Much like dragons.”

“Dragons? They have
dragons
over there?” Meaghan shuddered. “I’m still trying to get used to the giant snakes.”

“Relax,” Melanie said. “No dragons in Fahraya. Entirely different world. But the same principle. The wings are too small and attached in the wrong way to lift a beast of that size off the ground. Which is why dragons are now creatures of myth in this world. Not enough magic left to let them fly.”

“But the Fahrayans are so small they don’t need as much magic,” Meaghan said, trying to disregard Melanie’s comment about dragons. One monster at a time, she thought. If I die in Fahraya, at least I won’t have to worry about any dragons. “And the sightings and attacks have all occurred near gateways.” She craned her head to look at Natalie. “And city hall’s sort of a gateway, right?”

Natalie shrugged. “More a magnifier, but the same general idea.”

Without the gateway magic or some other source of magic, the Fahrayans were incapable of flight and lost their disproportionate strength. The farther they got from a gateway, the weaker they got.

“So, without magic, they’re defenseless,” Meaghan said. “How do the amulets work? And don’t tell me ‘by magic’ again.”

Natalie smiled. “They’re pretty cool. My mom came up with them.”

The amulets worked by dampening the magical mutations and activating residual human DNA. When Jamie told Meaghan that the amulet made him human, he was half right. He was already human, mostly. The amulet merely suppressed the genetic changes that made him Fahrayan. Vivian had believed that Jamie could be made human permanently, but the spell would require a blast of magical power far in excess of anything in the human world, even near the gateways. So, they made do with the amulets, which were an astonishing bit of magic in their own right.

Russ, this time managing not to make a sound on his way up the creaky wooden stairs, appeared with another tray of food, a pot of coffee, and a reproachful look at Melanie and Natalie. “Are you still freaking her out?”

Yes
, Meaghan thought. “No. I feel better,” she told Russ.
Liar
, she thought. “How are things in the house? Is the wicked witch of the basement behaving herself?”

Russ shrugged. “I assume everyone’s still alive down there, but I’m kinda trying to stay out of it.”

Meaghan nodded. “Has Patrice been down to talk to her?”

Russ shook his head. “Not yet. I think she’s letting her stew awhile. Patrice is one tough lady. I’d be a wreck if I were in her shoes.” He set the tray down on the desk, bustled around for a minute pouring coffee and handing out cookies, then grabbed the nearly untouched sandwich tray and left.

“So,” Meaghan said. “Back to business. The Fahrayan gateways are relatively new, right?”

“Relatively,” Melanie said. “They opened up in the mid-nineteenth century.”

“Is that normal?” Meaghan asked. “Gateways popping up like that?”

“No,” Melanie answered. “Not in the least. We’re still not sure why it happened.”

“Not
totally
sure,” Natalie muttered.

Meaghan looked at Melanie for a reaction, but Melanie’s face was unreadable. Even when they claim they’re telling me everything, Meaghan thought, they’re still holding shit back. But, for now, she’d have to be okay with that.

When the first gateways opened in England, Melanie explained, the tiny winged warriors found themselves in the middle of Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Since magical gateways tended to exist in clumps, they appeared in the spots already reputed to be fairy strongholds.

“Fairy folklore has existed for centuries,” Melanie added. “But fairies didn’t have wings until the Fahrayans arrived.” Somehow, the brutal Stone Age Fahrayans were converted in human imagination into the graceful, charming, childlike inhabitants of a paradisiacal fairyland.

And, the Fahrayans didn’t do much better gaining an accurate first impression of humans. The Victorian fairy hunters were not the most sensible of people. Their idealized view of the Fahrayans led to an idealized view of their behavior, allowing the Fahrayans to steal them blind whenever they crossed paths. The idea began to root in the Fahrayan psyche that the giant humans were easy pickings.

Those who flew far enough from the gateways to lose their magical boost generally didn’t come back. The few who managed to return told stories of fearsome giant predators like foxes and badgers and house cats. Owls and hawks in particular were feared. The Fahrayans had evolved their magical wings because it was the best protection from the fearsome creatures of their world, none of whom could fly. But in the human world, death could come screeching from above, from creatures with far more impressive flight capabilities.

“Those who wanted to raid into the human world dismissed the tales as raving or lies, and pointed out how easy it had been to steal food and small objects from the humans they’d encountered,” Melanie said.

“But they were all bubble-headed Victorian fairy hunters,” Natalie added. “Not exactly a complete picture of humanity, you know?”

The Fahrayans with more realistic views of humanity urged caution. It was safe to assume, they argued, that if Fahrayans could travel back and forth through the gateways, then so could the giant birds of prey. Or the giant people themselves. Best to stay clear of them altogether.

Melanie sighed. “The one thing, I believe, that all Fahrayans shared, however, was an utter lack of comprehension of how vast and complex the human world really is.”

The cautious faction won the day and taboos about entering the gateways were established. But the stories and the desire for the treasures seen in the human world remained. It became an illicit rite of passage for adolescent Fahrayans to sneak into the human world. Respect for the taboos faded, although the occasional encounter with an owl was enough to instill a healthy respect for the inherent danger of the other world. Which made it even more attractive.

“That all changed with John’s father,” Melanie said. “Zayhna.”

Zayhna and his bravest friends, barely out of childhood, their heads full of tales of glory and treasure, of brave Fahrayans outwitting the hapless giants, snuck through a gateway and found themselves right in the middle of a bloody World War II battlefield.

Natalie shook her head. “Jamie never told me any of this. Not even in high school when he took that stupid European history class I had to help him with.”

“That’s because he didn’t know the story,” Melanie said. “At least not the details. Zayhna was the only survivor and he was so traumatized he could barely speak about what he’d seen.”

Melanie believed, based on her research, that an artillery blast probably hit near the gateway as the Fahrayans crossed through, killing several and scattering the rest. The remaining Fahrayans didn’t last long. The few soldiers who saw them assumed them to be hallucinations brought on by battle stress and told no one. It was rumored in the magical worlds, but never confirmed, that a few had been captured alive by the Germans and taken to a secret lab in Berlin.

When he could finally speak of what he’d seen, Zayhna was adamant that humans were not the silly, hapless giants found in Fahrayan stories. The humans he observed were warriors, like the Fahrayans, but with weapons of inconceivable power and savagery. If the giants were angered, they could easily destroy Fahraya.

“Zayhna believed all contact with the human had to end,” Melanie said. “When he took power from his father, he reestablished the taboos and this time backed them up with substantial penalties. The worst of which . . .” She trailed off as she lowered her face into her small blue hands.

Meaghan heard her sob softly. Natalie jumped up and put her arms around Melanie. After a moment, Melanie pulled herself together and blew her nose loudly. “We have to get Jamie home. Quickly.”

Melanie, unable to meet Meaghan’s eye, quickly rattled off Zayhna’s penalties. Any foray into the other world would result in a savage public beating. Attempting to attack or plunder from the humans would result in public execution. Finally, any contact that might invite an incursion or invasion by the humans would bring down the most fearsome punishment of all. The perpetrator would be publicly tortured to death in an ancient Fahrayan ritual reserved for only the most heinous of crimes.

After a few days of scourgings and beatings, while the priests performed rituals to block the soul’s passage to the afterlife, the victim’s wings were cut off, the tongue ripped out, and if male he was castrated, if female her womb was cut from her. Finally, the victim was carried high in the air above the rocky terrain and dropped, with the corpse left for the snakes and other beasts.

“Is that what they did to John?” Meaghan asked, feeling sick.

“Well, not all of it. Fortunately,” Melanie said. “But, yes, that’s the punishment V’hren imposed on John. And now on Jamie.”

Natalie wore a look of horror. “Jamie . . . he . . . they
can’t.
” She began to cry and it was Melanie’s turn to comfort her.

Meaghan buried her head in her hands. “Let me guess,” she said. “John got himself in trouble by somehow getting mixed up with Matthew.”

Melanie sighed. “There’s more to it, but basically yes.”

“And that’s why Jhoro won’t help us. Won’t help
me
.”

“Maybe. I don’t know that for sure. He may view every enemy of his father as a friend by now,” Melanie said. “But you need to hear the rest of the story.”

Meaghan nodded but didn’t look up.

The ritual hadn’t been performed in centuries and Zayhna invoked it now only as a way of instilling fear in his populace. Zayhna had entered the gateway a bold young man, full of energy and bravado. In a few hours, his youthful exuberance disappeared. Terrified by what he had seen, he became grimly determined to protect his people, even willing to sacrifice their goodwill and respect in order to do it. The risk was too high to allow anyone else to enter the human world.