He nodded and followed me into the house, his
movements cautious and careful. At first I was confused by his
defensive posture, but then it occurred to me that he was carefully
avoiding contact with the steel door, the nails in the door frame
and any other piece of iron or steel in the house.
I caught Charm’s collar as she rushed the
intruder, her powerful lunge almost pulling me off my feet. Leading
her back to Ashley, I made sure my daughter had hold of her before
closing the front door and finding Greer a stool to sit on, far
from any iron object. He picked it up and moved closer to the door,
away from the woodstove, and the steel littered kitchen area.
When he settled I explained everything that
had happened, walking him through the action as I had been taught
by father.
“That was a most complete report,” he noted at my story’s
conclusion.
“Why do they disappear?” Ashley suddenly
blurted. “Why do the bodies evaporate or whatever?”
I had wondered the same thing, but that
question was much farther down my list.
“They belong to my world, Fairie. So when we
die on your world, the smallest bits, the tiny specks that make up
all of us, return to our world and place in the Web of the One. If
humans die on my world, they return here, or at least their essence
does,” he answered with a furrowed brow, not fully happy with his
own explanation.
“I think Greer means that our atoms or
electrons or something return to their proper dimension when we
die,” I offered, glancing his way to see if I had it right. He
nodded and Ashley’s expression indicated her understanding of the
concept.
“Why did your sister help me?” I asked.
“Neeve was protecting your daughter from the
Hunters, keeping her out of the hands of the Summers. The ice
goblin you saw was Groll, my sister’s
dieg T’oorc.
Each
Guardian has a….familiar would be the only word that comes
close…gifted to them by our Queen,” he explained. Then he frowned
and looked at the ground in thought for a moment.
“What?” I demanded.
“Well, it just that Neeve left you alive. She
didn’t take Ashley, but left her here with you. That’s not how she
works,” he said.
I shrugged. “I don’t have any answers. She
just killed the Hunter and slid away into the shadows, watching me
the whole time,” I said with a shudder. “Then that toothy ape of
hers followed her like a bouncing rubber ball.”
“Do you have an ice goblin?” Ashley suddenly
asked.
Greer gave her a little smile and shook his
head. “No, I have Coel….he’s a bit different and I found him myself
when he was a cub. He’s a
mathuinaana
– I am uncertain what
animal that is closest to him in this world. I think it’s a form
that died off many eons ago here.”
“Extinct?” Ashley supplied.
“Yes that seems right. Anyway, you will meet
him, shortly. He’s patrolling the farm, looking for any
problems.”
“What if he runs into....Groll?” she asked,
worried for the mysterious Coel.
“They know each other and even Groll isn’t
silly enough to fight Coel,” he said with a certain pride.
“Greer, do you a young woman named Eirwen?” I
asked.
His eyebrows shot up as high as they could
go. “How do you know that name?”
“We met her…in the drugstore. Actually, she
came up to Ashley in the makeup aisle. Who is she? I saw those same
Hunters with her that died here tonight,” I supplied.
“Eirwen is the Princess of Summer, heir to
the Green Court,” he said after a moment, his expression grim. “She
is the best Hunter they have.”
“She didn’t have the pointy ear thing going
on?” I questioned.
“She is skilled at glamour – illusion to
cover her differences. Try holding steel or iron in your hand the
next time you look at one of my people and you’ll see through their
masks.”
“The fact that she found Ashley in the store
means the whole Court will know where to find her, so we need to
leave now,” he added, already standing. He lifted his right arm and
the black arm bracelet that was wound around it suddenly
slithered
– changing form and flowing into his open hand.
The night black metal morphed into a two foot blade in a split
second. Greer glanced our way and saw us both frozen, mouths and
eyes wide open. He glanced back at his blade. “It is my
siooc
dubhh sginna
…my Black Frost blade. Only Guardians of the Winter
Court carry them.”
“But the Hunters have bows like that?” I
questioned.
He shook his head. “Those are made from a
kind of wood….you might call it memory wood, as it ‘remembers’ two
different forms.”
I replayed the action in my head and realized
that the bow had snapped open more like a switchblade than the
liquid flowing metamorphosis of the Frost blade.
“The arrows seemed awfully small?” I
asked.
“They are grown by a type of shellfish. They
are very hard, light and filled with a toxin that the shellfish
produces. One arrow will paralyze a man your size, two will kill
immediately.”
I shook myself and turned to Ashley. “Grab
the bag you packed after dinner, and mine too!”
I scooped up a shoulder bag I had prepared.
Made from ballistic nylon, the dark green bag was small enough to
not be a burden, but roomy enough to hold extra ammo for my rifle,
some extra mags for my Sig, a small first aid kit, flashlight, and
assorted survival goodies, including the caltrops. I slung the
rifle across my back and then picked up Grandpa’s shotgun. It was
loaded and had five extra shells in the stretchy nylon buttstock
carrier. I threw another handful of shells into the pocket of my
jacket and looked for Ashley. She had slept in her navy sweatpants
and a long sleeve tee. Now she had a black and yellow hoodie over
the tee and a soft shell jacket over everything. She pulled her Ugg
boots on, grabbed a small bag in each hand and was ready to leave.
I noted that her bag was the Aeropostale duffle her mother had
given her for Christmas less than a month before she died. Ashley
hadn’t had time to use it before Sarah’s death and had chosen not
to use it since. I didn’t think the choice of her mother’s gift
tonight was random.
Greer nodded in approval at our speed, then
led the way to the front door.
“It’s unlikely that more Hunters have gotten
here yet, and Coel hasn’t alerted me to anything, but we need to be
ready and alert. Ian, it will be painful for me, but we need to
ride in your vehicle – it’s the fastest way,” he said. “The only
thing is I do not believe I can handle the door without burns.”
I glanced at Ash. “I got it!” she said with a
nod, her face reflecting both fear and determination.
“Let’s go,” Greer said in a quiet voice.
I opened our front door and he ghosted into
the night, blade up in his right hand, left hand cautioning us to
wait. He paused to listen and look, then nodded to us and we
followed.
The hair was up on the back of my neck and I
tried to look in every direction at once as I unlocked the FJ
Cruiser with my key fob. I opened my door and the rear door behind
it, allowing Ashley to gesture Charm into the back seat. I scooped
up the end of Charm’s leash and shut her door, while Ashley hustled
around to the other side, opening both passenger side doors.
Greer paused to grab the three bundles of
green leather and metal and wood, then slid around the car with
that ridiculous grace of his. We all jumped into the car, and
closed our doors, the inside plastic handle apparently enough
protection from the car’s steel body for Greer to use. My two long
guns were tucked, muzzles down, between my left leg and the door.
Highly illegal, but I wasn’t very concerned about little things
like laws at this point.
Chapter 13
I started the car and we took off. Greer
huddled in his seat, crouched over the leather in his lap.
“What are those for?”
“These uniforms as well as the ones that
Neeve and I wear are rather special. They’re made from dragon skin
and only Royals wear them. If we keep these with us, they won’t
know what happened to the Hunters. It’ll keep them guessing. I’ll
return them to Queen Zinna or Eirwen another time.”
“Does that mean you’re royal?” Ashley asked from the back seat.
“I guess it does. These three were cousins of
Eirwen’s, which actually makes them distant cousins of mine as
well.”
“Let me guess…you and Neeve are the children
of the Winter Queen?” I threw out.
He nodded, alternating between looking ahead
and behind us, still tucked in his painful looking position.
“Queen Morrigan is my mother – Neeve is my
older sister.”
“So you’re a prince?” Ashley asked.
“Technically, but it doesn’t mean anything on
our world. The Courts are matriarchal, only women rule. Neeve is
heir to Winter. Should anything happen to her, Mother would pick
another female as heir.”
“And yet your mother, the Queen, will risk
her heir for missions to kidnap children?” I asked,
incredulous.
“Yes – for several reasons; first, Neeve is
the best at this job, by a large margin. Second, it’s an incredibly
important job, which is why Eirwen, heir to Summer, handles the
Hunters. Last, if she fails, then she’s not the right person to be
the next queen,” he said with a shrug.
A motion in my side mirror caught my
attention. A brief blur in the air. Nothing there…but a moment
later it was back – a puck, flying to catch up.
“Ah Greer, the pucks are trying to catch us,”
I commented.
He turned and looked behind us, then nodded.
“Yes, I just saw one fly to the roof of this vehicle, but I didn’t
see it again. They’re trying to keep with Ashley. They know she’s
under threat.”
Ashley crawled in back and looked out the
rear window. “Dad, I think they’re trying to hang onto the roof
rack.”
“It’s made of aluminum so I guess that would
work,” I said, slowing the Toyota down to thirty-five.
“Ohh! Here come the rest!” Ashley said,
excited. “Dad, slow down a bit more, the little ones are having
trouble!”
I dropped to thirty miles an hour and
suddenly heard multiple thumps on the roof.
“Okay, I think that’s all of them,” my
daughter said with a little laugh. I found a moment to be amazed
that she could laugh in the face of all this threat, violence and
fear.
“Will they be alright up there?” I asked
Greer.
“It would seem so. Pucks are tough and very
adaptable, something others of my world often overlook.”
“How about you? You don’t look like you’re
alright?” I asked.
“I won’t lie. This much steel is painful,
even if it’s not touching me. But I’ll get through it. Just don’t
dawdle!” he answered. “I’ll try to answer more of your questions…it
helps keep my mind off the discomfort.”
“You said ‘dragon skin’. They’re real? You
hunt them?” I asked.
“Oh they are very, very real, but
no
one
hunts them!” he answered. “Dragons are a power to be
reckoned with on my world. On rare occasions, dragons will molt,
and from time to time the dragon elders have gifted the Queens with
cast off skins. They are better than armor and last virtually
forever.”
“Forever?” I asked.
“These in my lap came from a dragon that
molted fifteen hundred of your years ago,” he replied. I glanced at
the pile in his lap. Other than a faint bluish wetness, they looked
new.
“How about your blade?” I asked.
“Only the Guardians of Winter have them.
Their creation is one of my Court’s greatest secrets.”
“What kind of metal is that?” I asked.
He laughed. “They’re not made of metal at
all. They are living creatures bred from our own bodies, bound to
each Guardian. They have no will of their own, but take whatever
shape their Guardian decides. “
“They flow like the liquid metal in
Terminator 2
, dad,” Ashley noted, watching as Greer held up
his blade and had it change shape from form to form. She was right,
it was the same thought I’d had.
“How can they cut so well if they’re made of
living flesh?” I asked, slightly horrified at the concept of a
morphing weapon.
He shrugged. “How can your canine have teeth
and claws that are hard enough to rip and tear? How can a crab’s
claw or an ant’s jaw bite through skin? Just different arraignments
of…atoms, is it?” he said.
“So this creature can rearrange the structure
of its cells to form whatever you want?” I asked.
“It is said that the wielder of a Black Frost
blade is limited only by his or her ability to imagine,” he said,
watching the weapon morph from a two foot spike to a cleaver-ax to
a spear.
“How do you fight something like that?” I
asked with a shudder.
“From a distance is best, they are tough to
match at close range. Hunters try to use projectile weapons and
avoid close combat whenever possible.”
We were into town now so I glanced at the
rearview mirror, meeting Ashley’s eyes. “Why don’t you call your
grandparents and warn them we’re coming,” I suggested. A tiny pair
of legs appeared on the back hatch window where a puck was hanging
from the rear of the roof rack. Ash looked where my eyes were
focused and laughed out loud at the puck’s antics.
A long dark shadow loped across the road
behind us, moving too fast to identify. In an instant it was gone
into the woods on the other side, leaving me with just a chill as
we sped through the dark, frosty night.
Chapter 14
Dad met us at the door, Les Baer .45 in his
right hand, a hard look in his eyes. My mother hovered behind him,
holding Max’s collar tightly as the big dog’s growl indicated he
might bite Greer. He would have to get in line behind Dad though,
based on the intense stare my father was directing at the tall
elf.