episode 18: Across the Ward

Interlude

Every night now, when the moon shines, we pass through. I draw my aura into my fur and pass through the gate. It makes me feel safer. I do not wish to be near those edges that cut between worlds.

The Court still comes looking for their "trifles," but there is a certain discomfort. The land here has changed. Rippled as the gate bends, the lands it touches.

The Sidhe ruler in this Season of Faerie, one of the Hidden, has, in her outrage, revealed herself to Bregon, filled with accusations. He greets her politely. Offers condolences and shows her the gate.

"I would enter, if I could, and bring their realm to Faerie. Join its land to ours. To yours." He smiles again. "But the gate is too small for a Sidhe. It cannot accommodate our power, though I invite you to try. Perhaps you could succeed where I have failed."

And he brings forth the ragged edges of his power and she recoils. I am not sure what horrifies her. Bregon's mutilation, the thought of going through the gate or the mere fact that there is another side to the gate.

Then she is gone.

Bregon turns away and smiles.

Across the Ward

- Ellen -

I felt something cross the ward but didn’t give it much thought. Just another traveller on their way from A to B, but then… something niggled. It took me a moment, but I realized I hadn’t felt it leave. I could no longer sense it, but some instinct said that something was still here, something hidden. Or had I just spaced out?

"Shigeto?"

"Yeah, sweetie?"

"I need to get outside?"

"Huh, why? What’s going on? Can you hand me the half-inch socket?"

I grabbed the tool, crouched and dropped it in his grease-stained hand. "Something’s here?"

"What? Do you see some damn mice? I think we should get some barn cats; you are a witch, after all."

I swatted his closest protruding leg at the bad joke, then gave it a stroke. "No, no, something on the farm."

A pause in the sound of clinking below the tractor. "Wouldn’t the ward send it on its way, or at least tell you what it is?"

"I didn’t sense it leave."

A chuckle. "You were likely captivated by my running narration about how I’m fixing the tractor." I looked down, and I swear I could see the amused expression on his face, right through rusted metal.

"I’m sure you’d be captivated by the bonfire this thing would make if I doused it with gasoline."

The voice that came out from beneath the old tractor was wounded. "Oh, Ellen, how could you talk that way in front of Ol’ Bessie, here?” I heard him pat the tractor.

I smiled and shook my head, but kept my voice stern. "It would be a fitting sacrifice to support my eldritch powers."

"You’re a monster," came a horrified whisper from below.

I kicked his foot. "I’m serious."

"About Bessie?"

"About something on the farm."

"One sec."

He wiggled his way out from beneath the old tractor and held up a grease-stained hand. I rolled my eyes and helped him up. I looked at my hand, then him, accusingly. He just grinned and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I tossed him a rag for his hands and gave him a rather more emphatic kiss. He moved to pull me into his arms, but I stopped him and said, "Outside."

"It’s warmer in here." He waggled his eyebrows at me.

I rolled my eyes and tossed him his coat. We ambled outside — really; it was more of a curiosity, or perhaps an excess of caution, that made me investigate, but as we came out of the machine shed, I heard footsteps. Then, with a shock of panic, Babe’s voice.

We hustled around the corner to see Babe welcoming David Andrews to the farm as though they were long-lost friends. A rush of fury, that someone from that family was with Babe, without protection. My reach for the land’s power was reflexive, and it was through this I saw that around the two of them, there was a circle of absence, centred on the woman. I stared at her, but she just ignored me as she frowned at the ground beneath her.

Whatever, I had other fish to fry at this moment. "What the fuck are you doing here, Andrews? Did your brother put you up to this? And who the fuck is that?" I gestured at the woman.

David managed a strangled, "What? No."

I gave Shigeto a significant glance, as I formed the spell in my mind, to be ready to act should my magic be insufficient to the task. But before I could cast, Babe stamped his hoof, once, but with power.

I staggered, my link to the earth broken with startling ease. His voice had shifted — no longer the younger, bantering tone he’d been using in his conversation with David. But something harder, older, than I was used to. A side of him I saw only occasionally when we did spells together.

"By the gods Ellen," said Babe, "give the man a break. Look at him, he’s been spelled, he’s exhausted, and he’s freaked out." Babe sighed, and his voice softened. "Whatever is going on with the poor man’s fence, it’s obviously a bit more than a splintered board or two. Plus, somehow, he’s gotten past the wards." His gaze shifted to the woman, "and if I had to guess, I’m not the only supernatural being that he’s run across."

I looked at the woman then, really looked, and saw something there, an afterimage, though I couldn’t really make it out.

Babe’s next words were for David, his voice younger and eager for news of the world, no matter how banal. "Did you drive all the way from Toronto? Did you take the highway? How was the traffic? I hear Ellen and Shigeto complain about it all the time, and I’ve seen it on video, but it all seems a bit like a special effect to me, you know? I mean we get, what, four vehicles a day here, and they’re all either the same, identical, F-150s or somebody bringing in a backhoe." He paused in his questions and turned his head towards us. "Oh, and Shigeto, I saw Mr. Phillips go by. He had some cages, so he might have that rooster that you’ve been talking about."

We all stared at him, a little nonplussed. Shigeto and I were used to Babe’s chattiness, thinking it compensation for the lack of variety in conversational partners, but apparently more people meant more chatter. Part of me was astonished that a talking bull seemed to be more of an extrovert than either Shigeto or me. There was a beat, a pause in conversation, and to my surprise, it was David who broke the silence. "It wasn’t bad — we left early enough. Takara, this is Takara, by the way, slept most of the way."

"Hi," said Babe.

The woman waved, looking at David with, I think, the same sense of surprise that I did, at how the two of them seemed to sustain the social niceties, but she managed a suspicious, "Hi."

David continued, "Takara doesn’t exactly seem to be an early riser, but really, we both knew that we had to leave early or the traffic would just kill us. There were a ton of cars on the highway, but mostly going in the opposite direction."

"Like rush hour?" Asked Babe.

"Exactly that."

"Huh," said Babe.

As he spoke, David developed a bemused expression, but there was a smile on his face, as though it was the first bit of humour that he’d seen in some time. Looking at him, I was forced to concede Babe’s earlier point. He really did look like hammered shit. And there was something else. My gaze was drawn to his finger, and I frowned.

"What’s that?" I asked, pointing.

"That’s a good part of why I’m here," said David.

"Jeez, Ellen," interjected Babe, "way to jump right in. They’re guests. Shouldn’t we be offering them coffee or something before we get into" he made a circling gesture with his great head, "all this? We can sit down in my stall."

I turned towards Babe, suddenly infuriated by his naiveté. "Are you quite mad? What were you thinking? That’s John Andrews’ brother. Do you forget what happened at the Fair?"

"He wasn't the one with the knife."

"No, he was friends with the guy with the knife."

"Yeah, well, I don’t see a knife on David."

"And what about her?" I glared at the woman. She had the look of someone that was less than trustworthy. As if to prove my point, she pulled out a good-sized butterfly knife. She gave a wry smile when she saw Shigeto’s sudden shift in stance and handed it to him. "It’s just for protection. In the city, I carry it everywhere. I didn’t mean anything by it."

"That’s what you say," I began.

"Ellen, I do have the knife," said Shigeto, as he flipped it open and shut with an economic flourish. Takara gave a tiny smile. I glared at Shigeto, but before I could say anything, Babe spoke.

"For heaven’s sake, Ellen, they’re guests. Besides, do you truly think he’d stop now, after what he must have gone through to get that finger? And I rather suspect that it’s only a small part of the story. Were I him, I certainly wouldn’t stop short of answers. I think, given everything, it behooves us to help?" Babe gave a little snicker then, flicking a hoof against the earth. David suppressed a smile, and to my great annoyance, they exchanged an amused glance.

I set my jaw. "That is not your choice to make. Shigeto and I…"

"I am not a child!" Babe raised his voice. Not a shout, but definitely emphatic and, once again, that older tone to his voice. "I’m not some human infant waiting to be filled with whatever prejudices my parents stuff into my head. If I thought that David was here to cause trouble, if my instinct told me so, don’t you think I would tell you, or perhaps, that I would simply act? Or is this really about control? Am I to become just another sacrificial bull, and you haven’t finished fattening me yet?"

"Babe," said Shigeto, "that’s not fair."

Babe gave a shake of his head that suggested a shrug. "If that’s really the case, maybe you should stop making assumptions and actually listen to David’s story. Or do you really just not give a shit about anything that happens off of this damn farm?"

I clenched my hands into fists and looked to Shigeto for support. Appallingly, he just seemed to be just waiting.

“What?" I asked him.

"It wouldn’t hurt to listen."

"And what about that?” I asked, pointing at David’s hand, "and her," gesturing at the woman.

"Takara, you know, in case you missed it, just FYI," she interjected.

I glared, ready to respond when Shigeto spoke, "So you’re worried that David’s going to give us the finger." There was amusement in his voice.

Babe gave a snort of amusement. Even David and Takara seemed to fight smiles. I tried one more time, even though Shigeto’s joke seemed to have snapped the tension. "How do we know that his brother, or maybe even Simmons, didn’t put him up to this?" I was annoyed at the plaintive tone that had crept into my voice, but I was feeling outnumbered.

"Oh, c’mon sweetheart, his brother would be the last person to approve of whatever mess David’s found himself in, as you’re well aware. And besides, Babe’s right, look at him, not just with whatever vision you’re using now, but at the man, he looks like ten miles of bad road." Shigeto paused and looked at David, "No offence."

"None taken," David replied, his voice dry.

I glared at David. "So you’re convinced that thing is connected to us somehow?"

He shrugged. "I don’t know what else to think. I didn’t have a gate to faerie in my backyard before Babe showed up."

"What?" I exclaimed, my voice echoed by Babe’s and Shigeto’s.

image based on photo by Heye Jensen via Unsplash