The Keeper Ch. 38-41

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The two girls that Quinn had left at Edie's had elected to take up Edie's sister Norma's offer to stay with her. He was glad for them. Maybe now they'd have a chance for a normal life. His anger flared again. He'd been too kind to the Leprechaun. How many other little lives had the asshole ruined.

As he drove north to Emory, his mind switched to planning his trip to Montana. Airbnb had a cabin listed on Wise River that was expensive, but it would save time getting to the river in the morning. His finances could handle it, he decided. Just leave all this craziness behind and have some fun. If only he could break Gus loose for a week, be way more fun with a fishing partner. He wondered if the little wolf girl liked to fish or if anyone had shown her how.

The call came as Quinn was crossing over the Snohomish River on the SR 2 bridge.

"Lanie, the girls are gone." Suzie was crying so hard that he could barely understand what she was saying.

He flinched. Felt a coldness wash over him. His mind You had one job.

instantly went to the barn and poor Edna's body.

Quinn took a deep breath.

Compartmentalize

"Slow down, Suzie. Take a breath and start over."

"Charlie and Katrinka have been connected at the hip ever since Mandy brought the horse here. The last anyone saw of them was when they took the little horse out to pasture."

She started to cry again. "It was two o'clock in the afternoon, Lan, not like it was nighttime. We haven't seen them since. I'm sure somebody or something took them.

"Okay, listen, I'm almost to Lake Stevens, so I'm thirty minutes away. I'll get there as quickly as I can."

"Please hurry, Lan."

"Ok put Mandy on."

Amanda came on. "What are you thinking, Lan?"

"Mandy, which of the Sisters is the best at scrying?

"Bella."

"Okay, call her and have her come to the clinic. I am hoping she can do a casting and tell us what happened and what direction they went. Would you do that? Get to cracking on it and I'll be there soon."

Quinn's mind raced with other possibilities. The clinic bordered the Opari. The girls might have gone on an adventure and wandered into the Opari's border.

He didn't want to think of the real possibility that the Hag had come back for the little wolf.

He wondered again what he was missing about the little girl. What did this mysterious Druid want with her?

He dialed Niamh, hoping she was out of Oldtown.

She answered on the first ring and started talking before he had a chance to say anything.

"I already heard. Sari called me. I'm on my way.'

"Good, meet me at the clinic. I'm going to need your tracking skills. You were always best at that."

When Quinn drove up, Amanda and Anna were waiting in the parking lot for him.

He jumped out of his truck and strode over to them.

He looked over at Amanda. "Take me to where they last were." His tone must have been a shade too cold and abrupt because she jerked back at his words.

"Easy Lachlan," Anna said. She looked at Amanda. "It's okay, Mandy, just take him there."

Amanda gave him a doubtful glance but led him through the clinic and into the pasture north of the clinic.

The clinic must be doing well, Quinn thought. The barns and other buildings were very well constructed and the white post-and- rail cedar fencing around the ten or fifteen-acre property looked sturdy, well maintained. The whole set-up was not cheap.

Mandy's healing talent must be powerful. The little horse was already looking better. Her eyes were clear and her ears were perked as she curiously watched the group of women standing next to the fence at the north side of the pasture. The dark mass of the Opari Wilderness loomed on the other side.

Quinn walked up and glanced worriedly at the massive trees and then at Niamh. She nodded. She knew as well as he did that they had very little time to find them.

His heart dropped as he picked up the scent of apricot magic that was the Hag's calling card.

Suzie ran over to him. "Please find them, Lanie. Please. She's all I have."

Quinn hugged her awkwardly.

Those pleading, trusting eyes again.

He turned his attention to the scene twenty feet away, next to the fence. Bella and Thistle sat inside a six-foot pentagram outlined with a thick band of rock salt. Their faces were remote with concentration. The pentagram was so expertly crafted that not one bit of the powerful spells that must be swirling within leaked out.

"Lan," said Amanda. "don't get any closer to them. You might disrupt things.

He stepped back and turned to Anna. "The Hag was here. I can smell her magic. Why the hell is she after that little girl?"

"Lachlan, I think little Katrinka is a nature-psychic. Neophyte level at now, but strong enough that she picked up on the wrongness at the farm. Her talent will mature as she gets older and we take a hand in her training. Attunement is a natural ability for all crafters and shifters. Think of it as empathy. Crafters can attune themselves to the raw materials of their craft--a glassblower can feel the molten glass she works with. The magic deepens the talent.

"Shifters attune to nature--they spend a good deal of time in their animal persona and are far closer to the natural world than are we humans. Shifters can't use magic. Until Katrinka. She has far deeper abilities. I'm just not sure what they will turn out to be. She's as much a mystery as you are. I so wish Marigold Hope had made more progress finding your parents. We've been studying you for twenty years and are no closer to figuring out what makes you tick. You shouldn't have survived your time with Opari."

Their discussion was interrupted when Bella and Thistle stepped out of the pentagram.

"The girls left willingly," said Thistle. "There was no coercion, just trickery. The faerie and the blood-witch led them into the Opari."

Suzie moaned and clutched at Amanda.

"Okay," Quinn said, "thank you. That gives us a starting point. Niamh and I are going to head into the Opari and find 'em."

Quinn turned his back so Niamh could strip out of her clothes.

"Mandy," Niamh called out, "would you watch my little friend here." She pointed to the little boy who was standing next to the horse. He had a frightened look on his face.

Quinn noticed his fear and walked over to him and knelt. "I didn't see you there Jeffery or I would have said hello right away. We sure shared an adventure, didn't we?"

The boy nodded.

"You see that lady over there crying. Well, she's my little sister, and she's worried and sad. I won't be here to take care of her, so I was wondering if you would help her. I saw the way you handled the tough times, so I know I can trust you to help. And you know what it feels like to be afraid and sad. Will you help her?"

Quinn gave a reassuring smile as Jeffery's eyes looked into his, probably looking to see if he was serious. Apparently, what he saw in Quinn's demeanor reassured him, because he nodded, squared his shoulders, walked over to Suzie, and silently took her hand. She smiled through her tears and swept him into a hug.

"Nim, when we get inside, we'll need to mind-speak, so don't freak when you hear my voice in your head. Okay?"

She gave him a look that spoke volumes and with an effortless bound was over the fence.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

After Niamh pushed her way through the thick underbrush that bordered the Opari. Quinn followed. Once inside and under the old-growth trees, the brush thinned out; he stood and got his bearings.

"Hold up for a bit."

Despite his warning, the mind-speak startled her so much that she jumped three feet straight up and spun around ready to run back the way they came.

Despite the seriousness of their quest, he grinned an inner grin but carefully held his face blank as she gave him another of her looks that spoke volumes.

"Jerk."

She sat and waited as he centered himself into the proper mindfulness. One did not travel the Opari heedlessly.

"Don't get too far ahead of me, Niamh. This area is safe this close to the border, but further in things will get more dangerous. We're in a hurry and I'd prefer not to have to fight our way in."

She nodded wordlessly and started to cast about in ever-widening circles and soon picked up the trail.

"The signs show that the girls are stumbling and falling a lot, a sure sign they were under some sort of enchantment."

Quinn nodded and absently motioned her forward. His attention was snared by the immense magic of the Goddess. He fought his way free, trying to find the perfect balance point between detachment and singularity. Information flowed along the periphery of his consciousness. The problem with navigating the Opari was not too little data, but too much. The wonder of the complexity of life pulled at him. He felt he could sit and watch a single tree for years and still not plumb the depths of its mysteries.

Niamh, meanwhile, continued to track, watching for the signs of passage and senses fully alert to any danger.

Quinn was aware of the watchers that followed their progress. His fingers were constantly busy, signaling greetings to some and warnings to others. He was alert for any newly arrived predators that might not be aware of him and attack. He was determined not to harm any being if he could help it.

Opari gradually changed. At first, there were the familiar clean mossy smells of Northwest rain forest. Ferns and mosses everywhere. Shade-loving flowering plants like trillium and foxglove. Honeysuckle and Oregon Grape growing out of fallen trees. Gradually, the vegetation changed to a tropical jungle. Greenhouse floral smells. Water dripping everywhere. The further they pressed in, the darker it got. The canopy far overhead blocked out much of the light. The sounds changed as well. A cacophony of animal and bird sounds mixed with the hum of a billion insects.

"I don't like this place. It's growing more oppressive. I hate the feeling of being watched. How can you be so fucking relaxed?" Niamh's ears were flat with apprehension.

"You're picking up a subsonic warning song from a Dryad Clan," Quinn said. "Probably from the big bamboo grove over there. They don't like visitors. Their song has an odd beauty, but I admit it is an acquired taste. We'll be past them soon."

They continued that way for three hours, with Quinn occasionally stopping her and leading her in a large circle around whatever danger lay just ahead. Once it was to avoid a boggle band on the hunt. Another to avoid a grove of fruit trees covered in thousands of palm-sized spiders.

"How far have we come?"

"We've come three or so hours. You measure travel here in hours, not distance. Opari has an alien topography. Distance-wise we've traveled maybe half the length of a continent or more. You can see the change in foliage. If you get off the trails, you can get lost in a time loop. It happened to me a couple of times. It wasn't good.

"I don't think I want to hear any more of your interesting factoids," Niamh shuddered.

"Hold on a minute. There is no reason for them to be traveling this way and they certainly didn't need to bring Charlie along with them. This must be the Faerie seizing the moment for some entertainment--and I'm afraid Charlie is the subject."

"What are you talking about?"

"Faerie-kind entertain themselves with trickery. They sup on emotions. They store and share memories of the dark ones like desperation, despair, and death to sip on like a fine wine during the long boring nights of immortality."

"He knows we will be following. He's looking for a place to kill Charlie while we watch."

They pushed on, trying for as much speed as they could while keeping the trail in sight.

They found her a half-hour later. They pushed through some thick brush and stepped out onto a beach of sorts bordering an inland sea. A small island lay forty or so meters from shore.

Charlie was seated by a tree with knees drawn up to her chest. She looked lost, lonely, and terrified--but she was still alive.

The island was connected to the shore by a massive fallen tree.

Niamh jumped onto the tree preparing to cross over to the little girl.

"Hold up," Quinn ordered, "that tree is an illusion that will dump you into the water halfway there and you wouldn't like what would happen to you afterward."

She obeyed and padded silently over to where he stood. He couldn't take his eyes off Charlie. The thought of failing to get to her paralyzed him utterly. He had no solution that didn't look like a failure. The Faerie had boxed them neatly.

"What's wrong. Just swim across and get her. It's only thirty or forty yards away."

"This place is deadly. Undines dwell here. I came through here once before I was thirsty and stopped here for a quick drink. A mistake. Four of them lunged out of the water like Nile Crocodiles and pulled me in and drowned me. The Troll Women fished me out before they could eat me. A very unpleasant experience. Everything here is an illusion; like the log, the distance to the island is an illusion.

"Okay, well get your head out of your ass and think. I want to get out of here. There is always a way. You are the fucking Keeper for Mother's sake."

Quinn looked at her silently for five or six beats, then walked to the water's edge and slapped the surface of the beautiful clear green water three times.

Four humanoid creatures surfaced and swam to where he stood. They were female, obviously mammals, five-foot-long with mottled greenish-brown skin Their hair was moss green and hung short of pointed ears. Gill slits lined their throat. Huge yellow eyes watched him warily. Quinn thought they didn't look too far from the popular conception of mermaids, except for formidable shark-like triangular teeth.

The Matriarch sang, "The Faerie left us a boon, and now we have another. This smells like the human-boy who escaped."

Quinn's lips tightened and his eyes grew dark. "Mother, I have no wish to harm you or yours, but I will get to my sibling across the way."

The Undine's eyes took a sly glint.

"Would you do us a service for passage, O Keeper?"

"Within reason. What service."

"A Kraken has invaded our nursery. Kill it for us."

***

"They look like something out of a nightmare."

"Meet the Undines, not exactly the Little Mermaid, are they?" Quinn absently waved away the hordes of black flies and mosquitoes.

"I've struck a bargain with them. Stay here and wait. No matter what happens, stay here."

Before she could respond, he turned and walked along the shore twenty yards to a half-submerged jagged stump and started walking across the underwater causeway that they had built to separate their nursery from the rest of the sea. The water barely reached his ankles. If he stayed on the path, the Undines assured him, it would get no deeper.

He was halfway across when a monster from a nightmare rose out of the water and snatched him up with a tentacle as thick as his thigh. One minute he was pacing along the causeway, the next he was ten feet deep in the dark green water heading deeper.

At first, Quinn panicked. He well remembered the experience of drowning--then his training took over. He desperately loosed the dragon, seeking to cut the suckered tentacle that wrapped tight around his chest.

No use.

He changed tactics and attacked.

The Kraken would have ended him if it hadn't tried to stun him with magic. But the strike to its eye alarmed it, so it cast its rudimentary magic to stun him.

Quinn's runes flared sun-bright white. Shocked and blinded, the creature loosed its hold enough for Quinn to turn and guide the whip to shear through the eye and the skull that surrounded it. The creature convulsed and released him.

With his last remaining strength, he fought his way and surfaced gasping for air.

The Undine clan members swarmed by him, heading for the carcass. There would be feasting in their halls tonight. He pulled himself onto the causeway, waved to Niamh, and crossed to the little girl.

Charlie leaped into his arms as he bent over to pick her up. She buried her face in his neck and clung to him, sobbing as he crossed back to shore.

She flinched when she spotted the big leopard. "It's okay Charlie, it's my friend Niamh in her other form.

Quinn put Charlie down by her and walked to the water's edge and slapped the surface three times and sang a verse softly. Then walked to where they watched.

"What now? Why were you slapping and singing?"

"There is a water elemental that dwells in this sea. I apologized for our trespass. We don't need any more challenges. Now to deal with the fucking Faerie."

"Do you think he's still here?"

"Sure, he went to all this trouble, there is no way he wouldn't have stayed around to feed on our despair and death."

Quinn cupped his hands over his mouth and bellowed:

"Deldrach come here."

The volume of his song quieted the jungle noise.

Again, he sang out:

"Deldrach, I ask you twice, COME HERE. Do not make me ask you thrice."

Reached into the pouch in his pocket, slipped on the Lady's ring, and started flipping the other ring.

Up and down. Up and down.

At the sight of the ring, Niamh abruptly shifted back to human and reached for it. Quinn moved away. Both Niamh's and Charlie's eyes followed it hungrily.

"Soooo pretty, soooo pretty," Charley murmured. "Please, may I have it?"

"It's mine. I will have it." A slender, green-eyed boy appeared out of the underbrush. He waved his good hand. The two females froze in place.

Quinn continued flipping the ring. Up and down. Up and down.

"Give it to me and I will reward you with wealth and power, human." The arrogant sneer on his face belied his song, which was ineffably rich with promise.

Quinn loosed the dragon. It snapped out and encircled the faerie's neck. He pulled and brought it close. He put a hand on its shoulder and forced it to its knees.

"Faerie," Quinn's voice sang implacable justice. "I promised Lady Iris that I would not end you, but I will have vengeance for the old lady and her noble hound."

The faerie paid him no mind. His eyes, glazed with greed, were fixed on the ring as it went up and down. Raising and falling to Quinn's hand.

"So be it."

The dragon sheared off the faerie's good arm. Shocked, it turned its eyes to Quinn and screamed. Quinn deftly flipped the ring into its opened mouth and watched impassively as the shrieking faerie winked out of existence.

Quinn shrugged off the pain in his chest from the bruising caused by the Kraken's tentacles. There was still much to do.

"Niamh, would you shift back and cast around and see if you can pick up the trail? We'll wait here."

After thirty minutes or so she returned

"There is no trail to follow."

"No surprise there. The Hag must have spelled them out."

"Charlie," Quinn spoke out loud, "do you remember anything that might help us find where they were headed?"

Quinn was impressed by the little girl's toughness. Her face was tear-streaked and her clothing ripped and muddy but she was lucid and seemed to be recovering although she still clung to him like she was never going to let go.

"I don't remember very much until I woke up in that swamp place. But Aunt Charity kept complaining about the jungle and that the druid was expecting her soon.

"Oh Sweet Mother, Niamh, I am an idiot. I know exactly where they're headed, Let's head back and get this little girl back to her mom."

Chapter Forty

The search into the Opari had helped Quinn keep a lid on the overwhelming anxiety and fear that had threatened to overwhelm him ever since Suzi had called him about the girls' disappearance. Now it flared anew as they drove along to the old man's cabin. He had no idea what they would find there. His training has accustomed him to fear. Fear was a tool he had been taught to use, but this was different and he had no clue how to handle it. He finally understood the warning Mr. MacLeish had given him about relationships. "He who has wife and children hath given hostages to fortune...".