Books – Page 11 – The Word Worker

The Frost Bubble

FB_IMG_1577495577958 Nevaeh blew through the wand, her breath white in the crisp air. I shivered, wishing I had taken the time to grab my coat before following Nevaeh out here. Despite skin the color of chalk and deep hollows in her cheeks she seemed unbothered by the cold.

Moving ever so slowly, she touched her bubble to the icy railing. The tiny feathers of ice that crept around it’s circumference seemed to be drawn from the chunk of ice filling my chest. They mirrored the blue lace of veins marking my daughter’s bare skull, the chill reminder of a fragile life.

Nevaeh laughed with innocent delight, for the moment forgetful of weakness. She clapped her hands and I wondered at the normal sound. I could almost have expected the clacking of bone, but not yet.

She stretched one finger to gently touch the feathery surface, only to see it crumble beneath her hand. Her sigh seemed to deflate her like the bubble, her strength gone like that of a frost fairy in spring. She wrapped her arms around herself and shuffled back inside as a single frost feather brushed my cheek.

The Aftermath

FB_IMG_1574886918099 I stared at the last piece of pie, barely seeing it. It had been on the plate in front of me long enough to be room temperature, and the dollop of whipping cream atop it was looking not quite so whipped anymore. Of course returning to Earth after a magical war would coincide with the Thanksgiving holiday.

All the happy families around us in the restaurant left me sick to my stomach. They had no idea what had just happened; they couldn’t feel the magic exploding from the collapsing barrier. I glanced over at Dagda, sitting across the table picking at his own pie with a pained expression. Brigid sat next to him, head down, eyes gazing into nothing. Casual passersby would probably just assume we were a dysfunctional family trying to make it through the holiday. If only that were true.

They would know soon enough. The worlds were uniting once again, just as had been prophesied. None of us had quite realized what that would mean. Fae peoples were being scattered around the globe in fits and spurts, in some cases plunged into a world of which they knew nothing, in others their own homes displacing Earth structures. Within an hour or two word of the increasing chaos would reach even the most oblivious of celebrators.

Suddenly furious, I snatched up my fork and plunged it viciously into the center of the slice of pie, smattering cream onto the tablecloth. My companions both started, their expressions deepening into worry. “It isn’t fair!” I snarled. “Is this what we fought Dracul for? To replace one chaos with another?” I shoved my chair back with enough force to rattle the glasses on the table and draw mildly curious glances from nearby diners, and stood up. “I hate magic! I hate it!”

I stalked away, my vision blurring. I took a deep breath. The last thing we needed now was for me to lose control. There was no telling what power would ignite before magic found its place here. Balhon and Kizi were waiting in the city park, unnoticed in the trees. That was where I needed to be. Their strength and hope would calm me. Maybe.

Dragon’s Ruin

FB_IMG_1572903609411 She crouched motionless at the parapet, wondering if the army could even see her from the mainland. The scale of this place was almost beyond belief. She could feel the deep warmth of the setting sun on her face, but closed her eyes in determined effort to resist turning towards it. Absolute stillness, she had been warned; the slightest movement could be her undoing.

A sound like leather being shaken out deafened her, and a hurricane force gust nearly dislodged her from her post. Her eyes snapped open, her heart pounding while at the same time blood seemed to drain from her head. The creature rising from beneath the ruin on the opposite spire dwarfed even the palace upon which she knelt. She saw her full reflection in the pupil of its amber eye as the beast passed her. As another and another followed the first and circled above the gate, she knew that it was time.

She slowly rose to her feet and spread her arms wide. The first dragon whipped around, attracted by the movement, it’s fearsome jaws widening in the feral grin of the predator. She clenched her jaw, forcing down the panic threatening to overwhelm her, and tilted her chin with determined focus. This time she was aware. This time she was in control.

A heat bubbled through her like magma rising to the mouth of a volcano, ripping a scream from her tortured throat. But it was no scream as it escaped powerful jaws in a stream of liquid fire. She spread black wings that hid the fire of the sunset and rose into the air with a force that crumbled the parapet upon which she had stood.

The dragons echoed her roar, circling warily. The first of them emitted his own fire, almost white in its heat. Her challenge was accepted; she only hoped she was strong enough to win. If she wasn’t… but there was no more time for hoping.

The Mor-Rhiogain

FB_IMG_1571453145156 Babh waited under the black branches of the dead oak. She preened her dark feathers in satisfaction at the fear she sensed from the forest denizens. In the shadows of the night, all that could be seen of her were her eyes, glowing flame red.

The harvest moon rose high above the castle she watched, bathing its white towers in soft light. Her claws curled, scraping unpleasantly against the stone upon which she perched. The light would save no one tonight. Soon, her sisters would return and her vigil would end.

As she gleefully imagined the coming reunion, the mist rose from the river below. Thick, like the hated smoke from the castle kitchens, it billowed up the sides of the mountain. When it reached the causeway, her sisters would call, and she would answer.

Macha and Anann appeared black against the mist, their wings morphing into long arms tipped with bloodred nails, dark hair flying around pale faces in the windless night. Babh spread her own wings and rose into the moonlight, her screech of joy freezing the blood of the humans awaiting their fate.

She heard their cries, tasted their terror, as her feathers lengthened and knit together, her power calling the mist to her as a great dragon covering her victims with its mighty wings. She opened her mouth as her sisters strode purposefully to the gate, their hands outstretched for blood. Her bain sidh wail echoed from the walls and shattered the gates.

The mist shattered with them, and an army of shadows descended upon the one who despised the Mor-Rhiogain. Driven by the bain sidh, the dead would collect, unhindered by sword or spear. Babh would have her revenge, and her sisters would feast upon the blood.

The Mor-Rhiogain had returned.

The Reflection

FB_IMG_1570588551040 Midnight in the wood. Everyone said if you went to the wood at midnight you would see your true self in the mist. It was a stupid legend, fit to entertain highschoolers and frighten children. Yet here he was.

If it weren’t for the strangeness of the last few days, he would never have even considered coming. The October chill was bone biting under the trees, and he hated hiking. But things had happened. Things that could not be ignored. Even chasing a stupid story was better than that.

He stamped his feet and shoved his numb hands deeper into his coat pockets. Mist rose from the rotting loam inder his feet, enveloping him with suffocating speed. He gasped for air, only to realize that he hadn’t been suffocating at all, merely holding his breath. His eyes darted from one side to the other, and he swiveled nervously, his rapid breathing creating temporary pockets in the mist.

A blinding light brought his hand to his eyes, a shield against the pain. A shadow rushed across the light, and he squinted through his fingers, his heart pounding, trying to discern the threat. His eyes widened as an impossibly large hand, the mirror image of his own, parted the mist. Another joined it, lifting into the light without being illuminated by it. Shaking, he followed the second hand as it rose above a faceless head.

The shadow giant stood facing him, seemingly frozen, and he let out a sharp chuckle at his own gullibility. Just a play of light and shadows, someone playing a long standing joke on the town, no doubt. At the sound of his voice, two eyes snapped open in the shadow head, freezing his breath in his lungs. Their glowing pinpoints burned whitehot into his brain. He didn’t even hear his own scream.

They found him the next morning, stiff and frozen, eyes staring in horror with the image of the shadow etched into his eyes.

FB_IMG_1569933605615 Strange sounds disturbed the silence of her slumber. The rock trembled in rhythm with a thrumming roar. The air around her grew warm, and she stirred irritably, comfort destroyed.

The roaring finally ceased, and as the accompanying heat dissipated she relaxed and drifted back into slumber until new sounds startled her awake once again. Sharp taps grew in frequency and intensity, fevering her brain like water dripping from a stalactite. She shifted again and again, trying to block out the tapping, but it was joined by an unrhythmic metallic banging that jolted her consciousness intolerably.

The thrumming returned, but only briefly, as something sharp penetrated the wall and struck her hip. She jerked away from the painful intrusion, whirling to face the pinprick of light that appeared as the sharp tip was withdrawn. Other sounds reached her ears through the light, these maddeningly familiar. The shouts of men penetrated her memories, stirring her belly with hate and resentment.

She moved rapidly, fury giving strength to muscles long unused. Her head shattered the thin wall separating her from intruders. The pitch of the shouts rose satisfyingly, and she could see figures running toward a bright white archway at the far end of a carefully crafted tunnel. Her jaws parted in a feral grin; their fear could not save them. She heard their screams as liquid fire turned the walls of their tunnel to glass, smelled the satisfying scent of fresh meat as their cries gurgled into silence.

Her belly rumbled with a different need, and she salivated. The now steaming air stimulated her, and the urge to spread her wings drove her toward the white archway. She burst from darkness into light, her roar shattering glass, her wings darkening the sky. She would rule again.

The Time Cottage

It was the strangest hodgepodge of a house Jax had ever seen. The solid plank tower butting up against the back wall looked oddly out of place against the cobblestone and steeply pitched shingles. Placed where it was in the spray of a waterfall that seemed to feed nothing, it looked as if someone had snatched random bits from across time and space and pasted them together in homage to time itself.

The impression grew even stronger as the door opened and the occupant appeared. She was a wizened old woman, with incongruently red straggling strands of hair escaping a bonnet starched stiffer than the Magistrate. Her feet were clad in solid leather work boots, while a patchwork cloak barely hid a gown fit for the ballroom.

This dizzying figure rushed toward Jax, grinning widely. “Why, there you are!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him with a disconcerting familiarity that he was too thunderstruck to resist. “I was beginning to think you had lost your way and would never arrive after all!”

She released him only to grab his arms and hold him at arms length, surveying him with the critical eye of an aging aunt or fussing grandmother. “Well now, you could use some meat on your bones, but I can see there’s something going on behind that open mouth and those wide eyes. Yes, you’ll do.”

In an instant everything vanished, the house, waterfall, and woman together. Jax was left standing on the empty moor, staring into space like a daydreaming child, blinking in bewilderment. Feeling dazed, he turned around and headed back to the city as fast as his legs would take him, eager for the comfort of familiar surroundings. But as he topped a hill he stopped so suddenly he nearly lost his balance. The city was gone. FB_IMG_1569700668713