Chapter 1
The first item on the list simply said faux human. While
investigating the death of Albrecht Fulton, Jamie’s great uncle and former
Keeper of the Crossroads, he had come across a goblin like creature wearing a
skin suit that made him appear to be human.
He had run from the house, upon learning that Jamie had not died in the
night as expected and once tracked down was found dead, his human skin split
open to reveal a goblin with clan markings no one had seen before.
None of the goblin tribes would admit to recognizing either him
or the tribal markings. Later Jamie and Del, his brownie housekeeper, had come
across a lab of sorts in one of the abandoned out buildings left from the days
when the house had functioned more as a farm.
The lab contained a vat where they suspected the human suit was grown.
The contents were still being analyzed.
Currently Jamie was trying to figure out where to start his
investigations. The information he knew about goblins amounted to, green with
scales and not fond of sunlight. The amount he knew about vats where a human
suit could be grown amounted to even less.
“Or maybe that’s trolls,” Jamie said to himself. Jamie shook his head. “Apparently general goblin information
wouldn’t be a bad idea.” He wasn’t quite sure if the library contained a book
on goblins. He picked up a pen and scrawled
‘look into goblins’ as a notation under the faux human heading. He added ‘chemical components’ underneath
that.
The High Talbot who acted as the clearing house for those of
the Fae who wanted to work on the human side of the crossroads had promised to
deliver the list of ingredients from the vat as well as a list of folks who had
applied for permits for any of the chemicals used.
Jamie did not know if any of the chemicals were common or if
they were special. He had mental visions
of questioning thousands of research scientists and then found himself
wondering if the Fae had research scientists or Universities or large scale
pharmaceutical facilities. Images of fae
wearing taped up glasses and pocket protectors danced through his mind. The
thought made his head hurt.
“Besides,” he said. “I would rather not start out with
accusatory interviews.” Jamie tapped his pencil on the notepad, the eraser
making a slightly hollow sound as it thumped down. Below the mentioned chemicals, Jamie scrawled
first ‘Fairy Queen’ and then ‘Levas’.
Jamie leaned back feeling rather proud of himself for his
list. The fairy Queen, Genivia by name, had given him the information leading
him to the abandoned lab in the first place.
Although he had also found evidence of the Brotherhood of Shadows on
that visit to the woods and he thought that might be what she had wanted him to
see. In an effort to overthrow Queen Genivia’s rule, a rebel faction had sided
with the Brotherhood and tried to kidnap Jamie.
He had escaped and the Queen’s forces triumphed. He wondered if that cut him some leeway with
the Queen.
“I doubt I could summon her to an interview,” Jamie
mused. Somehow summoning royalty didn’t
seem like something that would go over well. He imagined there would be a
raised eyebrow and dismissive laughter.
“Maybe I could invite her to tea?” He thought that might be
a better plan anyway as she had taken great pains to hide the fact that she had
given him the information about the woods in the first place. Jamie scrawled ‘tea’ next to queen.
Levas might be a different matter. When Albe died, he left Jamie the position of
Keeper and a book that resembled a field guide to the world of the Fae. One of the drawings in the book was for a
tomte or nisse named Levas who had once worked on the property when it was a
working farm. When Jamie took up
residency in the house one of the calling cards left behind was from
Levas. With all of the activity that
followed, Jamie had little time for social niceties.
“House,” Jamie said aloud, addressing the somewhat sentient building around him.
“Yes Keeper,” Came the reply. As always the voice was strangely androgynous
with a slight wisp of an English accent around the edges.
“There was a calling card left by Levas. It had only his name, but no contact
information. Do you know how to contact
him? Or really any of the people on the cards?”
Unlike business cards, calling cards held only names and not contact information.
“Yes Keeper,” Came the reply.
“How would I contact them,” Jamie asked realizing he had not
expressed the full question. House had
the tendency to take questions at face value and not expand until prompted.
“You would ask me to send a message.” House said.
“Ah,” Jamie said.
“Would I have to write them down, like when I ordered books or would
this be like when you sent a message to the High Talbot requesting a meeting?”
“That would depend,” House replied. “Are you inviting them to a specific event or
not? A specific event requires an
invitation.”
“I don’t have a specific event in mind,” Jamie said. “I would just like to speak to each of
them. Over tea perhaps.”
“Should I send a message asking when they might be available
to join you for tea?”
“Yes,” Jamie replied.
“Separately, though, not together.
I don’t want them all at the same tea.” He had visions of a grand tea
party orchestrated by House with him as the Mad Hatter and shook his head.
“Yes Keeper,” House replied.
“Thank you.” Jamie
felt pleased, as though he had actually started to make some progress. He
decided to move on to the second bullet point. It was simply labeled Michael.
Jamie frowned. Michael was his brother, or that is what he had grown up
believing. Step-brother would be a more
accurate term as his older brother had been around two and he had been a babe
in arms when Jamie’s father Rudy had married Bella. Jamie scrawled the word
Mother under the heading. Jamie had
always believed that Bella was his mother and had never been given any reason
to doubt that. There were no pictures of
another woman or paperwork saying otherwise.
“Did she die?” he wondered. Perhaps she had just walked
away. Jamie didn’t know enough to begin asking.
Rudy had been close to Albe as well and Jamie wondered if any of the old
man’s journals mentioned Jamie’s mother.
So far he had searched through the older journals located in the house,
but had not scanned the more recent ones that Albe left behind. Somehow it felt more like snooping than
research. Jamie put journals on the list next to mother.
“Of course that’s not the big issue,” Jamie told
himself. While finding out about his
mother was something he thought important.
Michael was still the main issue.
A while back Michael had tried to break into the house. He wanted to sell the land to developers and
Bella wanted to sell the contents of the house to the highest bidder. They each had dollar signs in their eyes and
had taken Jamie’s refusal to sell with ill grace.
On one of Michael’s solo trips, he had been bitten or
scratched by something and now seemed irresistibly drawn to the property. Jamie had found him wandering the woods in a
daze shortly before Albe’s funeral as though something had called him
there. Jamie wrote video footage on the
list. Several of Michael’s arrivals at
the gate had been filmed and while they hadn’t yielded much information before,
he thought another look couldn’t hurt.
Jamie tapped his pencil on the tablet and decided to move
on. He wasn’t sure what to add to the
list and dealing with Michael was never really high on his list of priorities.
“Perhaps it will go away on its own,” Jamie suggested. He didn’t have much hope for that outcome,
but at the same time still couldn’t think of what else to add.
Moving down the list Jamie came to the next bullet
point. “Other Keepers,” Jamie read
aloud. He had recently found out that he
was not the only Keeper of the Crossroads.
There was apparently an entire world wide network to watch over the
interaction between the world of the humans and the world of the Fae. The Crossroads were where the two worlds
intersected and where people could pass from one to the other.
While Jamie was glad he was not the only Keeper and the only
thing stopping a bad interaction from occurring; He had never met the others
and was curious to do so. He knew that
the Keepers occasionally interacted and he thought the sharing of information
might be a good thing. He had even found
an object listed in the inventory as a visilore that was supposed to facilitate
communication with the other Keepers. Thus far he had been unable to get it to
work.
“It would be nice just to know I’m not alone in this.” He shook
the thought away and turned back to his list. Before Jamie could add anything
more to his list Del, his housekeeper stepped into the doorway. The small man stood about chest high to Jamie,
but as Jamie had found out, he was incredibly strong. He had curly brown hair and a tanned and
somewhat leathery face. His cheeks were
often apple red.
Del normally dressed in a plain pair of brown canvas pants
and an off white linen-like shirt that Jamie was fairly certain was called
homespun. When traveling the brownie
liked to dress nicely and had an eye popping purple suit complete with purple
snake skin shoes and a large brim purple hat with a long trailing feather. That combined with the fact that Del was
actual short for Delta Harmony, the name he had chosen to be called by humans
always made Jamie smile. Tonight Del was wearing his plain brown working
clothes.
“Please excuse the interruption, but Burr Alverson has just
popped in to see you,” Del said.
“Oh,” Jamie replied, pushing to his feet and running a hand
through his hair. “Please show him into the parlor and let him know I will be
right down. Offer him refreshments or
something.” Del smiled and gave a half
nod as he turned and went back downstairs.
Jamie knew that Del held Burr in the highest regard and
would do whatever was proper. Jamie
wondered where he had kicked off his shoes.
There was a hole coming out in the toe of his right sock and Jamie
didn’t think that set the right level of appropriateness. Jamie found his shoes lurking by the
fireplace and remembered he had kicked them off there the night before while
reading. He sat in his fireside reading
chair and began to put them on.
In the parlor, Jamie found Del wheeling a tea cart in front
of the seating area. How he had managed
to assemble a teapot full of piping hot tea and several plates of assorted
sandwiches and pastries was a mystery that Jamie figured involved some aspect
of brownie magic. In his short time as Keeper, he had learned that questioning
things like that was not a good idea.
“Good evening,” Jamie said entering the room. Burr started
to rise, but Jamie waved him back into his seat. “This is a nice
surprise.” Jamie took the available seat
as Del poured two cups of tea and handed one to Burr and one to Jamie. Until taking up residency at the House of the
Keeper, Jamie had thought of tea as something to be given to sick people
propped up in bed with runny noses. In
the few weeks he had come to live here, Jamie had managed to consume more of
the stuff than he had in his entire lifetime.
He couldn’t say he was developing a fondness for it, but he had to admit
it was nice to be holding a cup of something warm while the November wind
howled around the house and through the woods.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Jamie asked. Burr smiled.
“I thought that as things have settled down a bit I might
have another look around to make sure everything is functioning properly.”
Jamie nodded.
“Of course,” he said.
Jamie glanced towards one of the windows. While the sky was gray and looked like it
wanted to become night soon, there was still a little daylight left. “Would you
like to look before it becomes dark?”
“That would be best,” Burr said. He downed his tea in one long drought and
picked up a sandwich. The small triangle
disappeared in three bites and Jamie smiled. Burr had drunk and eaten of the
offerings of Jamie’s table and by Fae custom could not offer him any harm while
on the premises. It was a custom Jamie appreciated, and the reason for his
consumption of so much tea. Jamie took a
healthy swig of his own tea but was unable to get the hot liquid down as well
as Burr had. He set the half empty cup
down.
“Where would you like to start?” Jamie asked.
“Outside first, before the light fails, and then to the
basement, I think that should cover it.” Burr replied. Both men stood and Del retrieved their coats
for them. Jamie slipped the warm garment
over his shoulders and shoved his arms in the sleeves. He led Burr back to the front door and they
stepped out onto the porch.
From there Jamie followed as Burr poked and prodded first
the defensive perimeter and then the foundation of the house. Jamie saw runes light up and fade away as
Burr worked. They flared a blue-ish
color and then faded back to black lines carved into the stone on which they
were placed. Some of the stones were
placed in the yard, near the perimeter and others were a part of House’s
foundation.
“Is the blue good?” Jamie asked. Burr looked at him, somewhat startled by the
question. Despite the coat, Jamie’s ears
were getting cold and he wished he had grabbed a hat before leaving the
house. “Sorry I didn’t mean to
interrupt.”
“Oh no, that’s not it,” Burr said, “It’s just that most
folks can’t see them at all.” Burr
pointed to a rune carved on one of the foundation stones. “What do you see there?”
“It’s a symbol carved in the rock and stained black,” Jamie
replied. “Do you want me to describe its
shape?”
“No, I don’t think that will be necessary.” Burr turned back to the stone and made
movements with his hands as though conducting an orchestra. There was a low humming sound and then the
symbol flared blue and appeared to float off of the stone. “And now what do you
see?” Jamie told him and asked about the
humming.
“Interesting,” Burr said.
He gestured towards the stone and the symbol faded back to black. “That
was the last of the outside ones,” he told Jamie. “We ought to get inside and check the others,
but I think they should be fine.” They
turned and started walking back to the front door. The light had faded and shadows covered the
world. The woods were a dark blur.
“Yes, the blue is a good color,” Burr said, answering
Jamie’s original question. “It’s when they glow red or don’t glow at all that
you have to worry.”
“Okay,” Jamie said.
He followed Burr back inside and they went to the basement. The basement
had been part of the previous house and Jamie found that when he spoke inside
the basement, his voice triggered the former House’s memories and he was
treated to a recorded event that had taken place inside. The basement seemed to be waiting for him to
speak. It was not as insistent as it had
been the last time, but Jamie did not want to risk seeing anything tonight. Watching centuries old events take place
before his eyes was one thing and he didn’t mind sharing them with Del as he
fully trusted the little man. But Burr
was an outsider and as much as he trusted him, Jamie found there was a limit to
that trust.
Burr checked the similar runic markings placed throughout
the basement. Each one flared blue and
Burr seemed satisfied. Jamie kept quiet
while he worked. If Burr noticed the
waiting tension, he made no comment.
Jamie wondered if he could. Del
certainly hadn’t been able to feel it.
Finally, Burr was satisfied and the two of them left the
basement. Jamie locked the door behind
them and led Burr back to the parlor.
Del once again took their coats and Jamie was pleased to see that
despite the two hours it had taken to search the perimeter and both the
exterior and interior of the foundation, the tea was still piping hot. Jamie poured Burr a cup and the architect
took it gratefully. Jamie poured his own
mug and felt the warmth sinking into the bones of his fingers. He sighed as his body warmed.
“I am pleased that nothing has disturbed the protections
placed on the house,” Burr said. He reached for a triangle of sandwich. This
time he ate it slowly since he was not trying to prove his worthiness quickly.
Jamie reached for his own sandwich.
“That is very good to hear,” he replied. As the last time the protections were
compromised a large boulder had fallen from the ceiling and crushed Albe’s bed
to splinters, Jamie was relieved on multiple levels. He still couldn’t bring himself to move into
the room that he still thought of as Albe’s but he didn’t think anyone needed
to know that. They ate in silence for a few moments.
“Tell me,” You don’t happen to know anything about visilores
do you?” Jamie asked, realizing Burr might just be the person to get his
working. Burr frowned.
“Visilores? Sounds familiar but I can’t quite place it.”
“They are supposed to allow Keepers to talk to each other.”
“Oh,” Burr said nodding. “I have heard of something like
that, but it is human magic, not Fae.”
“Oh,” Jamie said with a frown. “I can’t seem to get it to work.”
“Hmmm,” Burr said thoughtfully as he sipped his tea. “Did you try to communicate with someone or
did you try moving through it?”
“I didn’t know you could move through it,” Jamie said with
surprise. “I just tried to use it like a
telephone.”
Burr chuckled. “But even a telephone requires that there be
a phone on the other end for someone to pick up. The visilore at the location you were trying
to reach could be broken or inactive or lost to time. These things happen. As I understand it they
are designed in such a way as to let you step through them so that you could go
to the other Keeper’s house even if they do not have a visilore that is
active.”
“Really?” Jamie said.
“That would be handy.” Burr
appeared to be in thought.
“There was a book…” Burr said thoughtfully. His voice
faltered as he thought and then he shook his head. “After a few hundred years of life, things
start to blur in the memory,” He told Jamie.
“Let’s see, the title had the words Distance and Communication in it,
but I can’t remember what else. It was
one of those long and overly pretentious titles. Rather like the author. Hmmm.”
Burr drifted into thought again for a few minutes while Jamie sipped his
tea. His ears were starting to warm up
and they felt itchy. Since he normally
couldn’t feel his ears it was an odd sensation and he resisted the urge to rub
them.
“Reginald Foster Huffington IV,” Burr pronounced
finally. “That was his name. Can you imagine four people stuck with that
name? Humans are such odd creatures sometimes.”
Jamie smiled. He
supposed that to people who lived for several hundreds of years without aging a
day once they hit adulthood, the concept of passing down a name would seem very
peculiar.
“If it’s any help, I doubt all four of them were ever in the
same room,” Jamie told him.
“I certainly hope not,” Burr told him. Burr finished his tea and stood. “I had best
get going. Snow is on the way and I’d
like to get home before it starts to fall.”
“Of course,” Jamie said.
“And thank you for checking on House for me.” Burr slid back into the coat Del brought him.
“Can’t have the Keeper’s house on the fritz,” he said as he
opened the front door. “What would
people think? I’ve got a reputation to
uphold you know.”
“Of course,” Jamie said with a smile, knowing how personally
Del took the tampering. “Have a good
night and a safe journey home.” Burr
left and Jamie closed the door behind him.
“Reginald Foster Huffington IV,” Jamie repeated to
himself. “I wonder if your book is on my
shelves.” Jamie decided it might be a
good idea to look.
1 comment:
Love this story. More, more, more!
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