Chapter 10
Jamie found himself unable to settle. He tried reading more
about human magic. He felt his mind
drifting and picked up a book that dealt primarily with the role of the Keepers
of the Crossroads. While the information
was interesting and gave him a great deal of insight into how the system was
supposed to function, nothing was mentioned about the fall of a Keeper’s
House. It was with a great deal of
relief that Jamie realized it was close to dinner time and he gratefully
stepped away from the books.
“I’ll have to let Del know about tomorrow’s schedule
anyway,” he consoled himself as he realized he was going to have quite a busy
day. He wiggled his socked feet. “I may even have to wear shoes all day long.”
Jamie made his way down to the kitchen and Del lifted an
eyebrow in surprise at his arrival. “You’re down early,” Del commented as he
stirred a pot.
“I needed a break and wanted to talk to you about tomorrow,”
Jamie replied, keeping his primary concerns to himself.
“And what is tomorrow?” Del asked.
“Well I start off with a meeting with a tomte named Levas,”
Jamie began. “He said mid morning.”
Del chuckled. “If he
is like every other tomte I’ve met mid morning means he will be here no later
than nine, possibly eight thirty.”
“Really?” Jamie said startled. He had envisioned racing from
his meeting with Levas to his lunch with Jim.
“Tomtes tend to be up just before the dawn and go to bed
just before dusk,” Del explained. “They
dislike changing their schedule and think that eight or nine in the morning qualifies
as late enough.”
“Well in my case it actually works out better,” Jamie
said. “I’m supposed to meet Jim for lunch
in town to discuss a few things.”
“So you won’t be here for lunch then?” Del asked. His eyes
narrowed. “You aren’t going to get one
of those frozen things you had stashed in the freezer when I got here are you?”
Jamie smiled remembering Del’s horror after reading the
nutrition labels of his emergency frozen dinners. “No we will be eating real
food,” he assured the suspicious brownie. “After which I will be returning here
to have my meeting with Queen Genevia.” Jamie thought of the one actual suit he
had bothered to bring with him when moving to Albe’s house. “I suppose I’ll
have to change.”
“That would be advisable,” Del said with a snort of
laughter. “Fairies have very sensitive dispositions.”
“Well the only ones I’ve dealt with have been either
bringing me a message at night or trying to kidnap me,” Jamie thought about it
a moment. “Oh and there was one when Albe was training me who tried to poke my
eyes out with a toothpick sized sword. How bad could tea be?”
Del smiled. “You
might prefer the sword after tomorrow’s tea,” Del warned. He began dishing out a tick rich stew into
bowls and after placing them on the table pulled several small loaves of
freshly baked bread from the oven. As always, Jamie found his mouth watering as
he inhaled the scents of Del’s cooking.
As most anything Jamie attempted to cook came prepackaged and involved
the microwave to make presentable, Jamie didn’t know if Del’s cooking was the
result of culinary skill or brownie magic. After the first few bites he decided
it didn’t really matter. He would just
be thankful that Del had agreed to stay on after realizing that a Keeper’s
House was not exactly the most quiet of environs.
Once fed Jamie returned to the study determined to focus on
one topic and possibly actually find an answer to one of his questions. “I just
have to pick the right question,” he decided as he looked over his now expanded
list of bullet pointed problems. Most of them had either reached the point
where he needed information from others or had taken on a maze like quality.
Somehow it seemed like more than just a few days since Albe’s funeral. After all how could his nice neat lists
become so tangled in such a short span of time. As he sat contemplating his
list, a beeping sound began to emanate from his desk drawer.
“What the…” He opened his drawer hoping that no one had
managed to plant some sort of bomb in his desk during dinner. Instead of a
bomb, he found a small plastic box with a red light blinking on and off in time
to the beeping coming from within. He
stared at it a moment before he realized what it was.
“The gate alarm,” he said, jumping from his chair. Jamie grabbed his discarded sneakers and
jammed his feet into them as he hop-stepped towards the door. He had them
mostly on and tied as he reached the stair case. He reached the main floor and grabbed his
jacket from the coat hook in the kitchen.
“What’s going on now?” Del asked, stepping into the doorway
leading from the kitchen to his personal quarters.
“Gate alarm, I think it’s Michael,” Jamie told him. Del
nodded grimly and grabbed his own coat from the hook.
“You weren’t thinking of going alone were you?” he asked,
the question coming off as more of a statement.
Jamie smiled, pleased to have Del along. “Of course not, that would be foolish.” The two of them slipped out of the kitchen
door and keeping to the edge of the long drive so as not to stand out in the
open space, they made their way to the gate as quickly as possible.
When they arrived at the gate, Michael’s car was parked on
the other side. There was no sign of
Michael. Jamie scanned the area while Del bent down to study the earth. As the
brownie motioned him to follow, Jamie wondered how he had managed to pick up
any sign of a trail in the dark. The two
moved quietly through the woods. Even
though Jamie had learned wood’s craft from Albe and had spent countless hours learning
how to move silently through the forest, beside Del he felt like a rampaging
elephant. The little man moved as silently as a shadow and Jamie was certain
that the winter bare bushes that snagged his clothes and scratched his skin
parted to allow Del passage.
Luckily the noise Jamie produced didn’t matter much. After a few minutes of travel, they could
hear someone blundering around with no care to keep quiet. They edged closer
and Del motioned him to stop. As they
stood still Jamie heard a voice muttering.
He easily recognized it as Michael and frowned as he listened.
“I know you’re here, you have to be here. Where else would
you be? There is no place else for you
to be, you have to be here,” the muttered ranting continued and it was clear
that Michael was searching for something. Michael stumbled in widening circles,
meandering back and forth, each moment he could not find what he was searching
for making him more frantic. His mutterings were beginning to sound like pleas
and finally Jamie couldn’t take it anymore.
He knew that there was no one coming to join Michael. Jamie tapped Del
on the shoulder and straightened out of his crouch. Del nodded and shifted
slightly to the side, braced in case of trouble.
“Michael, can I help you?” Jamie asked, keeping his voice
gentle. Michael spun, his eyes wide in
the moonlight. He snarled at Jamie.
“You can’t have it,” he yelled. “It’s mine.”
He charged Jamie, knocking him down and running back towards the gate.
“You all right?” Del asked. Jamie nodded and got up. The two of them ran after Michael. Jamie
heard Michael crashing through the undergrowth ahead and felt branches slap his
skin leaving stinging welts behind. This
time he was certain that the trees and bushes got out of Del’s way. He reminded
himself never to chase a fae through the woods. They reached the tree line and
spilled into the gravel drive.
Ahead, Jamie saw Michael run to the gate. He watched in
amazement at the speed of Michael’s run.
He thought the gate would slow him down but instead Michael grabbed the
top of the gate in one hand and vaulted over it as though he had spent a lifetime
training for the Olympics. Before he and Del could even reach the gate, Michael
was in his car and peeling away. Jamie stood panting at the gate as the dust settled
back down into the road bed.
“Well that was certainly different,” Jamie finally gasped.
Del nodded. “He was moving faster than I would have thought,”
Del agreed. He sighed. “Well there doesn’t
seem to be much else we can do at the moment. Why don’t we go back to the house
where it is warm. We can see to those
scratches of yours.” Jamie nodded and
the two began walking back to the house.
“There is no need to feel so smug,” Jamie said as he lifted
a hand cautiously to a stinging welt on his cheek. “I saw those trees move out of your way.”
Del laughed and shook his head. “Trees don’t move Keeper, everyone knows
that,” Del said, amusement glinting in his eyes.
“Sure they don’t,” Jamie said as he slowly caught his
breath. “They don’t move at all.”
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