Charles de Lint - Forests of the Heart

“So what have you done with him?” he asked.

“Nothing. He’s under her protection.”

“Her?”

“An dealbhóir. The sculptor.”

“Ah.”

None of this made sense. What was Ellie doing with Hunter when she was supposed to be out in the van with Tommy? And then there was Hunter himself, killing one of the Gentry. Jaysus, Mary, and Joseph. How was that possible? A few days ago Hunter had been incapacitated by a simple sucker punch, and now he was killing Gentry?

“So now what will you do?” Donal asked the hard man.

He shrugged. “We’re thinking on it.”

They were cunning, these hard men, capable of putting together plots of Machiavellian complexity, but not particularly bright, for all that. The thinking could take a long time, so maybe Hunter had a chance. If he traveled fast and far enough.

“Well, I’m off,” the hard man told him. “There’s a thought an dealbhóir might be reconsidering her bargain.”

That made Donal snap to attention.

“She wouldn’t,” he assured the man.

Jaysus, she’d better not, or he’d be left without a bargain himself.

“Then why’s she heading north?” the hard man asked. “Into the mountains where the enemy lives?”

“There’s some reasonable explanation.”

The hard man shrugged. “I suppose we’ll find out. The others are already on their way. We’ll follow and see who she meets, and if it goes badly…” He ran a finger across his throat. “We can find another.”

“You won’t have to.”

The hard man gave another shrug. “We can be patient.”

“But to be so close.”

“Aye, there’s the rub. You ask me, we’ve been listening too much to the old hag in her cabin. Since when did we need a mask to have our way? Why rule, when you can simply kill?”

“Because there’s so many of them. A Green Man can run them off the land like lemmings over a cliff.”

The hard man spat. “I don’t like it.”

As he started to walk away, Donal called after him: “Do you mind if I hang about awhile? Stay dry while I’m waiting for Ellie to come back?”

He knew they didn’t like anyone messing about in their territory and if this between wasn’t, then what was?

“Might be a long wait,” the hard man told him. “And what happened to the fucking beautiful night you were telling me about?”

“Lost its charm with your cheery news.”

The hard man laughed. “Do what you want. But watch out for the shadow. The little shite’s been sniffing around again tonight.”

Donal had yet to fully understand what the shadow was, and why the Gentry didn’t simply get rid of him if he bothered them so.

“I’ll be careful,” he said.

“Like I give a fuck,” the hard man told him.

Donal watched him slip away under the trees until he was lost from sight. The smile on his face disappeared and he turned back to look at the house. It wasn’t quick he wanted them to die, but slow. Let them remember every cold word and disdainful smirk they’d given him.

He slid down, back against a tree, and sat on the ground, dry here, in the between, tufts of dried grass cushioning his rear.

Don’t mess this up one me, Ellie, he thought.

He’d wait here until morning, then go round by the house whether she was back or not. Worm his way inside, look around. That Spanish woman fancied him, no matter what Ellie thought. She’d be his ticket.

Because he had his own ideas about how necessary a new mask was. The old one had belonged to a hundred Kings in the Wood in its time, bestowing a Green Man’s mantle on them all. Who was to say it wasn’t potent enough for one more change on its own, just as it was? The Gentry couldn’t know. It needed a mortal man to work its enchantment, and they were anything but.

Still, they could die by a mortal’s hand. Hunter had proved that much. Truth was, he hadn’t been so sure, for all his brave words to Hunter.

He shook his head, still surprised. Jaysus. Hunter killing a man. Who’d have thought he’d find the balls?

Been hanging around with me too much, he thought with a grin. A little bit of courage had to have worn off on him.

Once Tommy agreed to drive up to the rez, Ellie didn’t want to waste any time, decision made, let’s do it. But it wasn’t that simple. For one thing, the van would never make it, not unless they had it towed up there by some treaded behemoth like a front-end loader. So after they cleared off the windshield yet again, Tommy drove them back to Grasso Street where they could swap the van for his pickup. While he and Hunter transferred what they needed from the van to Tommy’s truck—more warm clothes, blankets, candles, and the like, which the residents of the rez might be needing about now—she went inside to replenish their supplies and check in with Angel.

The office was deserted, but there was a note from Angel on the desk addressed to all of the volunteers saying that they should call it a night.

“Okay, it’s a night,” Ellie muttered as she continued to read.

Angel herself was working with a couple of the local churches, prepping basements and meeting halls for shelters in case they were needed and anyone was welcome to come down and help out, but the streets had become too treacherous for them to keep the vans out tonight.

Ellie felt a little guilty that they were taking off and abandoning Angel like this, but she didn’t see that they had any other choice. There were times when your personal life took over and if this didn’t count as one of them, then what did? Thank god she didn’t have to explain things to Angel—where would .she even have begun? Considering how little patience Angel had for Jllly s stories, it would have been a tough sell.

Happily, all she had to do was scrawl a note at the bottom of Angel’s, letting her know that they’d brought the van back and were safe. She chewed on the end of the pen for a moment, wondering if she should add that they were going up to the rez, then decided that it would only give Angel something to worry about. And what if the Gentry came by and read it? That’d be all they’d need, to have those guys realize that she was backing out of whatever deal they thought she’d made with them. Better the three of them just lost themselves up on the rez and hope that Tommy’s aunts could sort something out for them.

That made her stop and think. How easy was it to hide from creatures such as the Gentry? They seemed to have their own, and fairly effective, ways of finding people if tonight was any indication. Still, why make things any easier for them?

She refilled a couple of their coffee urns, packed some paper bags with sandwiches, doughnuts, and muffins, and headed back out behind the office where Tommy and Hunter were waiting for her.

“What did Angel say?” Tommy asked as she climbed in the passenger’s side of the pickup.

Hunter got in after her and closed the door.

“She wasn’t there,” Ellie said. “They’re off getting some of the churches ready in case they’re needed for shelters.”

Tommy nodded. “Smart. That’s Angel—always thinking ahead.”

He put the truck in gear and pulled out. The rear end fishtailed a little, but not nearly as badly as the van had. Tommy shot his passengers a grin.

“Let’s hear it for studded tires and four-wheel drive,” he said.

The trip out of town was slow, but uneventful. There were power lines down now, with blocks of darkened buildings and the occasional unpassable street as a result. Work crews were everywhere, hydro as well as city, cutting branches, dealing with the live wires, clearing streets of debris. And still the freezing rain came down, only a drizzle at this point, but no less dangerous for that. It wasn’t until they reached the north end of the city, where Williamson Street turns into Highway 5, that they were waved over to the side of the road by a police officer. He left his car and approached the truck, his slicker glistening with rain and ice.