Charles de Lint - Forests of the Heart

It wasn’t hard to peg Zulema as Sunday’s sister. She was a little taller, face not quite so broad, but the family resemblance was there. There was also a familiarity that she hadn’t sensed with Sunday.

“I feel like I’ve seen you before,” Ellie said as they were introduced.

“Probably at one of Angel’s benefits. Verity and I help out with them every year.”

Ellie nodded. “And around the office, too.” She turned to Tommy. “How come you never introduced me before?”

Tommy shrugged. “Didn’t think of it.”

More likely, Ellie thought, he’d just wanted to keep her off-balance, quoting them the way he did, but making her feel that they didn’t really exist. Tommy could drag a joke out way longer than anyone she knew.

Aunt Nancy sat in a rocker by the woodstove. Her features were Native, but with less family resemblance than the other two women shared. Her skin was dark, like coffee with just a dash of milk, and she had the blackest eyes Ellie had ever seen. They appeared to be all pupil, or at least the irises were so dark it made little difference. Though she was obviously much older than either of her sisters, Tommy’s description of formidable had been an apt one.

The shadows hung thick on the wall behind the old woman and for a moment they seemed to take on the shape of an enormous spider reaching out towards where Ellie, Hunter, and Tommy were standing. Ellie stifled a gasp and started to take a step backwards, but then one of the candles flickered, the shadows moved, and the spider was gone. The impression of a spider, Ellie told herself as Tommy and Hunter looked at her curiously.

Aunt Nancy gave her a toothy smile, then turned to Sunday.

“You had that much right,” she said. “Lots of medicine in this one. I’m not surprised the dog boys chose her.”

“I’m sorry?” Ellie said.

Aunt Nancy returned her attention to her. “Don’t be. You can’t be responsible for what others want from you.”

“No. That is, what did you mean about medicine and… dog boys?”

But she had a good idea without needing to be told. The medicine was what Sunday and Bettina had been talking about, some kind of magic that they insisted she had. The dog boys could only be these Gentry who thought she’d made some kind of bargain with them.

A flicker of humor touched Aunt Nancy’s dark eyes. “You don’t really need to be told, do you?”

“No,” Ellie said slowly. “I guess not.”

“Well, I could use a translation,” Hunter said.

Aunt Nancy’s gaze settled on him.

“I smell blood on you,” she said.

“He had a run-in with one of the Gentry,” Tommy said.

“Is that what those-who-came are calling themselves these days?” Aunt Nancy asked. “I hope you made him suffer.”

“Aunt Nancy’s not so enamored with these Irish manitou,” Tommy explained to the others. “Not to mention the Irish themselves.”

The older woman frowned at Tommy. “They didn’t make any friends by bringing the dog boys over on their ships.”

“You can’t blame the Gael for these Gentry,” Sunday said. “It’s not like we don’t have our own monsters.”

Zulema nodded. “Windigo. Mishipeshu.”

Aunt Nancy continued to frown, but nodded in grudging assent. Then she added, “Although our spirits don’t go looking to make trouble.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Zulema said. “I forgot. We’re all such innocents, we Kickaha and our manitou.”

It seemed to be an old argument. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence broken only by the crackle of the fire in the woodstove, then Sunday stood up.

“Sit,” she told Ellie and her companions. “Make yourself comfortable and I’ll put on some tea. Then you can tell us what brought you.”

Over tea and homemade corn biscuits, they related everything that happened to them so far. Most of the telling was left up to Ellie, though Hunter filled her story in with his own experiences and what he’d learned from Miki. Towards the end, Ellie kept having to stifle yawns. The combination of the herb tea, the long night’s drive, and the smoky warmth of the room was making her drowsy.

“We can help you,” Sunday said when Ellie finally finished up.

Aunt Nancy nodded in agreement. “The first thing we need to do is get that mask away from the dog boys. Spirits we can protect you from—for a time, anyway—but the creature that mask would call up is deep, old trouble.”

“I didn’t think Green Men were evil,” Hunter said. “At least not from the little I know about them.”

“They’re not,” Zulema said. “They simply are, neither good or bad. But they’ll take direction from whoever wears the mask. If a good man were to call that old spirit up, no one would have to worry. The thing is, good men don’t reach for that kind of power in the first place.”

“But if someone like Donal were to put it on…” Ellie said.

“From what you’ve been telling us, we could have a monster on our hands.”

Aunt Nancy stood up and stretched. “But first we need to get some rest. I’ve seen you yawning, girl,” she added as Ellie began to shake her head. “You’ll be no good for anything, asleep on your feet.”

“I doubt the highway’s even passable now anyway,” Tommy said.

Ellie looked around the room, searching for an ally. “But…”

“Those-who-came can’t do anything until you’ve fixed up the mask for them,” Aunt Nancy said. “Isn’t that what you said?”

“I don’t know for sure…”

“And they won’t come looking for you here. Trust us in this. Get some sleep. If the weather doesn’t let up, there are other ways to get to the city, but right now all the dog boys’ll be able to do is sit around and sniff each other’s asses.”

“If you say so,” Ellie said.

Her tired eyes went wide as the shape of that giant spider seemed to grow out of the shadows behind Aunt Nancy’s chair once more.

“Don’t worry,” the older woman said. “I know a thing or two about spirits.”

Ellie swallowed dryly and let herself be led away to a bedroom. She thought she’d lie staring at the ceiling for hours, but she was out as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Mliki woke with one side of her face resting on a soft shoulder, the other feeling a little numb from the cold. She and Fiona had fallen asleep on the couch, the comforter from Fiona’s bed pulled up around their chins. Sitting up now, she felt Fiona stir awake beside her.

“This sucks,” Fiona mumbled.

Miki nodded. It was cold enough in the apartment that they could see their own breath.

“The power’s still off,” she said.

“Figures. I could kill for a cup of coffee.”

Miki pushed aside the comforter and walked over to the window, hugging herself to stop from shivering. On the couch, Fiona gathered the comforter closer about herself.

“Anything out there?” she asked.

Miki shook her head. “Just the rain.”

“So we made it through the night.” When Miki turned to look at her, Fiona added, “I don’t suppose these Gentry hole up during the day like vampires are supposed to?”

“Not that I’ve ever heard.”

“Great. As if. So now what we do?”

“We could go by the store and see if it’s got power,” Miki said.

“But we wouldn’t open for business?”

Miki smiled. “Only idiots would be out today if they didn’t have to be. I’m betting the whole city’s shut down, so who would we sell anything to?”

“At least we’d be warm.”

“We could bring a kettle,” Miki said, “and the makings for coffee.”

Fiona threw back the comforter and stood up. “You just said the magic words.”