Charles de Lint - Forests of the Heart

“But…”

Something flickered in her eyes and Tommy quickly rose to his feet. Zulema nodded, then headed for the hallway. Tommy rolled his eyes at Hunter.

“We’re not even going to get out of their driveway,” Tommy told him. “Not unless we’re all pushing. And then all that’s going to happen is we’re going to go into some ditch maybe two yards down the road.”

Hunter was slower to rise to his feet.

“I don’t think you have to come,” Tommy added. “Except you could help us get out of the driveway—if you feel up to it, I mean.”

“I’m not bailing now,” Hunter told him.

“But if you’re feeling sick…”

“It’s not that kind of sick,” Hunter said.

Something changed in Tommy’s eyes.

“It’s that guy,” he said. “In Miki’s apartment.”

Hunter nodded.

“I’m not going to say he had it coming to him,” Tommy told him. “Even if he did. But that’s not what this is about, is it?”

“No. It’s just… I just… killed him.”

“First time?”

“God, what do you think?” Then Hunter gave Tommy a closer look. “Why? Have you?”

Tommy shook his head. “I’ve come close. And there was a time I wouldn’t have lost any sleep over it. But no. I guess the aunts drummed the message too firmly in my head: All life’s precious.” He laid a hand on Hunter’s arm. “But you know, the man you killed, he had a lot of the responsibility for what happened to him. It’s not like you went out looking to hurt someone the way he did. What he forgot was, what you put out comes back to you.”

“I don’t know…”

“Look, you have to shoulder some of the responsibility, too,” Tommy said. “No question. But you also have to cut yourself some slack. You didn’t ask to step into a war zone. He had to know the risks, though a guy like that, he was going to think he’s immortal anyway.”

“They are immortal. Isn’t that what your aunts said?”

“Good point. Doesn’t change a thing, though, except you’d think he’d have gotten some smarts over the years.”

“Tommy!” one of the aunts called from the hallway. Hunter couldn’t see which one.

“We’re on it!” Tommy called back. He turned back to Hunter. “But seriously, you want a break, take it, because things aren’t going to get any less dangerous from here on out.”

Hunter shook his head. “It’s hard to explain, but I have to see it through.”

“I understand.”

No, you don’t, Hunter thought. Because it wasn’t just sticking with them to see this thing through. There was also the way Ria had been after him to get out of, and stay out of the safe cocoon of his life. This wasn’t exactly what she’d meant, or the way he’d planned it, but he couldn’t back out now. That was too much like giving up—not only this, but everything.

“But just let me add this,” Tommy said. “Once things get hairy… if you’re with us, we’re going to be depending on you. So if you are going to bail, now’s the time to do it.”

Thanks, Hunter thought. Put the pressure on. But he refused to bow to it.

“I thought you said we weren’t even going to get out of the driveway,” he said.

Tommy grinned. “There’s that. But then you don’t know my aunts. If they think we’re going somewhere, we probably are.”

As they walked towards the hall they met up with Ellie and Tommy’s Aunt Nancy. Ellie looked the way Hunter felt, washed out and exhausted, but there was also a lost, anguished look in her eyes.

“Did you feel it?” she asked. “It was like someone tore out a piece of my heart.”

Hunter shook his head.

“Only you superhero magic types got to feel it,” Tommy told her.

Ellie gave him an exasperated look, but then she shook her head. Smiling, she punched him in the shoulder.

“Thanks,” she said. “I needed that.”

“What? The punch or the compliment?”

“There was a compliment?”

Tommy put a finger to his lips and nodded in the direction of the waiting aunts with an exaggerated look of alarm. Shaking her head again, Ellie continued down the hall. Tommy and Hunter followed behind.

Outside it was worse than Tommy had predicted. The driveway was like polished glass, the highway beyond one smooth sheet of ice. All around them, the fields were littered with broken branches and trees bent almost in half. And the rain continued to fall without respite from the thick gray cloud cover above. Tommy stepped gingerly out from under the porch’s overhang and immediately lost his balance. Before he could fall, Aunt Nancy seemed to almost pluck him from the air and bring him back to steadier footing.

Hunter and Ellie exchanged glances. Like the Gentry, Aunt Nancy was a lot stronger than she looked.

“I told you,” Tommy said. “We’re not going anywhere.”

“You’ve lived in the city too long,” Aunt Nancy told him.

She directed them all to hold hands.

Now what? Hunter wondered. Were they going to have a prayer circle?

But no words were spoken. Instead, the ground seemed to shift underfoot and an unaccountable nausea rose up in his stomach.

Should have taken the time to have some breakfast, he thought. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had something to eat. That was all this was, though it felt more like motion sickness. When he glanced at Ellie, she seemed to feel it as well, maybe worse than he did. She leaned against him, stifling a burp. He let go of Zulema’s hand and put his arm around Ellie’s shoulder to steady her. She gave him a weak smile in return.

“What’s happening?” he asked.

Tommy appeared to be feeling a little queasy as well. Only the aunts seemed unaffected.

“We have stepped into a place between our world and that of the manitou,” Sunday explained. “It can make you feel a little sick to your stomach until you get used to being here.”

Hunter shook his head. “But… why are we here?”

Wherever here was, because except for the nausea, nothing seemed to have changed at all.

“In this place we aren’t affected by the climate in either world.”

When Hunter still looked confused, Sunday pointed to where Aunt Nancy and Zulema were confidently walking across the sheet of ice that covered the driveway.

“Come on,” Sunday said. “Let’s not keep them waiting.”

Reluctantly, he followed the older woman out onto the ice, his arm still around Ellie’s shoulders to give her support. Ahead of them they saw Tommy gingerly step onto the ice. He took one step, another, then turned to grin at them.

“This is unbelievable,” he said. “Look.”

He did a little dance step on the ice, as surefooted as though it was dirt underfoot. But Hunter was no longer so surprised, because he and Ellie were out on the ice now as well. It was a little disconcerting, knowing the ice was there but not slipping on it, like going down a stopped escalator, only this was easier to adjust to.

“Can you do this number on the truck?” Tommy was asking Aunt Nancy.

She nodded and laid her hand on the bed of the vehicle. Zulema tossed some blankets into the back, then she and Aunt Nancy got into the cab with Tommy, leaving Sunday, Hunter, and Ellie to clamber up into the bed.

“Is it passing?” Sunday asked as they settled on the blankets. “The queasiness?”

“Not really,” Hunter said.

Ellie shook her head.

Sunday dug into a pocket and offered them each what looked like a small round cookie.

“Here,” she said. “These will help.”

Hunter shook his head. “No, thanks.”

The thought of eating anything right now made his stomach do a slow flip.

“What is it?” Ellie asked. “Some kind of magic?”