C.E. Murphy - Truthseeker

Enough truth ran through that to make Lara smile. Dafydd, looking into her eyes, smiled as well, then gently tugged her forward to put his forehead against hers. “Proximity eases the sharing. Close your eyes. Think of sandy beaches, cloudy skies.”

The clear white path truthseeking had created when she’d searched for her way out of the Seelie forest filled her mind, as neutral an image as she could come up with. It had song to it, distant tolling like water against a shore. Oisín appeared on the path, less frail than he’d been when she’d met him, though he was by no means a young man. He still wore fine Seelie raiment, but now he carried a staff taller than he was.

If it was bone, it came from the largest animal Lara had ever imagined. Even an ivory tusk seemed inadequate for its height, and it had no curve to it at all, standing slim and ramrod straight. Intricate carvings along its length showed that it was hollow, and though the carvings were delicate in design, the staff itself warned of strength and power. In Oisín’s hands it had no bent toward either destruction or creation, but the sense of it said it could be used for both.

And it was here, in her world. Choir music filled her, a host of soprano notes striking a triumphant path forward. Lara staggered as power splashed through, and out of, her. It leaped forward, racing across the countryside to briefly illuminate the image of a roaring waterfall pouring from a narrow point in a broad river. Surprised laughter broke from her throat, and Lara opened her eyes to flash an exultant smile at Dafydd.

He whispered, “Lara,” and her clarity of vision faded in a rush as he collapsed in her arms.

“Dafydd? Oh my God, Dafydd!” His weight was inconsequential, even though Lara didn’t think of herself as physically strong. Kelly sprinted out of the car and around to the passenger side, helping Lara to pour him into the backseat.

“Buckle him in,” Kelly snapped. “We’re leaving. Now.”

Lara, mute, did as she was told, then took her own seat, barely able to pull the seat belt on as Kelly pulled away from the curb. It took two tries to clip the belt in place, and she buried her face in shaking hands when she’d managed it. “I don’t think our world is really meant for using magic. Closing the breach in the garage wiped me out, and this was worse,” she said into her palms. “And I think I just ripped away most of what Dafydd had left to power my own search. Kelly, if he dies—”

“It won’t be your fault,” Kelly said shortly. “Where do we need to go?”

“West.” Lara parted her fingers to stare at the road in front of them as she tried to bring the clarity of vision back. “It’s hidden in a waterfall west of here, a big one. It’s got to be on the Connecticut River.”

“West and what? North? South? It’s a big river, Lara.”

“Almost due.” A hint of music returned, merely a thin bell tone compared to the earlier song. “It’s almost due west of Peabody. There can’t be that many waterfalls on that parallel.”

“We’ll get a map.” Anything else Kelly intended to say was interrupted by Dafydd’s sharp intake of breath. Lara twisted to find him pressing both hands against his temples.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured after a moment. “I seem to have fallen asleep.”

“Lara put a whammy on you,” Kelly said over Lara’s apology. “When was the last time you ate?”

“This morning, I suppose,” Dafydd murmured, then continued in a hazy voice: “Some unpleasant second cousin to oatmeal, a last meal by the standards of the Massachusetts penal system.”

“Well, it’s about four o’clock now. Your blood sugar’s probably low, besides everything else. We’ll hit a drive-thru.”

Lara’s stomach, reminded of something as mundane as food, rumbled loudly enough for Kelly’s tension to break into sharp laughter. “Yeah, me, too. All right, we have a plan. Fast food, then a waterfall in western Massachusetts where there’s a weapon of unimaginable power.” She added “Tally-ho” in a mutter, and Lara squeezed her shoulder.

“You’re a rock, Kel. Thank you.”

She got a crooked smile in return. “Don’t thank me. I’m … what’s that kind of rock that breaks off into a million slivers? Shale? I’m like that. I look really solid but any minute now I’m going to fly apart. I just want to get somewhere quiet and safe before that happens. David, do you have a hideout anywhere?”

“I never thought I would need one. I had always thought if I couldn’t return home, if I was in danger, that I’d go …”

Lara turned to look at him when he trailed off, catching a grimace marring his features, though he smoothed his face as she frowned in turn. “To a great wilderness,” he said. “Even in this world, the wild places are kind to my people. I could have remained undetected in the Catskills forever, if necessary, but that was alone, and with all my skill.” His voice hardened at the end, hiding nothing from Lara: he was denying fear, denying so much as considering what it meant that he was cut off from the Barrow-lands.

Kelly, though, startled and straightened, looking at him in the mirror again. “You know, that’s a brilliant idea. It’s a thousand miles from Wales—”

“Three thousand,” Lara said pedantically, as mistruth shivered over her skin.

“Okay, fine, three thousand, whatever, but my point was aren’t the Catskills haunted? Like Rip Van Winkle plays ninepins up there and stuff. If there’s anywhere on the East Coast that’s got any kind of connection to David’s world, doesn’t it seem like it might be them? So we get the staff, we head for the Catskills, and you two figure out how to power it up and get David home by sunset.” She made her lips thin, scowling down the two-lane highway they were on. “Well, if we could take the interstates, anyway. It’ll take longer on the back roads, especially since I have to find one that’ll get us pointed west. I was kind of going to Canada.”

“So we could be arrested at the border?” Lara wondered. Kelly turned an injured look on her and she shook her head apologetically. “No, you’re right, it was a good idea. There must be some little roads you can cross over without border patrol noticing. Or at least we could abandon the car and walk across through the woods.”

“Perhaps as a second choice,” Dafydd murmured.

Kelly flashed him a tense smile in the rearview mirror. “Second choice, not last resort?”

“As you say. Let us hold making our way to Wales as the last resort, and for our first choice, explore the Catskills.” His voice wavered and he closed his eyes, suddenly more fragile than he’d been. “Though, Lara, even if we should find the staff, my magic—”

“You have royal blood, and I have the ability to find a truthseeker’s path,” Lara said fiercely. “We’ll make a world-road if we have to.”

Deep bells rang through the words, carrying, for the first time, the weight of prophecy.

“Okay, where are we?” Kelly wolfed down a cheese-covered hot dog and slurped at a soda as Lara unfolded the map Kelly’d bought along with the food at a local grocery store. Lara’s own meal was cooling, but she’d argued that she could eat it while Kelly drove, whereas eating and driving invariably turned messy. Dafydd, still in the backseat, ate a green salad straight from the bag, alternating with long draughts of bottled water.

“Here’s Peabody. We’re …” Lara tapped her finger just below a green spot on the map. “We’re about here, because I just saw a sign for this forest.” She drew a line westward across the map. “If you head due west, the only reference to a waterfall I can find is Turners Falls.”