Honeyed Words (10 page)

After a quick shower, I puttered around the room, making noise while I packed, hoping to wake her. After a few minutes I got a wet washcloth and wiped her face with it, and she slept on. I stripped the bed and jostled her, tickled her, poked, and prodded … nothing.

Someone in the room next door was having an argument, and for some reason it was giving me a headache. Thoughts of ambulances and emergency rooms began to dance in my head. I dug around in my pack, thinking I had some ibuprofen, and managed to stab myself with something. I pulled my hand out of my pack quickly and stuck the offending finger in my mouth. What did I have that was sharp? And why did my finger taste funny? I turned my pack upside down. There, in the midst of my assorted shit, was the flowered necklace the elves had given me. As the room grew fuzzy, I saw there were thorns on those vines.

I realized two things as I fell over backward. First: my finger was good and numb, likely an effect of whatever the flowers were—and of course, Katie still had on the necklace. I hadn’t taken it off her.

Second, Skella and Gletts were standing in our dresser mirror, watching us. It didn’t make any sense at first, them standing there. I know they weren’t in the room with us, so the only plausible answer was that they were in the mirror. Crazy making, I know.

As I hit the floor it got even more surreal.

Gletts stepped through the mirror. “I thought she’d never pick up that necklace,” he said, very put out.

Bastard.

“Don’t hurt them,” Skella said, sounding freaked. “See if she has it so we can fix this.”

They didn’t realize something. I could feel my body succumbing to whatever poison was on the flowers, but my mind remained clear. I tried to sit up, struggling to rise, and somehow snapped out of my body. It was like back in the bar all those months ago. One second I had lost control of my body, the next I was floating outside myself—I’d gone astral again.

Gletts was rummaging through the dresser and closets. I quietly floated upward, hovering to the left of the mirror, where Skella couldn’t see me. If I wasn’t so pissed at them, and afraid for what was about to happen, I might think the whole thing was freaking awesome.

“I can’t find it,” Gletts growled, throwing Katie’s birthday outfit to the floor as he ransacked the closet. “Why wouldn’t she have it with her?”

Skella pressed against the mirror from her side. I could see the side of her face and a room behind her. It looked rough-hewn, cut stone and timbers. There were a scattering of tables, cauldrons, and assorted tools: hammers, saws, and the like. A huge fire roared in the center of the room, and on the far wall, chained upside down, was Ari. “What the hell?”

Skella snapped her head around, saw me, and shrieked. “Gletts, she’s awake!”

Gletts spun around, saw my body lying on the floor, and looked over at Skella, confused. “She hasn’t moved.”

“I heard something,” she said, looking around, apparently not seeing me.

I reached out, my hand passing through the mirror like it was a doorway, and touched the side of Skella’s face. She shrieked and fell backward, knocking over a table covered in beakers and glass jars.

Gletts whirled around, running toward the mirror. He had no problem seeing me.

“How?” he asked, pausing long enough for me to lunge forward and tackle him. “Get off,” he cried as we tumbled to the ground.

Since I could feel both Gletts and Skella, I assumed they somehow lived in both states—astral and physical. I didn’t get to enjoy the effects of gravity, however. Should’ve remembered that from last time.

Gletts punched me in the side—which I felt—and scrambled away on all fours.

I tried to follow him, but I seemed to be partially stuck in the desk chair. Problem with being in spirit form—interaction with objects in the real world were not as you might expect. It was odd to see one of the wooden rungs stuck partway through my thigh. It took a second to pull myself away from the chair, and while I was delayed, Gletts dove into the mirror.

“Sonuvabitch,” I growled, floating off the floor once more. I sorta swam over to the mirror, determined to follow him, when Skella’s face appeared. She was crying. I stuck my head into the mirror, and she placed her hand on my head, pushing me back gently.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, glancing back over her shoulder. “We were going to remove the necklaces.” She pursed her lips, almost pouting as she thought to say something else.

“What’re you on about there?” a gruff voice called from across the cavern. I could see three large men dropping tools and shrugging out of cloaks. Dwarves.

Skella swung back around to face me. “The poison will wear off in about six hours. Get out of Vancouver.”

I fell back, unable to grasp her hand. She mumbled something, waved her hands, and the mirror fogged for a moment, then returned to showing me the room.

Great, we’d been poisoned by the elves and I was out of my body again. Now what could I do?

Twelve

Six hours, for fuck’s sake. It took every single second of six hours for the poison to wear off. I floated around, unable to push my way into any of the mirrors, which sucked. I couldn’t even knit, as much as I loathed doing so.

One thing I had, though, was time to think. Jimmy had some answering to do. He had knowledge I didn’t. Was he aware of the elves? This whole mirror thing was way out of my realm of reality. I’d been lazy, not confronting him—scared, frankly, to push things. I couldn’t face him, not with the massacre in the spring. Hell, I’d even let him hide Gram. What was I thinking? Gram was a part of me now, an integral tug on my psyche. When things settled down—when I got the job front rolling again—I’d do something about it. Yep, definitely, just as soon as I fixed a few other things in my life.

Who was I kidding? If I waited around for things to settle down, I’d die without any answers. What I needed to do was change my direction. Maybe hit Jimmy head-on? I needed to just go out to Black Briar and face the music. This was some spooky shit. A year ago, I didn’t know dragons existed. Today, I found out that a couple of elves could travel into my room through mirrors and poison me in a way that leaves me helpless for hours. Talk about the ultimate roofie. I hate to think what they could’ve done to us. What a dangerous fucking world.

Once the effects began to ebb, I found myself pulled back to my body. Not like I was doing any good out here anyway. Well, keeping watch was a good thing, right? I couldn’t even pick up a book or turn on the television. There were some serious drawbacks to all this.

I woke with my head pounding and desperately thirsty around three in the afternoon. Not sure why no one had rousted us from the hotel. I’d be checking that.

I rose, stumbled into the bathroom, and vomited into the toilet. The porcelain felt good against my forehead—cool. After a moment, I pulled myself to my feet and turned back to the room. The mirrors were normal, and the room was trashed. Katie’s skirt and blouse lay crumpled where Gletts had thrown it, bastard. He did not want to run into me again anytime soon.

Katie was still out, which scared me. She’d had that necklace on for a long time. Using a thick washcloth, I held onto the necklace with one hand and snipped the vine with a pair of scissors Katie kept in her pack.

Red welts circled her neck where the thorns had pierced her. The numbing effect must have been quicker with her, since she hadn’t complained when she put the necklace on, but I’d fallen to the poison much faster than she had.

Once I had the necklace cut, I gently lifted her head and pulled the vile thing away. I placed it and mine in a plastic bag and set it in the ice bucket. I’d dispose of those later.

I washed Katie’s neck and checked her for a pulse. Her heartbeat was strong. I called down to the front desk, and they said we had the room for one more night. Said we’d called down the night before and asked to extend. Guess it was a good thing, considering. I’d bet it was Skella. Good service on the hotel’s part, though.

I ordered room service and went around picking things up while I waited for food. What had they been looking for? They didn’t steal anything, passed up the cash I had, credit cards, laptop … Could this be about Gram? What else did I have that a couple young elves may want?

And Skella didn’t act like someone who wanted to hurt us. She looked chagrined, like maybe they’d been forced to do this. And what of Ari? They were underground it seemed—caves somewhere? But he was alive. I’d seen him move. He didn’t look comfortable by any means, but he lived all the same.

Right at six hours after I cut the necklace off her, Katie began to stir. She woke moaning and groggy at first, then threw up all over the place. I held her until she stopped, then helped her into the shower to clean up.

“Weird dreams,” she said as she stuck her head under the spray.

She opened her mouth and let the water run over her face for a very long time.

I stripped the bed and called down to housekeeping to explain that Katie had the flu and that we’d be checking out soon. They said they’d clean up after we left. I put a twenty on the desk with a note thanking the staff for such good service.

I put on my Bluetooth and called Rolph and Juanita. I explained it all to him as best I could and apologized about missing dinner.

“I have heard rumors of the mirror children,” he said, after I’d run down. “I only know them from children’s tales, but I would think they could only traverse into places they’d previously been.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“The stories I heard as a child said they would come into your home and take little things, trinkets and such, or in a worst case steal your child.”

“Damn,” I said. “Stealing babies?”

“If they are somehow mixed up with the taking of your singer friend,” he continued, “they are in league with some distant relations of mine. I will dig around, see what I can uncover.”

“We’re going home,” I told him. “This weekend has totally gotten out of hand.”

“Good idea,” he offered. “I will contact you. In the meantime, I would ask about the safety of a certain artifact.”

Smooth … “She’s in a safe place,” I said, not caring to go into details. “I don’t think there is any chance your mirror children can find her, but I’ll double-check when I get home.”

“Good,” he said. “Good to know you are on top of the important things.” He paused for a long moment, perhaps discussing something with Juanita. “It is good to see you coming around. The world is dangerous and unpredictable.”

“That’s a big duh!”

Most of the clothes had been in our packs, but there was no way I’d gotten things back into Katie’s correctly. She was a meticulous packer. When I packed, I just shoved things in until I could barely zip it up. She was coordinated.

She left the towels crumpled on the bathroom floor and walked out into the room, naked … of course. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before, but I quickly grabbed all the towels and used them to cover the mirrors in the room. This was going to be difficult.

I explained what had happened as I covered the mirrors. She dumped her pack out onto the floor and fished out the delicates she wanted. I tried not to get too angry in the retelling. She helped by, you know … being there.

She put on the new outfit as I wound down and watched her.

“They didn’t feel foul,” she said as she straightened her skirt. “Seemed likeable enough.”

I sat on the edge of the bed, hands hanging down between my knees. “It’s weird,” I agreed. “Gletts was pretty damn cavalier about the whole thing, but he is a boy. Skella seemed upset about it all.”

Katie set about repacking her suitcase and watching me. “Too bad we missed last night.” She sighed.

“We’ll celebrate next weekend,” I promised. “I’ll cook.” I smiled real big, shoving my hair out of my eyes.

This brought a laugh. “Seriously, like without a microwave or boxed dinner?”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course. I’ve survived this long, haven’t I?”

She winked at me and zipped up her bag. “Let’s get out of here. I’m feeling claustrophobic. Maybe you can buy me a burger on the way home.”

“Deal!”

We’d been driving about twenty minutes when Katie turned down the radio and placed her hand on my knee.

“So, um … when did you paint your toenails?”

I looked at her for a second, smiling sheepishly. “Whilst you were poisoned and unconscious.”

She nodded once, and we listened to road noise for a few minutes. “Might want to paint them all,” she said. At least she was smiling.

That’s what I’d heard when I was painting my toes.
Is she naked?
indeed. That had to be Gletts, the little pisher.

All this new magic—elves and more dwarves. And the King of Vancouver, whoever the hell he was. There was some serious insanity up here.

I was just glad to be heading home. I had to get to Cle Elum by seven tomorrow morning. Time to earn back some of the money we’d just spent on the weekend.

As far as romantic getaways are concerned, I think the weekend broke even. Too much violence for my taste, but there were parts that were nice.

Seriously.