Drink Down the Moon (29 page)

Henk and Johnny were both there, Johnny standing on the sidelines, Henk dancing with Jacky or Kate, though more often the three of them danced together. Johnny just enjoyed watching them move and taking in the band— especially the pink-haired sax player who kept shooting him grins from the stage. When the long night finally wound down, the four of them helped the band pack up, collected Jemi, then they walked south down Bank Street to the Tower.

Gwi Kayleigh had returned from Ballymoresk in a day and a half, rather than the two she’d promised Finn, with a company of Seelie foresters in tow. She was relieved to find them all well and the threat over, though somewhat chagrined that she’d missed it all. She and the Laird’s foresters were busy for a week or so, driving the last few Unseelie creatures from Kinrowan, but thereafter things settled down.

Once again it was possible to walk the streets of Kinrowan without spying a bogan or sluagh, though they all knew that wouldn’t remain so. The Unseelie Court never changed. Sooner or later another boss would rise from their ranks, and they’d be dogging the folk of Kinrowan once more. But for now, it was quiet.

The damage to the Tower had been mended, though it was weeks before the boggy stench of sluagh and bogans was entirely erased. The trees in its yard snuggled close to its walls once more and the browning of its garden was due to the season now, rather than the presence of unsainly creatures.

When the five of them reached the Tower, Kate went to make tea for them all, while Jacky put on a Kate Bush record and they all made themselves comfortable. Just as Kate was bringing in the tea, Finn arrived, so she had to go back for another cup and dig up some donuts for the hob’s sweet tooth.

“So you’re really going?” Kate asked Jemi when they all had their tea.

The Pook nodded. “The sidhe have Henk to lead them on their rade and I never really wanted that anyway. I’ve lived most of my life outside of Faerie and I’m just as happy doing that.”

“But looking for the Bucca?” Jacky asked. “That seems like it’ll just take you deeper into Faerie.”

“Maybe. But it’s something I have to do.” She touched a bone flute that hung in the hollow of her throat. “I want to ask him about these charms. Tell him about what happened to Jenna. And Johnny’s coming with me, so what more could I want?”

“Jemi’s promised to show me the fairer side of the borderlands on this trip,” Johnny added. “And I want to learn more about what music can do in Faerie— how it fits in, and why.”

Jemi grinned. “I’ll make a Fiddle Wit out of him yet. Or if I don’t, you can bet Salamon will.”

“I almost wish I could go with you,” Jacky said. “It sounds like it’ll be fun.” She shot Kate a quick glance. “If you should happen to run into Kerevan or Bhruic

“

“We’ll give them all the news,” Jemi said. “Shall I tell them you’ve got plans to become a skillywoman?”

Jacky laughed. “Not likely. I had three wallystanes left after that night and I ended up wasting one trying to make myself a book like Kate’s Caraid, only all my book does is tell me stories and try to play the odd trick on me. I guess I’m stuck being a Jack. But that’s okay. Every Court needs one. Still you can tell them that Kate’ll be a gruagagh before you know it.”

“I’ve wondered about those wallystanes,” Henk said. “They seem

Well, I know if you’ve got a certain headset, all of Faerie seems impossible. But once you get into it, it begins to make a certain sense. Except for the wallystanes. If they can do just about anything

?”

“Hardly,” Jacky said. “You should try using one.”

“They’re a rare magic,” Finn explained, “and make for the basis of all those fairy tales of three wishes and the like. You won’t find many these days, though. The nine that Jacky won from Kerevan are the first I’ve seen in a hundred years.”

“Did you ever think of using one to wish for a hundred more wishes?” Henk asked.

Kate and Jacky laughed.

“God, no!” Jacky said. “Who knows what would happen if we did. They backfire enough as it is. If we tried that, they’d probably backfire a hundred times worse.”

The record ended and Jacky replaced it with an lan Tamblyn cassette.

“When will you be going?” she asked Jemi as she sat down again.

“Tonight.” The Pook drank down what was left of her tea. “Now.”

Johnny stood up with her. “We’ve our packs to collect and that’s it. Thanks for letting me store Tom’s stuff here. I couldn’t think of a better place for those books.”

“We collect books,” Kate said.

“And hey,” Jacky added. “We sure needed the furniture.”

They said their goodbyes then, Henk leaving with Jemi Pook and Johnny. He was going to see them on their way as far as the Ottawa River. Finn left a little later, but not before reminding Kate to be on time for her skilly lessons.

When they were all gone, Jacky and Kate stood out in the back yard of the Tower and looked at the sky for a while.

“You don’t think it was just the bone charms that brought Jemi and Johnny together, do you?” Jacky asked after a bit.

“What does it matter?” Kate replied. “They’re happy enough now.”

“Oh, I don’t know. It’d just be nicer if it was only true love, that’s all.”

“God, you’re such a romantic, Jacky.”

“I guess.” She turned to Kate. “We should go on a quest ourselves.”

“What for?”

“Boyfriends.”

“I take it back,” Kate said. “You’re not a romantic. You’re just an incorrigible flirt.”

Jacky gave her a slight punch on the arm, then sighed. “Maybe. But when you see something work the way it does for them, it kinda makes you want to have that for yourself, too— doesn’t it?”

“Are you thinking of Eilian?”

Jacky nodded. “I’m not being very fair to him, am I? It’s on-again, off-again, until neither of us knows what’s going on. I keep getting afraid that one day I’ll know for sure that he’s the right one, but that by then it’ll be too late. He’ll have gotten himself married off to some Laird’s daughter.”

“So why don’t you talk to him about it?”

“It’s hard, Kate. My brain gets all tangled up and muddy when I try.”

“Good things never come easy.”

Jacky shook her head. “Trust you to come up with such an original thought.”

She paused, looking as if she had more to say, but then stayed silent.

“But?” Kate prompted her.

Jacky gave her back a grin. “But I’ll give it a try all the same.”

“That’s my Jacky,” Kate said. “Ready to go in now?”

“Um-hmm.”

Arm in arm, the two of them went back into the Tower to clean up the tea mugs and then to their respective beds. Above the gable peaks of the Tower, the Moon traveled west across the sky, and all of Kinrowan, and the Borderlands beyond, drank the bright luck of her light.