Larkspur (44 page)

“ 
. . . be
dead,” Heather said.

The rest of the adults nodded.

“
We are here because of
fairy magic,” Sam said. “The fairies need something from
us.”

“
What do they need us
for?” Tanesha asked. “They have everything, and magic
too.”

“
No idea,” Sam
said.

“
What
if . . .” Sandy stood up. She looked into the fog
for a moment and then shook her head, “Can’t
be . . .”

“
What can’t be?” Tanesha
asked.

“
Well, I was
thinking . . . I mean, this whole thing reminds me
of my father . . . not Seth,
but . . . well, you know,” Sandy said.

The women nodded.

“
I don’t,” James
said.

“
Sandy had really abusive
parents,” Heather said.

“
How abusive?” James
asked. “Because I was just thinking about my dad.”

“
A lot worse than your
father,” Sam said.

“
You know?” Sandy’s eyes
went big and she flushed bright red. Nodding, Sam
winced.

“
Why did it remind you of
your father?” Heather asked James as Tanesha hugged
Sandy.

“
We were just kids,” James
said. “There was a bunch of us, but Johnny and me, we were just a
little more than a year apart in age. We did everything together.
My dad was sure we were spies for the prods, you know, Protestants.
When he was drinking, he’d get so whipped up in a rage that he
almost had us convinced that we were traitors.”

“
You believed him because
he’s your father.” Sandy’s voice was flat. She stepped back from
Heather.

“
And because he believed
it so strongly,” James said. “Fuck’s sake, I joined MI-6. Now I
actually am a traitor, or that’s what Cian says.”

“
So, what if we’re not in
the fog?” Sandy asked. “What if we think we are because this Kirk
Maughold, the fairy-human, made us think we are?”

“
Like magic?” Sam
asked.

“
Sure,” Sandy said. “That
would mean that . . .”

“
The battle is happening
above us,” James said.

“
We’re still underground
in the catacombs,” Tanesha said. “Shit.”

“
What?” They turned to
look at her.

“
I wondered why I kept
smelling mold,” Tanesha said.

“
How do we get out?” Sam
asked.

“
You have to believe
you’re not in the fog,” Sandy said.

“
It looks foggy,” Heather
said.

“
Close your eyes,” Sandy
said. Heather, Tanesha, and Sam closed their eyes. “Now listen.
Where are we?”

“
Oh shit,” James said.
“We’re still in the catacombs.”

“
We are,” Sandy said. “I
wasn’t here before. We appeared with Jill . . .
but . . .”

As if waking from a dream, Heather opened
her eyes to see the catacombs around them.

“
This place is kind of
gross,” Heather said.

She touched Tanesha’s arm and Tanesha opened
her eyes.

“
Wow,” Tanesha said.
“That’s a mind twist.”

“
Mind twist?” Heather
asked.

“
I’m trying not to swear
so much,” Tanesha said. She touched Sam’s arm. “Sam?”

He opened his eyes and then looked
crestfallen.

“
What?” Sandy
asked.

“
I was hoping I was still
in bed at home,” Sam said. “Damn. Are Katy and Paddie still down
here too?”

James ran down the hallway with Sandy right
behind him.

“
Give me a boost,” Sandy
said to James.

He boosted her up into the crypt, and she
climbed over the body inside. He turned around and shook his
head.

“
You didn’t see them?”
Sandy asked.

“
No, they aren’t there,”
James said.

Sandy lifted Katy onto her lap.

“
They are both here,”
Sandy leaned down to kiss Katy’s face. “She’s asleep — Paddie too —
but they are definitely here.”

“
What about the gas?” Sam
asked. “That’s what drove us out of here.”

“
Must have been something
else we were made to believe,” James said.

A cold wind whipped through the tunnel,
bringing the voices of men shouting with it. The battle continued
to rage above them.

“
Where is Jill?” Tanesha
asked.

James’s eyes looked up. Horrified, the women
looked up toward the ceiling.

“
Let’s see if we can help
the battle,” Sandy said. “If those armies have been fighting since
the dawn of time, they know each other’s tricks. We need to change
the battle to protect Jake and Val.”

“
How do we do that?”
Heather asked.

“
We make bombs.” James
bent over to look at the oil in the well along the crypt. “Even if
they are spirits, a bomb will really break things up.”

“
There’s sulfur over
there.” Sam pointed.

“
I have Charlie’s
lighter,” Sandy said. She held out a bright orange lighter. She
tossed it to James. “I took it from him just before we came
here.”

“
I’ll help you build,”
Heather said. “Then stay with Sandy. You guys can set off the
explosives. We’ll take care of the kids.”

“
Good plan,” Sam
said.

“
This is gonna be fun.”
Tanesha smiled. “But . . .”

“
But?” Sam
asked.

“
Are we fighting someone
else’s war?” Tanesha asked.

“
No,” Sam said. “We’re
fighting our war to save Jill and Jacob and Delphie and
Valerie.”

“
Our friends.” James
nodded.

“
Let’s get to work,”
Heather said.

~~~~~~~~

“
I have a very bad feeling
about this,” Delphie said.

Jill looked up at her. Delphie moved to the
edge of their protective bubble.

“
It just seems
like . . .” Delphie’s voice faded out.

“
They’ve fought this war
before?” Jill nodded.

“
A billion times,” Delphie
said. “Even though you healed the queen and her Manannán, they
continue on . . .”

“
They probably fought this
battle for centuries before she was torn apart.” Jill shrugged.
“She could have been torn apart to stop this from happening over
and over again . . .”

“
A cycle.” Delphie scowled
and tried to sort through what cycle could make this battle happen.
It wasn’t the moon. It wasn’t the sun. Delphie glanced down at
Jill.

“
Every time an heir to the
Marle kingdom was born.” Jill nodded. “Probably.”

“
I’m sorry I wasn’t there
when Katy was born,” Delphie said.

“
That’s okay,” Jill said.
“It would have been pretty weird if you were. Plus, my girls were
there.”

“
Not Trevor?”

“
He had some drinking and
whoring to do,” Jill said.

“
Wouldn’t want a little
thing like a baby being born to disrupt such important work.”
Delphie smirked.

“
Not for a girl,” Jill
said.

Delphie snorted.

“
I’ll tell you, though,”
Jill said. “This is the weirdest labor I’ve ever heard
about.”

Delphie laughed, and Jill smiled. They
watched the armies fight for a while.

“
I wonder if they did this
when Val was having Jackie,” Jill said.

“
The queen had been torn
apart, and Manannán was walking,” Delphie said.

“
Good thing I came all
this way to heal them,” Jill said. “Wouldn’t want to miss the
war.”

Delphie snorted a laugh.

“
Why wouldn’t you want to
miss a war?” A boy’s voice came from up in the tree.

Jill and Delphie looked up. A seven-year-old
boy was sitting on a branch watching the battle. He wore a simple,
hand-sewn tunic and a dark wool, knitted sweater. From the ground,
they could see the deep, jagged scars on his legs. Delphie and Jill
shared a look before Delphie smiled.

“
I think she was making a
joke,” Delphie said.

“
Oh,” the boy said. “It’s
not very funny.”

“
We don’t have war where
we are,” Jill said. “I mean, the world still has some wars, but
it’s a lot less than any time before.”

“
Why?” the boy
asked.

“
There were a few really
horrible wars,” Delphie said.

“
There are always a lot of
horrible wars,” the boy said. “Human beings are evil. They create
evil wherever they go.”

The little boy nodded and then shrugged.

“
That’s what the monks
say, anyway,” he said.

“
I used to feel like you
do.” Delphie nodded. “I felt the world’s pain and darkness, only
pain, only darkness. No beauty, no light. But I found beauty,
light, and love. Art, music, joy, laughter.”

“
You’re an Oracle,” the
boy said.

“
I’m an Oracle,” Delphie
said.

“
Why?” the boy asked. “Did
you take the devil into your womb?”

“
I was born this way,”
Delphie said. “Born knowing. No one really knows why. I’m kind of
my own species, I guess.”

“
Were your people like
you?” the boy asked.

“
I don’t know,” Delphie
said. “I never knew my parents. I went to live with a very bad man
when I was a little younger than you. He used my gift to trick
people to gain money. I lived with him for a long, long time. Then
my friend Celia found me. And everything changed.”

“
How did everything
change?” the boy asked.

“
Because I was away from
the darkness.” Delphie smiled at the boy. “I learned about light,
knowledge, art, beauty, music . . . I have a friend
who can pull music out of the air and play it on the piano.
Beautiful music. Jill’s brother is a painter. He paints things that
are so lovely they take your breath away. I get to read books and
think about new things. I even get to travel. The darkness obscured
all of that beauty for me.”

A warrior bounced off
their protective bubble with a solid “
wham
.” Their heads turned toward the
noise. A soldier on horseback screamed and hopped off his
horse.

“
Don’t worry,” the boy
said. “They always do that. They’re going to roll over there. They
hit each other for a while and then one of them stabs the other.
After a while, they get up.”

“
You’ve seen this very
same war before,” Delphie said.

“
Yes, Oracle,” the boy
said.

One of the scars on the boy’s leg popped
open. Blood began to stream down from the tree.

“
Oh my goodness,” Jill
said. “You’re bleeding.”

“
It’s this war,” the boy
said. “They say it’s my fault, and . . .”

“
If you climb down, maybe
Jill can help you,” Delphie said.

“
How?” the boy
asked.

“
She’s from a family of
healers,” Delphie said.

“
Witches?” The boy pulled
away in fear.

“
No,” Delphie said.
“Healers.”

“
The only people who can
do that are from somewhere on the continent,” the boy
said.

“
My mother is Russian,”
Jill said.

Another vein opened as the boy climbed down
the branches. His blood splashed the tree and the protective
bubble.

“
What’s it like to be
Russian?” he asked.

“
I don’t know,” Jill said.
“I grew up somewhere else.”

“
Oh,” the boy said. “I was
born somewhere else too.”

The boy climbed down another branch and was
low enough for Delphie to reach up and pluck him from the tree. He
was of such slight build that she could easily carry him.

“
Are you going to heal
me?” the boy asked.

“
Are you ready to be
healed?” Jill asked.

“
Don’t you need water?”
the boy asked.

“
How did you know?” Jill
gave him a bright smile.

“
I watched you heal the
queen and my grandfather,” the boy said.

Rather than make him upset by asking him to
relive his connection to the war or the fairies, Jill smiled and
said, “Water helps.”

“
Oh,” the boy said.
“There’s a spring right here.”

He snapped his fingers. There was a burble,
and then another. A tiny spring began to run near the edge of their
protective bubble. Delphie made a dirt basin for the water to
collect. When there were a couple inches of water in the basin,
Jill scooted over to sit in the water with her legs stretched out
straight in front of her.

“
Are you ready?” Jill
asked.

“
Does it hurt?” the boy
asked.

“
You can stop at any
time.” Jill smiled. “My daughter and her friend call it cuddles. So
it doesn’t hurt
too
much.”

The boy looked very frightened.

“
You’re sure this isn’t
devil magic?” the boy asked.