Sunshaker's War (49 page)

For a long time all he did was watch and ponder. Eventually he spoke to Fionchadd, who had trotted up to prop his forearms on the rail beside him, “Well, Finno, as best I can tell, we've only got one more problem.”

“
Only
one more? That is unusual for you.”

“Only one more for now,” he amended, then turned to Liz who stood at his other side—and paused for a moment, caught up by the sight of her: red hair twitching in the breeze, exactly complemented by the tawny fur robe Ilionin had lent her, all framed by the golden sail behind her and lit by torches and sunrise. But then practicality once more banished romanticism, and he poked her in the ribs. “Come on, lady,” he sighed, “I reckon we better go butter up poor old Alec one more time.”

“You don't need to,” Fionchadd informed them promptly. “If it is returning home that concerns you, I have already spoken to my aunt about that. If you will wait but a little while, she will take you there. This vessel can sail between the Worlds, but cannot do it quickly. Meanwhile, there is time to rest, to eat—to heal.”

“I wish there was time to
study,
” Liz groaned. “I've got a major league test real soon, and Lord only knows what's going on in our World.”

“We can arrange that, too,” Fionchadd told her.

“No,” Liz replied with a vehement shake of her head. “No more magic, no more fooling with time—my brain couldn't stand it. I only wanta get back home.”

“
Where
at home, by the way?” Fionchadd inquired.

“Oh, Christ, yeah: good question. I left David's car back in Crawfordville…”

“You
what
?”
David screeched.

“It's not
like
I had any choice in the matter!” Liz informed him shortly.

Fionchadd chuckled wryly. “Do not worry about it, leave this part to me.”

And with that he turned and left them.

Liz took David's hand. “They said we had time: food, sleep, and I think I heard something about a bath waiting below.”

“Alec's already in it,” David laughed, “or is if I know him.”

“Think he'd mind sharing?”

“Probably, but we could always ask.”

“Let's do.”

And with that they went below decks, with Fionchadd close behind.

Epilogue: At Loose Ends

(Cumberland Island, Georgia—Tuesday, June 17—morning)

It was a much cleaner, happier, and better-fed David Sullivan who was standing on the deck of the Powersmith flagship when it burst through the World Walls and came once more into the Lands of Men. It was not a thing Ilionin had wanted to do, he knew, but she also knew obligation when she saw it, and so she had consented to deliver them to land. But even at that she had been careful. A certain sort of Sight had helped her choose her destination, making sure it was free of lurking humans that might be alarmed by a vast copper dragonship suddenly popping into existence in the shipping lanes. Thus she had chosen a stretch of deserted sea, and further insured her secrecy by wrapping the boat in a glamour
and
raising a fog. No Minniebelle Cokers would speak of close encounters with
her.

As for the transition, David scarcely noticed it, though perhaps it was the fact that he had Liz to distract him at the time—and would have been letting her distract him even more had Alec not been talking to Fionchadd right behind him.

“This may truly be goodbye,” the Faery was saying.

“Lugh says he will still keep the borders closed, and Finvarra has agreed to shut his as well, though I doubt he will be able to fulfill that, since the World Walls are so much thinner in Erenn that many cross by accident.”

“It's kind of a shame, though,” Alec mused, and fell silent as he noticed David listening.

“Yeah,” David tossed over his shoulder. “But a year ago I said there was a lot of magic left in the World, even without Faerie, and there still is. I've decided a couple of things, Alec, whether you like 'em or not. One is that you and me are gonna work with that ulunsuti whether you like it or not, and the other thing is that I'm goin' to Galunlati and see if I can't put all of this together. I've seen so many hints of things, heard so much that almost makes sense, that I really think if I can sit down with the right folks, I can figure it all out. 'Course I'll have to clear it with Calvin,” he added, and suddenly felt a twinge of guilt.

“Any word from him?” Alec inquired.

David shook his head. “None. I'm sure he's okay, and I've asked Lugh and Ilionin to keep an eye out for him if he pops in here, but that's one thing I guess I'll have to deal with when we get back.”

“Actually,” Alec began hesitantly, but with a bit of pride as well, “I suppose we
could
search for him with the ulunsuti.”

“Good job!” David exclaimed, slapping him on the back. “We'll make a wizard out of you yet.”

“But unnecessary,” Liz chuckled, pointing past the dragon prow. “Look!”

Without them really being aware of it, Ilionin had let the boat slip to earth and now the figurehead was knifing through the last wisps of fog before making landfall. Waves were cavorting and frothing around the hull, and even as he followed Liz's extended finger, David felt the grate of the keel against the land, though the sea was so shallow there they were still a fair ways from shore.

“Calvin!”
David shouted joyfully, for he had seen the black-haired, bare-chested figure standing on the beach at the high-tide mark—the figure that was now running headlong into the waves.

“I cannot touch your land,” Ilionin said behind him, her voice gentle as the rustling of her heavy silk cloak. “You will have to wade the rest of the way. I am sorry, but the Laws of Dana command it.”

“You follow them
too
?”
David asked incredulously, then remembered he'd heard her speak of them before.

“Aye, some. But there is no more time to speak.”

“Except to me,” Fionchadd laughed, slipping past her. “I need to tell you all goodbye—and I find that I cannot.” And for the first time in his life David saw tears in the Faery's eyes.

He hugged him impulsively, hugged him long and hard, like a brother he might never see again. His own eyes misted. “Take care, Finno. Let me hear from you if you can. You know I'll be thinkin' 'bout you.”

“And I you,” Fionchadd replied, planting matching kisses on each of David's cheeks—kisses David gave back impulsively. “And thank you…brother. No real brothers have I, but you have become like one to me.”

“You too, man!”

Fionchadd embraced Alec then, and
Liz,
thanked them both, and they could have stayed there half the morning wishing to go ashore, yet fearing to end what might truly be an ending. Eventually, though, a pounding on the hull drew their attention that way. “Hey,” Calvin yelled, from where he stood waist deep in water. “You guys don't get your butts down here, I'm gonna have to come up there and drip all over that pretty boat—and I don't think the owner'd like that very much—least that's what Finno told me when he came flyin' up to me in bat shape a little while ago! Like to've scared the crap outta me,” he added, with one of his famous grins.

“So
that's
where you went to so fast after breakfast,” David said, lifting a wry eyebrow in Fionchadd's direction.

Fionchadd tried to look innocent, but then his face broke into a grin.
“
Go
,
foolish mortal,” he intoned with obviously bogus arrogance. “I would not have my effort be in vain!”

David started to reply with some comment about vampire bats and
veins,
then caught himself. He'd never be able to say enough, he knew, there was always one more thing to be said to a friend upon parting. Finally he simply gave Fionchadd a high-five, and climbed over the side. Alec and Liz joined him—Liz on David's back.

“Don't look back!” Fionchadd called, and they followed his advice until they felt dry land under their feet. When they
did
look back, it was to see a pink mist slowly fading above the morning sea.

“So where are we?” David asked, surveying the land ahead. It was typical Georgia coast, or typical
deserted
Georgia coast, anyway, of which there was not a great deal. White sand marched into grassy dunes which in turn invaded stands of scrubby live oaks, the whole strewn with what looked like storm wrack. There were no obvious buildings. And then he saw the wooden sign driven into the ground nearby: CUMBERLAND ISLAND NATIONAL SEASHORE.

“Well, that answers that, I guess,” David said with a grin, flopping an arm across Calvin's shoulders. “But how in the hell did you
get
here? Best I can figure, you oughta still be stuck in Galunlati!”

Calvin had already opened his mouth to answer when a familiar voice interrupted with an irrepressible cackle as its white-haired owner rose from where he had been sitting in the scanty shelter of a large chunk of driftwood. “Come the same way I did!”

“Uncle Dale!” David shouted joyfully. He slipped free of Liz and Calvin and dashed forward to embrace the old man. “Oh Jesus, Uncle Dale, how in the world…?”

“
Out
of the world,” the old man laughed. “Ask Mr. Calvin, I can't explain a word of it.”

David turned back to his friend. “Okay, Fargo, spill it.”

Calvin sighed. “Sure…but back in the trees, okay? I've had
enough
sunshine for a while.”

David started to follow him, but froze. “How
is
Galunlati?” he asked carefully.

Calvin shrugged. “Don't know for sure, but I reckon it'll be fine now.”

“You act like you know what's been goin' on.”

“I do, as a matter of fact.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.”

They had reached the shelter of the trees now, and David saw that a breakfast had been spread across a blanket on the ground: a selection of McDonald's biscuits, a thermos of coffee, hash browns, even orange juice.

“Not the best,” Uncle Dale admitted. “But the most available.”

“It's great,” David assured him as he grabbed a ham-and-cheese. He glanced back at Calvin. “So
spill
it, man.”

Calvin sighed again and leaned back against a convenient live oak. “Well,” he began, “I flew north searchin' for Uki, like we'd agreed. But there was one thing we forgot, which was that he still had his ulunsuti. He'd been usin' it to spy on us—at least as far as the stuff in our World was concerned—and so was ready when we popped into Galunlati. Not as ready as he'd have liked, natch, since a couple of glitches kinda landed us in the wrong place—but ready. Unfortunately, the place we wound up was pretty remote, so even Uki couldn't get anyone there quickly, but I met his emissary—it was Awahili the Eagle, and he told me that Uki had decided the only fast way to get Finno to the coast was for you two to shapeshift—which was exactly what you had already done. He had only five scales left, and couldn't spare all of 'em, but he gave me one so I could reenter our world, and another so I could rejoin him some time down the line. But he told me to tell you to use Finny's blood to empower the scale you already had with you, since he thought Faery blood might be strong enough to get through two sets of World Walls, and he had a good idea Finny could figure out the ritual. He also sent a strong north wind to speed us both along, and I tried to catch up to you, but you were always ahead. I got to the beach just in time to see you guys burn your scale and vanish. And by then I was so tired that war or no war, I only wanted to sleep. I did for a little while—had no choice—but then I decided it was time I got the hell out of there. I figured you guys were back in our World, since that was the plan, and I thought you had to stop off there on your way to Faerie. So I aimed for there when I burned my scale. Called on all three of you,” he added. “Got no answer. It was kinda the world's ultimate wrong number. Well, I thought this was a mess 'cause I only had one more scale. I couldn't think of who to try next, since it needs to be a person with Power. I thought of Sandy, but wasn't sure how ‘powerful' she is, and I didn't really wanta wind up back in Carolina, and had no clear destination along the coast. So I settled on Uncle Dale, figurin' he was a better risk and was that much closer—at least in Georgia.”

He paused, took a long draught of coffee. “Well,” he continued, “imagine
my
surprise when I burn the last scale—and find myself somewhere in the wilds of middle Georgia watchin' an old man talkin' to the State Troopers 'bout a certain red '66 Mustang they'd found abandoned with suspicious damage around the front end. Trouble was, I didn't have any clothes on as a result of my latest round of skinchanging, so I couldn't come out until they'd left, but they finally made a couple of calls and evidently ended up pretty satisfied. Luckily, this was some time 'round midnight our time, so they didn't see me pop in. But anyway, I got with Uncle Dale, and we decided to come on south in the Mustang, it bein' in better shape than the truck. Weren't sure where to go, exactly, so we just sorta winged it. Figured there'd be some kind of manifestation
in this world if the battle happened as planned, so we went lookin' for bad weather. Wound up at the Cumberland Island Ferry, and that was really a mess, since they're kinda picky about who goes over and when. Uncle Dale knew one of the rangers from when he'd been stationed up in Enotah County, though. He pulled some strings, got us over.”