Into Darkness
By Lazette Gifford
I left my little office early because of a surprising urge to jog and clear away some of the detritus that had built up in my head from my last case. I hadn't jogged in quite a while, and the weather today looked perfect: cloudy and cool, with a slight summer-going-to-autumn breeze.
When I was still a cop, before they ran me off the force, I had thought the idea of being a self-employed private investigator was a future full of bright promise. Alain Marcos, PI. Sometimes I could still look at my business cards and feel that initial thrill, but it was wearing thin. My office was in a dingy building out in the burbs, and despite the movies, so far the only pretty woman to come strolling through my door had been from the IRS, and it had cost me dearly.
So today I jogged, to bury the nasty little case of a man who had me follow his wife, and then didn't want to pay when I found her with his brother. It had been a sordid affair all the way around, and I wanted to push it out of my head. Running had always been my escape.
The after-work crowd hadn't arrived at the park yet. Mothers with children stood clustered at the playground, and a few in-line skaters were defying gravity over in the new skate park. A bicyclist rushed past me just as I started down a tree-lined path, but that was the last person I saw until--
The elf was sitting on the boulder, which I thought was pretty damn brazen. There weren't supposed to be any more elves in the park. The city said they had cleared them out.
"What the hell do you want?" I demanded.
"That be no way ta' speak--"
"Cut the act. I've dined with Prince Pretty Boy Jacques too often to fall for it."
He looked startled, probably by my less than polite reference to one of the high elf lord and masters. Elves could never get used to human irreverence for rank. Or perhaps this one hadn't known who I was, and my connection to the elves.
"I'm sorry," he said. An Elf apologizing was such a novelty that I didn't snap back with one of my usual witty remarks. He slipped from the rock, a hand on his side. There was, I thought, a stain there. Oh no. "Prince Pretty Boy asked me ta' come and find you."
"I don't think--" I said, but he lifted a hand and I fell silent. It wasn't even magic: I just knew this wasn't the time for the usual games. I knew, as well, that there had been a reason why I suddenly wanted to jog this afternoon. I had been summoned here, and none to politely.
The stranger limped towards me. I should have turned and ran all the way to my apartment, where I could pack and be out of town before any damn elf could catch me. But I didn't run.
"We have trouble, Alain," he said softly. "We have real trouble, and I don't just mean the elves."
I caught him as he fell. Oh hell! The elves were nuisances, and just seemed to love ruining my life in particular, but I couldn't walk away and leave one bleeding to death in the park. Besides, Elves never lie when it comes to trouble, and they don't bleed just to be dramatic. They certainly don't faint into human arms if they can help it.
I looked at his wound, a deep long cut that went from his side to his back. The fact that it wasn't healed said a lot more than the wound itself. I'd taken a dozen trips through the gates, and knew that was no fairytale world on the other side. The land was rough, fighting and dueling endemic, but magic healed wounds and very little was ever permanent.
Even in the human lands there should have been power for him, especially in the heart of the green and life-filled park. That's why they had always congregated around this place, much to the dismay of fanatical humans.
I looked back at the elf's face and tried to recall if I'd seen this one before. I knew more than a dozen by name, which was quite a feat for a human. I even liked the bothersome little bastards--most of the time. In fact, my like of elves was why the police commissioner told me to find work elsewhere, and why I had tried my hand at an old dream for a while.
The elves, in the face of growing bigotry, had mostly retreated from our world in the last year. There was an enclave of exiles and half-breeds in the boroughs, but visitors were unusual these days. I hadn't even seen Jacques lately, and now I wondered why he hadn't come to me himself. There was something wrong. Something bad.
I carried this one back to my car, scowling at anyone who came near. There was a growing mumble of words as unhappy humans began to gather behind me. I ignored them as I got the elf into the car and leapt around to the driver's side. Someone threw a rock as I pulled away. Probably dented the car somewhere, but I'd never notice given the shape it was in.
My companion sat slumped and bleeding against the torn upholstery. I winced, not at the damage he was doing to the car, but rather what the car was doing to him. People still believe the myth that iron will kill elves, and it will. It will kill us all, in fact. However, it will kill elves in slower and much nastier way by getting into the blood stream. Normally, an elf can ride in a car without much trouble, but one that's already bleeding...
I hit the gas and let the tires squeal as we pealed out of the parking lot and into the street, startling a taxi driver. Neat trick, that. They were hard to scare. If a cop tried to stop me, he'd have a damn good run for his money. The car looked like it was on its last legs--last wheels--but I had a good motor in her, and a couple elf spells to help keep her safe and running.
"Nae, nae--please!"
I looked at the elf for a startled second. That accent wasn't an act. Oh damn. This one really wasn't Earth-born, or even one a frequent visitor. His eyes opened. They were brilliant, dark green. Realm born, for sure. He looked around with a startled snap of his head, but there was little more strength in him.
"Car?" he whispered.
"Car," I confirmed. Careful, I told myself. Some elves were given to odd reactions when they didn't understand something, especially things mechanical. And metal. "You're safe. I'm taking you to the elf quarter, to a healer I know there. She'll help."
"An--exile?"
"Voluntary. Even Prince Jacques visited her once."
His eyes shifted toward me. I dared not look at him for too long, not with the speed I was making. I had a young, deep-born Elf bleeding profusely in the front seat of my car. This wasn't looking good. I wanted answers to the trouble that brought him here, and at the same time I really didn't want to ask them. So I thought I'd start with something easy.
"You know my name," I said as I braked at a stoplight. "Is it allowed to ask yours?"
The elf looked back at me and blinked. "Prince Jacques honors you. He trusts you. I am Kitlain."
The light changed. I noticed that peripherally, while I stared at my passenger. There was only one Kitlain I'd ever heard Prince Jacques mention. There was no way the new young king of the Elflands would come to me--to a human--looking for help. Not unless things were so damn bad that there was no one else. Oh hell.
"You know who I am, Alain?" he asked, and then stopped and tried to catch is breath.
"Yes, sire," I said and started the car moving again. I tried to calm myself, but there was no use "We're almost there. After you're healed, we can discuss the problem."
"Unless the trouble catches up with me--first."
There was a damn unwelcome thought, not that it hadn't been flittering in the back of my mind already. "Where is Jacques?" I asked.
"Trying to get here. Gods grant that he makes it. That he makes it soon."
The first statement had sounded ill-omened. Elves were usually very careful of saying such things when speaking of their friends. I felt a little shiver, and buried that behind human stubbornness, refusing to believe in omens--as though I hadn't seen that the world of the elves worked differently. At least we'd almost reached the boroughs, and I hoped to hell I could find help.
Then I realized I couldn't foist King Kitlain off on the first elf I saw. Prince Pretty Boy had trusted me with his King, and I wouldn't let him down.
Cars were, naturally enough, rare in the elf borough, and one coming in from the outside usually drew immediate notice. This time I drove three blocks into the maze, and hadn't even seen a single elf. The hair on the back of my neck was tingling, and my gut suddenly felt as though it was filled with rocks.
"Something's wrong," I said. "No one on the streets."
"They know of the war," the boy said. "Word spreads quickly, even among exiles. Is--it far to--this healer?"
"Not far." The blood under his hand spread much farther as I glanced at him. "Can you tell me about the war, King Kitlain?"
"The Farbound are invading." He said the words softly. "You know about the Farbound?"
"Yes." My hands were suddenly damp as I parked by a tall brownstone building that was nearly engulfed in ivy. I had heard about the Farbound from Jacques. "Creatures so different from Elf and human that they can not bear to have us live in their realm."
"Yes. They invaded and have taken Elf holds and killed--many."
Killed many elves. The words froze me again. Oh damn. Magic gone and lost forever. Dead.
"We believe there was some catastrophe," he said softly. "We think they have lost power in their own realm, and that the Farbound want out."
Out? Out of the magic lands and to here, where vast areas of wild magic still existed, untouched--and where they had no natural enemies. There was no one on earth with the magic to fight them. "Hell," I whispered.
"Yes," he said. "That is exactly what it will be if we do not fight them back."
His head fell back against the car seat. I threw open my door and bounded around the car, yanking the door open. He almost fell onto the street. I grabbed him into my arms and stood.
Damn good thing I was used to elves. I suddenly had an audience of at least twenty who had arrived out of nowhere. Blue was in the front. She had silver eyes and black hair, and I'd never seen her out of her home in daylight before. She looked tall and thin, ethereal and unreal.
"Alain," she said softly. "Do you know what you hold in your arms?"
"King Kitlain."
She nodded, bowed her head, and then laid a hand on the King's side. The magic she used was so strong that even I could feel it tingle in my arms. Many humans would have dropped the boy and fled at the feel. Many died because they couldn't stand the idea of that very magic that could save them.
It had saved me once, in payment for rescuing Jacques from a group of human purists. I wasn't afraid. King Kitlain still lay unconscious in my arms, but I could feel a bit of warmth and life returned. He breathed easier now.
"The King has put himself into your hands, friend," Blue said. "Would you carry him to the circle?"
"I am honored." I bowed my head and followed her. It really was an honor to allow a human into the sacred circle. Still, I couldn't help feeling the timing was bad. Trouble was coming and someone had to warn my people, those few who would still listen to me. I couldn't even begin to think about the difficulty we faced. Farbound were beyond my ken, and I understood such things better than almost any human on earth.
I didn't know how to fight them, and realized that it wouldn't hurt to learn a bit more. The elves were the first line of defense against the Farbound, who would have to beat a path through elfland before they could reach the world of humans--unless the elves opened a path and offered them a way through, to get them out of their own realm.
No. That was how a human would think. An elf would never stain his immortal soul with such a dishonor. Even the ones who didn't like humans wouldn't do it. Of that I was certain.
When humans had lived here in the boroughs, there had been row upon row of tall brick buildings behind the first ones we passed. When we reached the back of the brownstone, I was shocked to find a large, grassy area stretched out before me. Trees stood in a circle a hundred yards away. Those pines were so tall and stately that I knew they were hundreds of years old, and that they hadn't grown here. There hadn't been time, since the elves had only been on Earth for less than twenty years.
"The trees?" I asked.
"Brought from home last year," Blue answered. Many elves had trouble reckoning in years, but I suspected Blue knew exactly what she was saying.
"You're exiles. How did you manage to retrieve so much of the realm and bring it through?"
"Prince Jacques sent this circle to us," she said. "He told us that the human world had need of a little more magic."
That sounded like one of Jacques's visions, which were notoriously fickle. Jacques had likely only seen that the exiled elves needed some piece of home. How often had we both said that a bit more magic wouldn't hurt this world?
I'd been in circles before, though usually makeshift ones of potted plants. As I stepped inside this majestic ring of trees, I felt a very odd sense of age and peace. I hadn't expected so strong a reaction, since I didn't have magic.
Blue pulled off her shawl and placed it on the grass at the very center of the circle. I carefully settled the young elf king there. The other elves were already kneeling and joining hands, a sign of a major magical spell about to be performed. This wasn't something I could help them with, nor could they talk to me while doing it. The information I sought would have to wait.
"I'm leaving now," I said. Green fairy eyes all turned to me. "I'm going to see if there's anything more I can learn."
Blue nodded. I backed out of the circle, and gave a bow when I reached the outer edge. That drew looks of surprise and approval. Prince Pretty Boy had taught me proper manners. I knew how to behave in Elvan company.
I drove slowly out of the elf boroughs, though I was tempted to floor the gas pedal again. Instead, I forced myself to sit back and slow down. Where should I go? Where could I get more information? The best idea was to go to the source, back to the park. That was the location of the gate through which King Kitalin had arrived. I might find something helpful there.
I didn't feel safe until I was back in the dark shadows of the trees. That probably meant I was spending far too much time with the elves. Elves use nature as a source of power and an anchor. The Park was a very large concentration of nature, and had always been used by elves traveling to this city. I had heard that there were enclaves of elves out in the wild mountain forests of the west, but elves generally chose to visit, and settle, civilized areas. They loved nature and were a part of it, but that didn't mean they liked to live on roots and berries and run naked with the deer.
That circle I had just left in the boroughs had a strong power of its own, and was Elf-centered beside. If Prince Jacques was helping King Kitlain, why didn't he send the boy there?
I was nearly back to the boulder when the answer occurred to me. This was a known gate. They must not have had time to build one to the circle. That told me yet more about the trouble. It must have hit them quickly and hard, and Jacques sent the King through to a place he could call up quickly; a place he had visited and knew well.
I slowed as I neared the area where I found the King and slipped off the trail and into the bushes. I heard sounds, and they were not natural sounds. I didn't even pretend that I'd peer out and find a couple poodles discussing the weather. Nothing that normal.
What I did find, beyond the thin veil of trees, was darkness. Not night, not shadow. This darkness was so complete and awful that it felt cold to look at it. I stood stone still, even before I realized the dark was what made the strange sludgy noise. I could see eddies in the dark; swirls of black on a darker black. The currents churned faster when it made noise, as though in agitation. I couldn't even find the edges of this--this Farbound.
I had never seen one. It wasn't quite as frightening as Jacques had painted it, but that was the elves for you. They could make anything seem more than it was. Still, there was something about this darkness oozing over the ground that made me want to cringe back into my own shadows. I stayed very still instead. I remembered Pretty Boy telling me that if I ever saw a Farbound, to stay very still. Movement meant life, and they would always strike at life, destroying what was alien to them.
Maybe that had been another hint of vision. He had a way of joking and laughing when he gave you some instructions, and only later you learned that the joke was on you. He would apologize afterwards, and say he hadn't realized. Sometimes I believed him, especially on those occasions when the fool walked right into trouble with me. His warnings, however haphazard, proved helpful though. We had always survived.
I didn't even want to breathe, but I feared that if I held his breath too long, I'd pass out and fall down, defeating the purpose. So I breathed shallowly and watched the creature on the trail below me.
I didn't know what else to do. Prince Pretty Boy had specifically said they could only die by magic light. That didn't help me since, despite all my associations with elves, I didn't possess any magic.
The thing slithered along the path, first toward me, and then back to the boulder again. Maybe it had a scent of the King. There was no doubt it would want Kitlain, who was the nexus of all elf power. If he was taken or killed, the elves would loose more than half their magical strength, at least until a new king can be ordained and trained.
Then I saw something far worse. A shape began to form above the boulder; an elf coming into this world, and was about to drop right in on a Farbound. He'd never survive. I'm glad to say that I was moving to save the elf even before I saw who it was: Prince Pretty Boy himself, blood-covered, pale and wounded.
I leapt and yelled. Jacques's head came up, and his eyes widened as he saw what was awaiting him. His hands moved, and he made magic as he slipped from one world to another. I knew how hard that was, but it did the trick. My yell and movement had drawn the Farbound away from Jacques, and the elf had just enough time to cast his magical light before it reached me.
It wasn't pleasant to see the Farbound destroyed. I was used to magic being neat and tidy. This was not. The light hit the creature, and it squealed so loudly that the trees shook. I fell and my hand brushed against the darkness. The pain was intense, but even as I touched the dark, the creature was contracting into a little ball of blackness that howled with a sound that made me sick.
Jacques came closer, limping badly, an arm around his chest. He held out his left hand and cast again, tossing out another flicker of light. The creature disappeared. Gone. Quiet.
Jacques went to his knees. I got to me feet and unsteadily crossed to him, ready to berate and yell and curse the elves--
"Tell me--tell me he is--"
"I took your King to Blue," I said. His face was white, his green eyes clouded with pain.
"Praise the gods of both worlds," he whispered, and started to fall forward.
"Oh no you don't!" I caught him. He looked at me, startled. "You are going to tell me what the hell is going on!"
"Farbound--"
"I got that much. How did that one get here so quickly?"
His eyes went wide once more. "I don't know. Alain--we must--seal the gate. Let nothing more through. We are not ready. They will swarm through this gate and nothing in this world can stop them. There are not enough elves here to make a difference."
"And they won't be stopped on the other side?" I said.
He looked up again, his eyes so bleak that I felt my breath catch at news I suddenly didn't want to hear. "They have fallen, Alain. Not--not lost completely, but they cannot stop the expansion of the Farbound. Many have escaped to the other places. I came here. I hadn't realized that they'd already come through. Gods, more of us would have come--"
I felt a tingle along my skin. Magic. Jacques suddenly stood--he swayed and I caught hold of him. We both looked back at the boulder.
Darkness was coming.
"I must seal--"
His hand lifted and magic surged. I still had an arm around his waist. I felt the fire of his magic, strong and sure. And then I felt the life leaving him, and knew what he was putting into that spell.
"No!"
Maybe it was a vision of my own. I had the uncommonly strong feeling that we needed Prince Pretty Boy. I did what was madness at any other time: I slapped his face and he lost concentration on the spell. Jacques moaned and collapsed into my arms, a dead weight, but not dead.
And I wondered what to do now. The Farbound was through and already sliding down over the boulder. This one was larger than the one he had destroyed. I didn't think Jacques had the ability to even slow this one.
"Tell me what I can do," I said.
"I need the others," he said softly. "I need the others--you must--"
"I'm not leaving you here to die!"
He looked at me, quite plainly confused. "Me or your world, Alain."
"No answer is ever that cut and dry, Jacques," I said, pulling him backward as quickly as I could, hoping we could find some place safe. I knew it was a fool's quest, with that thing following us. "Convince me that if you die, it will be destroyed. Convince me that it won't be the loss of a damn strong elf that we might need later."
"Alain, I sent you the king."
The Farbound started to make the sludging noises. I thought it might have found the spot where its companion had fallen, and didn't like to think what sort of reaction that would bring. "Your King is a nexus, but he needs the power of other elves to make him strong. You taught me too well, Jacques. I'm not going to sacrifice you. Tell me another way."
"There is none!" he said, quite frustrated. "Damn you humans for being so stubborn!"
He used magic to pull free of me. I leapt back and grabbed him as he tried to throw himself at the Farbound, and we both tumbled to the ground. I think all our movement must have confused it, or else it was still disorientated from the journey. The Farbound could have killed us just then, while we grappled with each other. Jacques was cursing in my language and his own. He tried to pull away and I held on. And then--
There were elves around us: Blue, her companions from the circle, and even King Kitlain. The boy was still pale and shaky, but when he lifted his hand, the Farbound retreated even before the group began to chant.
I saw then the power of the King of the Elflands for the first time. I had watched spells cast more times than I could remember; big spells, little spells, and even a few done in groups. This was different. The elves didn't turn against the Farbound: They cast their spells toward their king. He stood with his hands raised, ablaze with energy that grew far beyond the blending of their individual spells. Every magic that he caught multiplied in his hold, until it was painful for me to look at the rainbow glow of power.
I turned to the Farbound, and found that it was back at the rock, opening the gate once more, and trying to slither through to safety. It was not fast enough as the King's casting caught it in a nimbus of light that brightened all the woods around us. The howl was almost unbearable. I would have run, but I had hold of Jacques still, and he was not dead. I don't know why that mattered so much to me, except that he had saved my life on more than one occasion, and it only seemed fair to have done the same. And risked my world for him? It was a sort of elfish kind of honor that made me do it. It was elf madness.
When the Farbound was gone the magic died down in a twinkle of multicolored stars that fell like glitter to the ground. Somewhere close by a sparrow sang out, a lovely bit of music in a world of beauty and madness.
Blue knelt and put a hand on Jacques's chest. I felt the magic again, and felt the Prince grow warmer.
"You did well," she said at last, looking at me. "You saved them both. We need our Prince Pretty Boy."
She grinned, and it was like light in the shadows. For the first time since I'd found their King I felt that there might be a chance of hope after all.
"We've set a seal on this gate, and others have gone to deal with the other gates," King Kitlain said. He knelt down on the path. His hand turned the Prince's face so that he looked at his king. Jacques was still disorientated, and weak. I held him so that he could at least sit up in the presence of his sovereign. "You sent me here knowing that the elflands would fall when I was gone."
"I sent you here because I knew--the elflands would fall," he said softly. "Whether you were there did not matter--except that here, you would live."
"Truly?"
"Truly," he said, as though an elf had ever lied. "King Kitlain, I have seen this more clearly than any other vision I've ever had. I have seen it every day for months."
"And said nothing?" the king said.
"How could I say to you that our lands would fall, and that our hope would be with the humans?" he asked, waving a hand toward me. "How could I have made you believe? But it wasn't necessary that you did. It was a vision. I knew it would happen, whether you knew or not. I could not see why everyone else should suffer with the knowledge as I did."
"You are damned infuriating," the king said. I laughed. Kitlain looked at me, almost frowning before he grinned brightly. "Yes, you know our Prince Pretty Boy will drive us all ta' madness, don't you?"
"Absolutely," I said. "What now?"
"Now," King Kitlain said. He looked around the park and then at his elves. "Now we prepare for a very long war."
There are paths through the park that locals don't take very often these days, though the elves don't mind if a human wanders into their camps. They like the company. I live with them since they needed a human liaison. Relations are better now that the elves guard the portal to keep the Farbound away. Ours wasn't the only city attacked, and the humans have learned that the elves are their only hope.
We've damned little word of what's happening in the other realms, although there has been an occasional odd messenger to King Kitlain. The elves are waiting. The time will come when they go back and fight the Farbound, and cleanse their lands again.
I'll go with them, and I won't be the only human. The war makes us allies. And the magic gives us hope.
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