"Are you sure we'll be okay here?" she asked him.
Arkan shook his head. "No. But what else can we do?"
Good question, Kate thought. She stood aside as Eilian and Jacky disembarked, then led the way into the restaurant.
Thirteen
Jacky and Kate brought each other up to date over burgers, fries and thick milkshakes. They interrupted each other constantly with "You didn't!"s and "I would've died"s, much to the amusement of their faerie companions.
Hilarity sparked between them and Kate thought about what Arkan had said about how Faerie affected mortals who strayed into it. She worried, remembering snatches of old tales telling of poets driven mad by faerie queens and the like, but it was too hard to remain sensible with the way Jacky was carrying on and the giddiness that continued to bubble up inside herself.
There'd been no need to worry about how they looked. The mid-evening Dairy Queen crowd, while not quite as scruffy as the four of them, were hardly fashionable. Polyester and jeans were the order of the day. One man in green-and-yellow plaid trousers, mismatched with a red-and-blue striped windbreaker, set them all off again.
Double-dating at the DQ, Kate thought as she looked in the window and caught the reflection of the four of them in their booth. Then she saw the third rider pull into the parking lot across the street. He put his machine on its kickstand beside the other two bikes, then walked over to where his companions stood under a billboard advertising Daniel Hechter sweatshirts.
What struck Kate first and foremost was that she wasn't wearing the redcap at the moment. It was sitting on the table beside the wrappers of the two burgers that she'd just devoured.
"How come I can see them?" she asked, interrupting Jacky in the middle of explaining why she'd been standing with her shirt in her hand when they'd picked her up.
"The riders," Kate added at the general collection of blank looks her question garnered. "I can see all three of them and I'm not wearing the cap."
"Each time you see into Faerie, it becomes easier," Arkan said. "Not for all, mind, and quicker for some than for others. You see us, don't you?"
"Yes, but–"
"Think of it as a painting that you've had for years. A nice landscape, perhaps. One day someone comes in and says, 'Look at that face in the side of the hill,' and from then on you'll always be aware of that face. Because you'll know it's there."
"It's that simple?"
"No," Arkan replied with a grin. "It's faerie magic."
Kate aimed a kick at him under the table, but missed.
"What're we going to do about them?" Jacky asked, indicating the riders with a nod of her head. "We won't be able to do anything if they're following us around."
"We must lose them," Eilian said.
Arkan shook his head. "Easy to say, but impossible to do."
"The Gruagagh would know a way," Jacky said.
"But he told you not to go back," Kate reminded her.
"That was before. He was afraid they'd get my scent or something. Well, they've got it now, so what harm would there be in going to ask him for advice?"
"One does not go lightly against the wishes of a gruagagh," Eilian said.
"We're not really going to do that," Jacky insisted. "Nothing's the same anymore. We can't go sneaking into the Giants' Keep because with the Hunt following us, we might as well just step right up and ring the front doorbell. We need a trick to get by them, and the Gruagagh's the one to give it to us."
"We do need something," Eilian agreed.
"How did you know about Jacky?" Kate asked the Laird of Dunlogan's son, speaking as the thought came to her. "What brought you here looking for her?"
They all looked at him, and even Jacky saw him as though for the first time. He had a look that set him a cut above the common. His hair was the black of the feathers she remembered, his eyes darker still. A Laird's son was like a prince, wasn't he? Eilian smiled as though reading her thoughts. Unfortunately, Jacky told herself, by that reckoning, the only princess around here was Lorana. Rescuing her could make this whole thing into a regular fairy tale.
"There is a story oft-told in Dunlogan," Eilian said, "that came long before this time of trouble began. It foretold the fading of Faerie in Dunlogan, and Kinrowan, and all the new haunts of our people here in Liomauch Og. It warned as well of how the Host would grow stronger, in turn. When that time came, there a new Jack would arrive in one of the Seelie Courts, come to cast down the giants as have the Jacks of old."
"I'm not a Jack," Jacky said. "I'm a girl."
Eilian nodded. "Most assuredly, yet the spirits of the Jacks of old is in you. It's a lucky name, as the tales that your people still tell can vouch for."
"I've heard that tale before," Arkan said. "But where do you fit in?"
"I'm the third son of a third son of –"
"A third son," Arkan finished. "I see."
"Well, I don't," Kate said.
"It's like in the stories, isn't it?" Jacky asked.
Eilian nodded again. "The histories of Faerie tend to repeat themselves as much as your own do."
"You see," Jacky said, turning to Kate. "It's always the youngest son – not the eldest or the middle – but the third, the youngest son, who wins through in the end. It's in all the stories."
"Why?"
"Oh, Kate. I don't know. Because that's the way it works."
"But this isn't a story."
"It might as well be one." Jacky grinned. "Hobs and giants and bogans and all. It makes me feel lightheaded."
"I shouldn't wonder. You've lost about ten pounds of hair."
Jacky turned to her reflection, lifting a hand to the uneven mess of her hair. "Oh, God! Look at me! I'd forgotten how terrible I looked."
"That's the least of our problems," Kate said.
"Easy for you to say."
"I just did."
Jacky tried out a fierce look on Kate, but couldn't hold it. The two erupted in laughter, leaving Eilian and Arkan shaking their heads. Arkan turned to the Laird's son.
"I think it's something about the air of Faerie," he said. "Even in a place like this."
"Either that," Eilian said, "or mortals are all mad."
Jacky finally caught her breath. "You were saying?" she prompted.
"Times have been bad," Eilian said after a moment or two, "and getting worse. When word came north of how Gyre the Elder was moving his Court into Kinrowan, our Billy Blind said it was time now for me to go and help as I could. Three knots he tied in my hair, one for each –"
"What's a Billy Blind?" Jacky asked, interrupting.
Arkan replied. "It's a custom we brought with us from the old country. Every Court has one – a man or woman who has been crippled or blinded. They can often see into the days to come, and the old magics run strong in them – as recompense, some say. Even your folk had them in the old days."
Jacky's mouth shaped a small "Oh." Then she turned to Eilian. "And he tied knots in your hair?"
Eilian nodded. "One for each mortal danger I must face. Here, look." He turned his head so that Jacky could see two small braided knots of hair that hung behind his right ear.
"There's only two."
Eilian nodded again, adding a smile. "That's because one came undone after you rescued me from the Unseelie Court this evening."
"You mean, you've got to go through that two more times?"
"That, or something like it."
"Oh." The prospect wasn't very pleasing to Jacky. "Well, at least you know you'll be okay, won't you? I mean, something'll happen, and you'll pull through until both those knots are gone as well, right?"
"It's not that assured, unfortunately," Eilian replied.
"It's usually that way with augurings," Arkan added.
"Easy for you to say,'" Kate said, "seeing how you don't have knots in your hair."
Arkan smiled. "How do you know what I do or do not have in my hair?"
"The thing we've got to do," Jacky said, "is get out of here.
" She didn't like all this talk about hair and who had what in theirs. "I say we make our way to the Gruagagh's Tower and stay there tonight, then head for Calabogie first thing in the morning."
"And the Hunt?" Arkan asked.
"I've got a plan."
Kate looked at Jacky and shook her head. "I don't think I'm going to like this at all," she said.
* * *
Over Kate's protests, Jacky took her jacket and went to the washroom. Moments later the door opened and Kate saw her friend come out, but knew that no one else would for she was wearing the blue jacket now, with its hob-spelled stitcheries. She frowned at Arkan and Eilian, neither of whom had objected to Jacky's plan because they were both enamoured with the fact that she was "the Jack, after all. She killed a giant, didn't she?"
Jacky waited by the door until a customer was leaving, then winked at Kate and slipped out behind him. It took all of Kate's willpower not to stare out the window and watch Jacky's progress. Jacky might be invisible to the Hunt, but if Kate and her two faerie companions had their noses pressed up to the window, the riders would soon know that something was up.
Count to a hundred, Jacky had said. Staring daggers at her two faerie companions who had let Jacky proceed with her plan, Kate began to count.
Once she was outside, Jacky's confidence, fueled by Eilian and Arkan's admiring agreement to her plan, began to falter. There were too many shadows around her. The wind rustled leaves and the odd bit of refuse up and down the street, effectively swallowing any telltale sounds that might warn her of approaching bogans and the like.
A car pulled into the Dairy Queen's parking lot, almost running her down. She was about to shout something at the foolidiotjerk, then realized that the poor sod behind the wheel couldn't have seen her. Not with the jacket on. She glanced back at the restaurant where Kate and the others were playing their part. Then biting at her lower lip, she faced the three riders of the Hunt across the street from her.
This, she realized, might not be one of her brightest ideas. But it was too late to back out now. They had to do something. It was that, or dawdle around the old DQ until the place closed and they were kicked out. By then who knew how many of the Unseelie Court would be skulking around looking for tasty mortals to gnaw on.
She shivered, remembering her helplessness in the Civic Centre. But you got away, she told herself. And you did kill a giant. They'll be scared of you now. Right. Sure.
She started across the street.
* * *
Fifty-five, fifty-six.
Surely she could dare a peek?
Fifty-seven, fifty-eight.
Kate's nerves were all jangling. She should have insisted that she be the one to go out. At least then she wouldn't be stuck inside here worrying.
Sixty, sixty-one.
She glanced casually out the window, saw Jacky starting across the street, then just as casually stretched and looked back at her companions.
"I wonder what's taking her so long in there," she said to Arkan who obligingly turned and looked at the door to the washroom.
Sixty-nine, seventy.
He shrugged as he looked back at her. "Maybe she's looking for knots in her hair," he said.
Eilian and Kate laughed.
Seventy-four.
Kate wondered if Eilian's laugh sounded as hollow to him as hers did to her.
Seventy-six.
If I were a Huntsman, she thought, I'd know something was up just by the way we're all sitting in this booth like a bunch of geeks.
Eighty, eighty-one.
* * *
As she passed by the Hunt, Jacky was tempted to grab something and whack one of them over the head, but all she did was go by as softly as she could, positive that they could hear her knees rattling against each other, her teeth chattering, her pulse drumming out "HereIam, hereIam!" And then, just when she was as close to them as her path would take her, one lifted his head and looked around himself uneasily.
Oh, shit, Jacky thought.
Close as she was, she could see that the impression of emptiness under their helmets was caused by visors of non-reflective dark plexiglass. The one who had lifted his head now pushed back his visor and for the first time Jacky got a glimpse at what a Huntsman really looked like. His features surprised her. He seemed quite human, rough and craggy, but human all the same. He didn't have anything like the monstrous visage she'd imagined. Of course, the way he looked wasn't going to stop him from giving the alarm once he spotted her. His gaze settled on where she was standing.
This is it, she thought. I'm doomed.
But then a truck went by on the street and she moved quickly with it, hob-stitched sneakers lending her the necessary speed, the truck's passage swallowing any sound she might make. When she reached the position in front of the Bingo Hall that she'd been making for, she looked back to see that the rider had dropped his visor once more, his attention turned elsewhere. Jacky glanced over at the Dairy Queen.
She hadn't been counting, so she wasn't sure how long she had to wait. Just a couple of secs, she thought, but time dragged. She peeked back down at the sidewalk at the three riders. She could tell just by looking at them that they knew something was about to happen; they just didn't know what.
Hang in there, fellas, she thought. The show's about to start.
She wondered why she was so thirsty. Her throat felt like someone had rubbed it with sandpaper. Come on, Kate. How long can it take to get to –
* * *
A hundred.
This is it, Kate thought. She got up and knocked on the door of the washroom while Arkan went outside to the car. Eilian stood by the door waiting for her. She knocked again, looked across the street to see the riders moving to their bikes, then glanced at Arkan. His head was under the dashboard looking for the ignition wires. When Judith coughed into life, he sat up and grinned at them, then tromped on the gas. The VW leapt across the parking lot with a squeal of tires.
* * *
Jacky waited, her coat unbuttoned, until the VW started. Then she pulled off the jacket and stepped out from under the awning of the Bingo Hall and onto the pavement.
"Hey, bozos!" she cried.
The riders, moving for their Harleys, paused at the sound of her voice. She couldn't see the surprise register on their faces because of their dark plexiglass visors, but their indecision was plain in their body language.
Do it! she willed to Arkan.
At that moment the VW came tearing out of the parking lot. Jacky moved toward the riders, but slowly, making them hesitate. Then Arkan was aiming Judith at their bikes.
He hit the brakes as he neared the big choppers and the car slewed sideways. It hit the first bike and sent it crashing into the others. The riders leapt out of the way as the three machines toppled. Arkan brought Judith to an abrupt halt, backed up, popped the clutch back into first. The transmission shrieked. He floored the gas again, driving the bikes against one another and up against a streetlamp. Jacky didn't stay to watch any more.
She ran across the street for the front door of the Dairy Queen where Kate and Eilian were waiting. They watched Arkan back Judith away from the bikes and roar across the street to where they waited. The fenders and front trunk of the little car were a mess – crushed in, bumper hanging askew, one headlight dangling from the left side, the other shining straight up into the sky on the right.
"My car!" Kate wailed. "It's ruined!"
Arkan pulled to a screeching stop and Eilian opened the passenger's door. Grabbing Kate's arm, Jacky propelled her into the car. They both piled into the back – Kate under protest. Eilian was barely half in when Arkan pulled away, but he hung on, managed to haul himself the rest of the way in and slammed the door.
Arkan turned left at Riverdale, moving quickly through the gears up to third.
"It worked!" Jacky cried. She twisted around, peering out the back window. She could see the riders trying to untangle their machines. "We've lost them."
"I've had thi
s car for seven years," Kate said.
"We'll get you another one," Jacky told her.
"You can't buy these anymore – not like Judith." She glared at Jacky. "How could you do this to Judith?"
"I …" It had been such a good plan, Jacky thought. And it had worked, too. But she'd never really thought about what it would do to Kate's car.
"Jeez, Kate. I wasn't trying to wreck her."
"God! Imagine if you had been."
"Well, you're the one who insisted on coming along."
"I …" Now it was Kate's turn to deflate. "I suppose I did. It's just that …"
Jacky gave her a hug. "We'll get her fixed up," she promised. "We'll make the Gruagagh put a spell on her."
"Do you think he would?"
"Your chance to ask him is coming right up," Arkan said from the front seat as he pulled into the driveway beside the house that was the Gruagagh's Tower.
The front yard was all overgrown as well, though not so badly as the back. A tall oak stood sentinel on the lawn, branches bare of leaves spreading overhead. A rundown garage, its door closed and the whole structure leaning a bit to one side, crouched at the end of the driveway. The house was dark. It looked, at that moment, more deserted than ever.
"End of the line," Arkan said.
Eilian got out first. As Jacky and Kate disembarked, he opened the garage door. There was plenty of room inside, so Arkan drove Judith in, then reached down and undid the wires, killing the engine before getting out of the car and leaving the garage. Eilian closed the garage door behind Arkan and they rejoined Jacky and Kate.
"Jeez," Jacky said, looking at the dark house.
Second and third thoughts were busily cluttering up her mind. Her stupid throat had gone all dry again. She swallowed with a grimace.
"I hope he's in a good mood," she said as she led the way to the front door and knocked.