Earthbound: An Otherworld Novella (2 page)

Delilah thought it over, then gave a little shrug. “I guess it does sound like fun. Maybe over there, our half-blood heritage won’t matter so much. I get so tired of being called a Windwalker, though it hurt a lot more when I was a little girl.”

I dug into my lunch, spreading my bread with sweet butter and dipping it in the stew. “Who knows what else we’ll find? It’s a whole new world. Maybe we’ll luck out and meet the loves of our lives!”

Menolly laughed at that. “Right, and I’ll find a cure for my vampirism. No, I doubt if any of us are destined to find romance among a rough and tumble new world.”

Finally laughing, Delilah focused on her food while Menolly drank a goblet of blood. After lunch, we gathered our courage and headed over to the OIA for official reassignment.

One month later, on a blustery autumn day, we stood by one of the portals in Elqaneve, the elfin city. The city was beautiful, and the serenity beckoned to me. Elqaneve had stood for thousands of years, unchanging and unmarred by petty wars. Queen Asteria was working with the OIA, and she had briefly met us. The ancient Elfin Queen scared the hell out of me, but she had been kind and gentle.

Now, all that remained was for us to cross over. The Earthside division of the OIA would be there to greet us, along with the delegate from Earth who had thought up the joint task force between the two worlds.

Our father stood by our side. He looked like me—medium height with long black hair blended with blue highlights. His eyes were violet, like mine, and we both had extremely pale skin. He was dressed in his Guard Des’Estar uniform, and he remained stiffly at attention as we took our place in front of the portal. Trenyth, the advisor to Queen Asteria, quietly withdrew, giving us a few minutes.

“Even though I won’t be there to watch over your shoulders, I expect you to behave as though I am. You’ve never been on your own, but now, you will be responsible for your own behavior, and you are representing both your mother and me, as well as the OIA. Make me proud.” His voice held only the faintest quiver, the only sign that this wasn’t just any ordinary morning, and that we weren’t just headed across town to work. But that one quiver was enough to tell me that this was as hard on him as it was on us.

“We’ll make you proud. We won’t slack off.” I met his gaze, conflicted. Even though I was scared, facing the longest trip of my life, I also realized this would be the first time that he wasn’t running the show, constantly barking commands at me. While I wanted to make him proud, I could never do anything good enough. Maybe now I’d have a chance to prove myself. Maybe I’d be able to do something that would make him admit that I measured up.

“I trust you won’t.” He paused, looking uncomfortable as if he couldn’t figure out what to say next. Finally, he settled for, “Humans are peculiar. Your mother was an exceptional woman, but just as in Otherworld, there are many over Earthside who would rather inflict pain than do what is right. Be careful. I want you all back here, alive and in one piece.”

At that, Menolly looked uncomfortable, but Father seemed oblivious. I gave her an empathic smile, wishing that the bridge between them could be repaired. But our father hated vampires, and though he did his best to hide it, we all knew that, at some level, he blamed her for what had happened. Unfair? Absolutely. Unexpected? Sadly, not so much.

Trenyth returned. “A house sprite named Iris will be your guide while you get settled. She’s going to help you find a house. She’s picked out several based on your description of what you’re looking for, and she’ll show them to you. The money your mother left you, plus your relocation allowance, has already been transferred to your bank accounts in Earthside currency. That Maria thought to file birth certificates and get you social security cards—government issued documents that you’ll need—is a blessing. That made things much easier. Here are your OIA papers—don’t lose these. They’re important.” He handed us each a sheaf of documents. Each bundle was in a clear envelope that had a weird, shiny feel to it. We knew what plastic was, but had very little contact with it.

“Once you are there, you’ll learn to drive. You’ll be working with the FH-CSI…that would be the Faerie-Human Crime Scene Investigation unit. The man who runs it is named Chase Johnson. He’s a detective, be aware that’s his proper title.
Detective
Johnson.”

“Where will we meet Iris?”

“She, along with Chase will meet you on the other end of the portal. You’ll be transporting to the basement of the pub that Menolly will be working in. The portal there is a common destination for visitors from Y’Eírialiastar. I think that’s about it. Best of luck, girls. I’ll be in touch. We’ll be bringing a Whispering Mirror over to install once you have a house so you can contact me, and your father, without a problem. Please, be careful and try to have fun while you’re there.” He paused. “Camille, I know Lathe. I think I understand why you’re being reassigned. Trust me, Queen Asteria and I have the utmost faith in you and your sisters.”

I held his gaze and saw the gentle understanding there, and for once, I felt like we had someone in our corner. “Thank you for that. We can use a friend.”

“You have that in me.” And with that, Trenyth escorted us to the portals. “Do you have any last questions?”

I glanced at Menolly, and then Delilah. They shook their heads. I turned back to the elfin advisor. “I guess not. That’s about it.”

“Then, safe journeys. May the coming year go smoothly and without any problem. Blessings, girls. I doubt we’ll have much cause to talk, but if you need me, I’m here.” And with that, he motioned to the portal.

I eyed the flickering lights of the vortex. I had never been through a portal, though rumor had it the process didn’t hurt. From what we were told, it was more along the lines of being torn in half and then slammed back together. How that
couldn’t
hurt, I didn’t know, but I was about to find out.

I glanced back at my sisters. “You guys ready?”

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Menolly said.

Delilah turned back to wave at our father, then nodded.

I sucked in a deep breath and turned to the portal. “Okay, then. Here goes nothing. I guess we should look at this as one big long vacation. After all, how much trouble can we get into over there?” And with that, I stepped through the portal.

Chapter 2

I squinted as I tried to place where we were. We were in a dark room with no windows, although a glaring light flickered from the ceiling, bright enough to blind me. It wasn’t a candle, or magic. Then my wits came back to me as the vertigo began to vanish.

That’s right, we had just gone through a portal. Which meant we were in the basement of the Wayfarer, and the glaring light was a form of human magic—technology. Electricity. We had been warned that it worked very much like lightning. Humans generated it via vast machines, and were able to control it to fuel their lives. I shaded my eyes as I stumbled to the side. My body still tingled, as though every single cell had gone flying out into the universe and then had been snapped back, slamming into place again.

“You must be the D’Artigo sisters. Welcome to Seattle. Welcome to Earthside.” The voice was coming from somewhere beyond the glare of light, cloaked in the shadows.

As my eyes adjusted, I began to make out figures, and then with a final blink, I could see around me. The room was piled high around the edges with boxes and crates. To my left, behind the portal, a hall extended to the right. Big basement, for sure.

A man—human I assumed—stood in front of the portal. He was next to an elfin woman and a very short giant. Giants, be they vertically challenged or not, usually were on the scary side. But we had been briefed before we left that Jocko would be meeting us, and that he was an OIA agent. He posed as the bartender of the Wayfarer Bar and Grill. The OIA didn’t want the general populace over Earthside knowing they had a military presence, so they found cover jobs for us.

And my guess was the man standing next to him was Chase Johnson. Who the woman was, I had no clue. I stepped forward and held out my hand.

“Camille te Maria reporting for duty.” I paused, then added, “Over here, I’ll be known as Camille D’Artigo. These are my sisters, Delilah and Menolly.”

I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Delilah and Menolly had made it through okay. They, too, were shading their eyes, but otherwise looked fine. Delilah had a skittish look on her face and I stifled a groan.
Please, please don’t let her go changing into her tabby form and racing off.
The last thing I wanted to do was play chase-the-kitty. But she seemed to be holding it together.

“You doing okay?” I said softly.

She nodded. “Yeah, I’m too curious about what’s going on to shift, I think.”

The man stepped forward and took my hand. His skin was rough, as though he used his hands a lot. He had an olive complexion and dark, wavy hair, and the suit he wore appeared to be a tailored weave.

“Chase Johnson, detective for the FH-CSI—the Faerie-Human Crime Scene Investigations unit. Welcome to Earthside, girls.” His gaze lingered on me, running up and down my body to settle on my boobs. Immediately, I had his number. I had been the recipient of that once over far too many times.

“Jocko here.” The giant held out his hand and I stared at it for a moment. Giants often didn’t think about their strength when interacting with others, and I’d seen way too many well-intentioned handshakes end up with way too many broken fingers. But Jocko’s touch was light and gentle as he took my hand in his.

“How do you do? So you own the Wayfarer? Menolly will be your new bartender.” I waggled my finger at Menolly and she grudgingly stepped around me to the left, gazing at the giant with suspicion.

“Menolly, welcome.” Jocko nodded to her but didn’t attempt to shake her hand. Smart of him, I thought, given her hair-trigger temper.

“Hi.” She glanced around the room. “So, this is the basement of the bar? Looks like it needs a thorough spring cleaning.”

Jocko blushed. “I don’t get much time to mess with it. Maybe you can help.”

“I’d be glad to. Can’t stand clutter,” she said. “Do you keep a guard on the portal?”

“Yes, at all times.” Jocko motioned to a nearby desk. “We do our best to keep anybody out of here who isn’t authorized, because of the portal. We log all transfers in the journal over there, on the computer. I’ll have Tavah show you how to use it.”

Computers.
During the past month, we had memorized a large vocabulary of Earthside terminology, including the names of most of the devices humans had come to rely on. We were told that part of our job would be to gain a working knowledge of most of them, in order to further a smooth integration into society. The learning curve was bound to be steep and quick, and I suddenly realized that it would be a job in itself.

“So, what do we do first?” Delilah asked, shyly moving to stand by my right. “Where are we staying tonight? And who are you?” She turned to the elfin woman.

The elf was slight, with pale gold hair pulled back in a bun and had a gracious air about her. “I’m Sharah, originally from Elqaneve. I’m one of the medical techs at the FH-CSI. The unit also serves as a hospital and healing station for the OW Fae who’ve come over Earthside to visit.”

“OW?” Then I stopped. Of course,
Otherworld
. We would have to get used to the jargon used here.

“I asked Chase if I could come with him to welcome you to our side of the pond, so to speak,” she said.

I wasn’t sure what it was, but I had the feeling we would be seeing more of her.

“I suppose…Delilah’s right. What do we do next? Is there someplace we need to check in? We weren’t given detailed instructions before we left. In fact Trenyth, the elfin advisor to the Queen, was the one who saw us off.” I didn’t add that the OIA seem to have washed their hands of us as much as possible. Ever since we had been reassigned, training and preparation had been mostly from what the elves could teach us.

Jocko grunted. “Welcome to the club. Get used to the fact that that the OIA doesn’t pay much attention to those of us who are over here Earthside. I don’t mean to insult you, but between you, me, and the wall, welcome to the reject pond.”

Giants weren’t very tactful. Their knowledge and skill with diplomacy ranked up there with a vampire’s ability to stand out in the sun. But all pussyfooting aside, Jocko was right. We had hit the bottom of the heap when we had been reassigned. I assumed our father knew it too, but was too embarrassed to mention it.

Chase glanced from us, to Jocko, and then back again. “I suppose we need to get you settled in. If they haven’t assigned you to a temporary place to stay, we’ll find you one.”

Feeling a wash of exhaustion—the portal had been an energy drain that I hadn’t expected—I let out a grateful sigh. “Thank you. We have the money to buy a house, but we can’t do that tonight.” My voice trailed off and I had the sudden wish that our mother could be here to show us her world. She had wanted us to see her home, that much I remembered.

“Someday, I’ll sneak you Earthside so you can see where I grew up,” she used to say when we were little. She taught us how to speak English, and she trained us in the cultural references she knew. Some of them were outdated, but over the past month, Trenyth had trained us diligently in what he could.

Our mother had died when I was around seven years old — in approximately 1952 by Earthside count. As half Fae, my sisters and I would live far longer than humans and when we reached a certain point in our lives, we would be given the opportunity to take the Nectar of Life. But mother was human, and she had fallen from a horse and broken her neck. I had seen her soul statue shatter and was the first to realize that she was dead.

“Agent Kuusi will be helping you find a house—she couldn’t be here tonight, but she’ll meet you tomorrow. But for tonight, it’s probably better if Menolly sleeps in the safe room here.” Chase turned to Jocko. “That would be all right, wouldn’t it?”

“Safe room?” Menolly perked up.

Jocko nodded. He led us around the portal, turning down the hallway to the right. Stopping in front of the first door, which had a metallic sheen to it, he said, “This room was added into the wayfarer when the OIA bought the building. It’s magic proof, and strong enough to hold a demon. You can’t transport to the Ionyc Sea from inside and you can’t use a cell phone. In fact, the entire building could crumble to the ground and the safe room would still be standing. It was created in case we have to corral any wayward visitors from Otherworld.”