The Stargazer

Stargazer (chapter twenty-one)

Aislinn shoved to her knees, dusting grit off her hands, and looked around her. Night enfolded the landscape, hiding the world from prying eyes. No matter what anyone thought, riding a wave of wishes through a river of time was not a particularly comfortable way to travel. She’d been swept away, tangled in probabilities and torn apart by paradoxes. Wishes were too fragile a buffer against Time’s sharp edges, but with the power of the whole Sidhe court dancing brought to bear on her behalf, she had been dragged where her wish had lead. At one point, she’d been four people, all trapped in a different time stream and none of them the right one.


She stumbled erect, grateful for her father’s advice to wear sturdy hunting clothes. The ragged gravel she’d landed on would have shredded anything else and taken hide off with it. A short silver crossbow lay in the dirt not far away and she retrieved it, tucking it close under her arm, hooking the strap around her forearm. The slim bolt with its flint head was ready for anything that came at her.


It didn’t look as if there were anything for miles to worry about. Fortunate because she really didn’t want to kill anything tonight, but unfortunate because she still didn’t know where Rowan was. She had to trust in The Plan.


The Plan. Her lips twisted at the misnomer. Toss her into the future and hope that she landed somewhere Rowan knew her. If not, well, she would work on that when she found him. The truth of it was she needed him far more than he needed her. He was strong, independent. She was the one who needed something to believe in. To trust that he might come to love her was the only anchor left, the only hope she had.


To her left lay a whisper of a sleeping city. She could feel the air stirring with dreaming breaths. It wasn’t a large area, just very full of very human lives. It was the most likely place to start looking for Rowan and she set her feet to the narrow path that soon joined a well-paved road.


Dim light grew as she walked. The sky overhead brightened with stars, but no moon that she could see. It might have already set. She couldn’t shake the odd feeling of the place. Not too human as New York had felt but too other. The natural magic of the place hummed just under the surface, a rocky, cold feeling that tasted metallic to her earth senses. It wasn’t wrong just different.


A breeze roused for a short time while she walked, the road winding down into a bowl-shaped valley. The dust tasted odd, coppery with a hint of mildew. The moons peeked over the horizon and Aislinn stopped for a moment to stare. Moons. Plural. One large and white and one smallish with a decidedly green tint. Shaking her head, she resumed walking.


Rowan had said humans had destroyed their world, but she hadn’t quite absorbed what that meant at the time. No New York. No Vegas. No vast tracks of forest to dance in and watch the geysers cleanse the sky. No sparkling waterfalls rushing down the sharp mountain peaks. All gone due to some serious mishandling.


And now they may have destroyed themselves in the process.


She pondered that as she walked. Humans so rarely understood that they were not the center of Creation. They were but a small part of a fragile and precarious balance. Once pushed off-kilter, it took a great deal to make things right again. Could she live among such people? Could another wish on such a distant and alien star take her home again? A glance at the overhanging stars brought no wish for home to her heart, just a now familiar ache.


Stargazer.


He’d missed seeing the stars, she remembered on a pang of longing so strong it made her catch her breath. He’d longed for home, with all its admitted problems and drawbacks. He was just a soldier here, a male born to die in some nameless altercation. But to her he was so much more. Would she be able to make him understand? Would he trust her presence or had he even met her yet? So much unknown yet to face. It made her stomach churn to think of it.


As she neared the bottom of the hills where the road flattened out, she felt a tugging to her left. She paused, trying to get a sense of this new sensation. It was magic, she thought, yet not. Not of a kind she was accustomed to at any rate. It was metallic, less friendly than any power she’d tasted so far in her young life.


Curious, she stepped off the road, picking her way between rough edged boulders and plates of loose stone that slipped and slid as she walked on them. Her soft-soled boots made no sound on the stone, her earth senses alert for any real danger. Like a rock fall. Or a slide.


The hills curved where an avalanche had devoured the slope and the faint glow of the city faded behind a bend of landscape. Aislinn paused to catch her breath.


It would be so much easier to fly but she hardly wanted to shout her Fae blood to every human she met. That wouldn’t be wise until she knew more about this place she found herself in. Instead, she panted until the stitch in her side eased and then picked her way across the slide with care.


A shimmer caught her eye, not light yet not dark. Simply not right. She paused, studying the odd face of the sheer stone wall that buttressed the narrow end of the basin below her. There was definitely magic at work here though of a kind she’d never seen before. With care, she eased down the slope, her footfalls silent in the windswept world.


The shimmer lay over the surface of the stone. She could see ridges and pock marks through it. A gateway of some sort? Fairy rings were generally marked by forget-me-nots and tweenways not marked at all. This veil of almost light was something else entirely.


“Hey!”


The shout jerked her around, her bow coming up automatically. Four men stood at the mouth of the basin watching her. They wore suits of silver armor that covered them from neck to foot and caps of the same metal over their head leaving only their faces bare. Long projectile weapons hung from straps over their shoulders.


Soldiers, she realized. A guard patrol from the look of it. Guarding against what? She lowered her bow. It would do her no good to alienate them this early and they might just know where she could find Rowan.


The men approached, their weapons down and matching looks of confusion on their faces. The shortest of them, still nearly a head taller than her, seemed to be the spokesman of the group.


“What’s a breeder like you doing all the way out here? This late?”


Two questions and a definition. She was female and therefore a breeder. Judging from Rowan’s view on such things, they wouldn’t hurt her, but they might just try to smother her in protection since breeders apparently didn’t leave the city and certainly not after dark. Aislinn cocked her head, studying them.


“What is this thing?” she asked, gesturing to the shimmer behind her. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”


“That’s the portal, Miss,” the shorter one told her, obviously confused by her. “This is a dangerous place for you to be. They can come through at any minute. Let’s get you out of here and somewhere safe.”


“They?” She ignored the outstretched hand.


The two men behind him were of a height with Rowan but the third stood even taller, a massive giant of a man with dark eyes and a scar across one cheek. He watched her closely, his confusion muting into an expressionless nothing that sent chills down her spine. He was suspicious of her and that just wouldn’t do.


“The kobold,” the short one answered, his confusion deepening. He glanced at his fellow soldiers and shifted on his feet, his hand still extended. “Miss, it isn’t safe out here.”


“Who brought you?” the big one asked suddenly. His deep voice vibrated in the stones around her.


“No one.” Aislinn stepped away from the shimmer, knowing she would get no more answers from them tonight. “I’m looking for someone, actually. A man. His name is Rowan. Do you know where I might find him?”


The four exchanged looks.


“He’s an astro-nav on a pilot ship,” she tried.


No reaction. Confusion morphed into that expressionless mask on all of them and she knew she’d said something wrong. That’s what Rowan had said he did, wasn’t it? An astrological navigator?


“Come with us,” the tall one ordered.


She had a feeling he would toss her over his shoulder and cart her off to wherever it was he wanted her to go anyway so she gave, falling in between them. No one had questioned her bow or her attire.


They led her along another narrow path identical to the one she’d followed earlier. The track wandered over a curve and dip of stone before climbing in switchback fashion back toward the summit she’d just left. Aislinn sighed, resigning herself to trudging about in these rocky hills all night. No one spoke to her.


Overhead, a silvered shadow cut through the sky, faster than a bird in flight, leaving smears of light trailing behind. Aislinn stopped, craning her neck to peer up at the phenomenon. It had wings but that was no bird. Curiosity trailed her senses in the rippling wake, tasting the air. Not a living thing itself, but several heartbeats brushed against her earth sense. Akin to the air transportation she’d seen in New York, it was a conveyance. She’d never seen one move so quickly though.


The men were staring at her.


A flush rising under her skin, she met the tallest one’s eyes and refused to look away. So, she was curious. It wasn’t a crime.


No one said anything as they resumed their rocky march higher. She was starting to despair of ever getting off her feet again when a small gray building came into sight. Dim lights glowed over the single, windowless door. The short man entered a complicated series of taps and finger wiggles into a slot by the door and she heard a heavy lock click open.


The building was little more than a large room with two smaller antechambers.  Utilitarian chairs surrounded an equally unornamented table. She waited politely for instructions that never came.


The two middle sized men vanished into one of the smaller rooms and she could hear them shedding gear and talking in low voices. She could have eavesdropped but with the tall man and the leader still staring at her, she needed to keep her mind on her present situation.


The tall one looked pointedly at a square box that hung from the ceiling in one corner.


“No tracer match,” he rumbled.


The short one frowned at the box and then at Aislinn. “Where’s your bracelet?”


She looked down at her wrists. No jewelry, only a single crossbow that they still hadn’t questioned.


“I’m not wearing one,” she observed blandly.


“What crèche are you with?” the tall one asked.


None. She bit off the probably unwise answer and simply stared at him.


“You say you’re looking for Rowan,” the leader broke in again, still frowning. “How did a breeder meet an astro-nav to begin with?”


“A mutual acquaintance.” She could be forgiven her wry tone. The Time King certainly knew both of them but the joke would be lost on these two. “Listen, if you know where he is, please tell me. If you don’t, I’m going to take my leave of you now. I haven’t time to waste justifying myself to you.”


The two men shared a look. The shorter one shrugged and looked away.


The tall one gestured to the second door, his manner too casual for her peace of mind. “If you know Rowan, you know about his automaton.”


Automaton? Aislinn took a few steps toward the room before caught herself. The two men watched her expectantly. A test? Squaring her shoulders, she headed for the room before she could change her mind.


The room was simply a small square area with two low, thin beds and narrow doors that she assumed concealed clothes storage. One of the beds held a form, vaguely manlike, crafted of old leather that had seen better days stretched over a frame of weathered wood.


“Wheezer?”