32

I walked to the bus depot the next morning and four hors later I was in Halifax, where Fawn picked me up. “Fernie, you okay then?” she asked me as I settled into the passenger seat. “I guess, I'm going to need a new car though. Whatever hit the car tore it in half.” I looked over at her, and she flicked her eyes between me and the road as she drove. I must have looked like a mess. I pulled the sunshade down and opened the mirror and took a look at myself.
Last night there had been no real visible bruises, but I now sported a growing splotch on my cheekbone. It didn't hurt, but it did feel hot and the skin felt taut over the bruise. “I got some bruises, but I don't have any broken bones, so that's something to be thankful for.” “I go with that”, she told me, and I could hear some of the tension in her voice leak away. I smiled at her and put a hand on her forearm. She smiled and relaxed a bit more and we drove in a comfortable silence back to my office.
Once there, I went to my small washroom and had a quick, cold shower, and got a change of clothes. I had thought abut the Anolyn Way for a good while on the trip back from Pictou. I'd looked at the ferry but there was a bridge that used to lead to the Island, but it had been devastated by Anolyn as his first attack at isolating Prince Edward Island. The bridge had been burned and melted all the way to rock. I wanted to go up to the site to look at where the bridge was and test an idea that Cobb's books had given me.
I'd noticed that the book had changed when the magick had been slowly teased out of it, but that some still remained. An echo of the bridge for lack of a better description. Maybe that echo could be strengthened in some way to make a way passable onto the Island. I went back to the Troykin and asked if I could hire Zik'k again for a short while. Again, the opportunity to get some good points with Larry helped me immensely and Zik'k was soon with me heading west towards the remains of the Confederation Bridge.
It had been built between New Brunswick and Port Borden on the Island. Twelve kilometers of concrete and steel. Anolyn had made sure it could never be used again. I was hoping that he had.

#

“Why'd you brig meeb adlong for dhis trib Ms Fatelli?” Zik'k asked me as we got in the car. “Something destroyed my other car and just about killed me if not for some blind luck. You're help in case something unpleasant shows its face.” “Bobdyguad.” He said past his allergies, but I caught the spark of interest in his eye. “Yeah, bodyguard.” “I cab do dhat.” he said and lay the seat all the way and sliding as far into the rear seat as he could to get away from my magick. I felt for him but I felt for me more.
Four hours later Zik'k and I stood on the point where the bridge once leapt over the water towards the Island. The remains of the bridge faced to the northeast. I grabbed my backpack and walked over to the bridge. I searched until I found a piece of concrete that had been cracked loose from the bridge, and put that in the pack. We then ascended the bridge to its ruined end, about twenty meters above the ground. I got out the piece of cement and scratched a circle with it on the roadway and placed the cement on the southwest, inside the circle. I then drew a charcoal ring around the first ring and scribed two runes on the northeast and southwest of the circle, roughly in line with the direction the bridge had extended.
I set up a slow chant like the wizards at the police station used, trying to pull anything up that might still hold a resonance of the bridge. It was really slow work and the sun had started to go down as the spell finally produced a result. A wispy shadowy form could be seen barely with my mage sight. There was an echo left of the magick. I laughed as I realized that there would have been nothing to pull if Anolyn hadn't been so intent on destroying the bridge completely that he'd used magick to create the complete devastation.
There was an echo. Now all I had to do was get a huge amount of luck and maybe we had the Way open. I had a few thoughts about that, and wanted to talk with Larry. Truth be known I was expecting something to try and hurt me again. That nothing had happened made me even a little more paranoid. Anticipation is always worse than the situation I'm convinced.
We got back to the car and the sun had almost set, a glowing hemisphere of brilliant orange-red that painted the sky a spectacular orange, and painting the clouds a bold orange and violet that about took my breath away. I stared for a moment, and caught a motion just on the edge of the sun, and that fear I felt came back. Zik'k had stiffened and looked at me. He'd felt it too.
“Trees. Now. Run.” he told me in a strong voice that took no argument. I bolted for the pines as fast as I could go. I suddenly heard Zik'k bellow and heard a car door open and slam shut, theh I heard the car door open and close again. I didn't look back but hit the trees and kept going in. I was scared almost witless by whatever was coming. There was a metallic tearing crash, and I heard someone's footsteps pounding along the earth. I saw a patch of dense brush and dove straight in, not worrying about any thorns. I huddle deep in the brush and the footsteps pounded by, and receded into the distance.
There was an inhuman scream that came from back up the hill, and I tried to burrow deeper into the brush, and then I stilled again, like a rabbit trying not to be seen. There was a slow, heavy feel to the steps I heard, and a harsh snuffling sound. A roar almost made me bolt from cover, but the desire to freeze overrode it and I stayed put but just barely. The creature roared again and then took flight with a heavy, wet-sounding flapping. As it receded, so did the fear, and after a few minutes, I finally dared move out of the bushes and remember that I had come with someone.
I tried to remember which direction that the footsteps went in. I turned to my right and began walking. After a few minutes I stopped and decided to wait. The sun had gone down and I wasn't sure which way the road was. The panic was so great that all both of us did was run. Things would look better in the morning, I just had to spend a cold night. Out here. In the dark. With something that wants to kill me. Life's a bitch.