22

There was a disorienting feel as I stepped over the threshold and I entered into a large, dimly lit room that looked like any number of cliche'd dungeon studies. The bricks were a dark red and brown, and oil lights set on brass poles just above my eye level. In the center of the room was a circular dark-colored rug with a reading desk and chair on it. Along the floor just off the edge of the rung was a double circle with a series of unfamiliar designs resting between the inner and outer circle.
There were two three-step ladders for reaching the upper shelves of the book cases that started on the left side of the entrance, and went all the way around the walls to the right side of the entrance. The bookshelves weren't totally packed, but there were a LOT of books, and there was a stack by the desk that someone had left out apparently. Knowing Cobb, the books would be on Anolyn.
I didn't dive into the stack, but went around the room looking at the titles. Most of the books were in languages that I had no idea what they were. I took one off a shelf at random and leafed through it. The writing was done by someone with a very spidery hand, the characters were tall and thin, and completely illegible.
Frustrated, I went back to the desk and picked up the top book n the stack and opened it. It was in perfectly legible English. I went through the books, and all the others in the stack over the next two days. All of them had some account about dragons and some specific about anolyn, but nothing that was fact, all were presented as stories and the few that had facts were about dragons about three thousand years ago, the height of the previous magical period.
What I gleaned from all of this was what you probably know yourself from playing those table top games. Dragons are big, bad, extremely magickal, highly intelligent, utterly ruthless. Not much for two days? Well consider that along with this, dragons have weaknesses. Any silver weapon will cut their hide, any weapon for that matter will. You just have to survive to get close enough to do it. Bullets will penetrate, bullets will kill a dragon IF you hit them in the right place.
Trouble is the right place is different for each dragon. Remember magick? Dragons are, according to the few ancient texts, born with the ability to focus their whole life force into one or more places in their body. The adults help the young practice this ability. What it means is that if you have the world's greatest sniper with the biggest baddest rifle around, he may blow the dragon's head half-off with a shot into the eye. But everything will just grow back in mere seconds and you will have a VERY pissed off dragon coming for you.
That is one thing I never want to have happen to me. Dragons are also apparently very creatively vindictive to people that upset them. One story had one taking a man apart, de-boning him over a period of four days before eating him. No, I really did not want that to happen to me. If I was going to do this, I needed a way to bypass the purported alarms that Anolyn had up, and find some way to hide from him so the way could start running people back off of Prince Edward Island.
I had to get in without being discovered, get back out again, go in and find someone who wanted to escape, and help them escape. It wasn't enough to get in and out, it had to be repeatable. Once I could do that, and prove it to Cobb, my service would be done. The smart thing however, is to make sure you've found everything you can before trying something this crazy.

21

We decided that I'd check in with Cobb the next morning, and get to work on the fae records, if they had any, and let Larry and Fawn work without letting Cobb know they were helping. I got the feeling if he knew, there' d be something he'd try to pull that would lock Larry and Fawn into the service, so I sat down that evening and wrote out a simple contract saying that Larry was assisting me locating books and reference materials, and that it was the only thing he was doing, and that I was paying him to do so. I wanted to make sure that Cobb couldn't get them with some kind of 'volunteer' meaning volunteer to do the service.
I went back home and packed a few items in a backpack, and made sure that I had no iron or steel when I went to see Cobb the next morning. I went with sweat pants and and canvas sneakers, half because they were comfortable, and half because I knew Cobb didn't like me looking 'tacky' on his time. Petty, but what do you expect? I'm not a saint and I sure as hell don't like being tricked into being a pawn for some grandiose asshole.
Cobb was waiting when I drove up. He gave my wardrobe a sour glance as I got out of the car. I pulled the backpack out, and that caught his attention. “No iron, you know that.” I smiled sweetly. “I know that Cobb, I just brought along a few other things to help me out.” I set the backpack down. “You want to check it over?” He didn't say anything, but picked up the pack and rummaged through it.
I had a bottle of salt, some blessed water from a catholic church. Four notebooks and ten pencils with the metal eraser holder removed, three pink erasers, my mothers ceramic paring knife to sharpen the pencils with, a silver letter opener, and five candles, a box of beads, another box of modeling clay, and two changes of clothes, one pair of sweats, and a black tube dress, just in case some kind of social event were to happen. Sounds like deus ex machina there? Remember, Cobb is an asshole with an ego and Fae like social events to practice their politicking.
Plus, although I wanted to piss Cobb off, I didn't want to do so to other fae, and if being polite and playing dress-up helped get information, then I'd play dress-up and trot out my best social manners. The tube dress was just a tad slinky and a little 'slink' might be useful.
He finished looking through the bag, and placed everything back in it before handing it back to me, and then taking me on that disorienting trip to Underhill. Time to start hitting the books. “Where to first, you have a library or something?” I tried to sound flippant, but all I got was snappish. He took me back up to phone booth central and pointed out three booths that had been colored green.
“Those are archives that I keep here. The two booths on the end that are white will take you to others that also have references to Anolyn, and are willing to allow you to peruse them. I do not know if they are duplicates of what is here, you'll just have to look through their archives yourself.”
He didn't wait for an acknowledgment, but turned away quickly and stepped into one of the phone booths and disppeared. Oh, yeah, a classy way to make a girl feel welcome. Run off and leave her. I shrugged and walked to the white booth on the left to start. I tightened my grip on my backpack, took a deep breath and stepped into the booth.

20

He looked over at Cobb, who was acting as if the judge did not exist. Petty, but I found I enjoyed his attitude. It made it easier to dislike him. The judge caught my attention with a slight wave of his hand in front of my face. “You do have to work at the service. Delaying can be seen as avoiding. And that interpretation is up to the holder of the service. But, you must have some time to properly prepare for the service, Mr Cobb cannot just call you refusing it for taking a few days to prepare. So before I leave to go back to eat my dinner, how long do you consider necessary to prepare before you start this service?”
The judge had given me a breathing space and I took it. “I should need about a day to get started, but it may take a while to be able to finish. I will probably spend a while, maybe a month or more, trying to find out about the Anolyn Way and try to uncover any extra information that might help.” The judge nodded. So you will begin your research in one day's time, and will present a overview of your research at weekly intervals to Mr. Cobb. Once you have exhausted your resources for all pertinent information, you will attempt to get the Way operating.”
He smiled again, and I could smell the satisfaction flowing off of him like Honeysuckle. “I believe that covers the situation quite nicely. Please call upon me Ms. Fatelli if you should have need. I must say I am interested in this. Good day Ms Fatelli. He bowed and turned to Cobb. “Good day.” A perfunctory bow and hew was gone the same way he came in.
I turned to Cobb. “I want to rest at my home. I'll drop by the library tomorrow and see what books there are on Anolyn and the Anolyn Way.” That raised a thought. “Do you have any reference materials on Anolyn or the Way? Anything that you have, I want access to.” I smiled and smelled my own satisfaction with tweaking this manipulative jerk. “After all, you wanted service, how can I perform the service if I can't learn about the problem?”
After Cobb magicked me in front of the building that housed my office, he said a curt good bye and vanished. I didn't go inside immediately, but dial up Larry and Fawn on my Cell-phone. “Hey short stuff, how's the private entrapment business going?” “I love you too sis, told Larry about the little bun you're baking in the oven?” “Yes, as a matter of fact, she did tell me, about five minutes ago Fernie, now enough jabbering and let's go celebrate!” I could feel Larry's grin through the cell-phone. It felt really good to smile and laugh after the last two days I'd had.
Larry had me meet them at the Calcutta Wharf, a wonderful restaurant that, in spite of the name, served wonderful asian food. I'd asked about the name once, and the story came back that the owner had bought the place from the original owner, and had been too cheap to change the sign. After a while, he just left it up because people associated the sign with the restaraunt.
As we ate our dinner, Larry asked “So Fernie, did that spell work proper?” I put my utensils down, and took a deep breath. “About that Larry, it worked fine, it was the other stuff afterwards that was really the shredded pain.” I outlined everything that went on after I got back from finding and 'rescuing' Mr. Cobb's daughter, and included the trial this morning and the discussion I had with Cobb, and what I was supposed to do.
The mood went right down the drain, and I felt bad, really bad about the kind of stuff we were discussing. This should have been a celebration, and instead we're talking about how short stuff Fernie got screwed over by the big bad fae Mr. Cobb. Larry sat and just picked at the food as I wound the story down. Fawn looked pale and angry, part at me, and part at Larry because she knew he'd try to help, and a BIG part at Cobb, the author of the whole mess.
“So, what do you think we should do?” Fawn surprised us both by being the one to hint that working together would be a good idea. She looked at our faces and chuckled. “I know that's what it's going to take short stuff. I have to make decisions I don't like all the time as a cop. How's this one any different?” Got me there.

19

“You already know the story so I don't have to outline that for you, but yes, there are, or were, fae on the island when Anolyn erected the barrier. He did such a thorough job that Underhill was cut off as well. My family is on the other side of that barrier, and has been for the last fifty years. I want them free. You have the power to open the barrier. You and your sister.” “My sister?”
It clicked into place all at once. He was talking about the residual magick from our parents original spell. Both of us were used as magical storage batteries for our parents, and because the spell never finished, we both still had this huge reserve of magical energy in and around us. We couldn't touch it in our own magicks, what small things we did, like run a vacuum, or heat a cold cup of coffee. But to anyone who knew how to extract the magic, we'd be their very own nuclear power source, and one that wouldn't go away for a long time.
I started to get angry all over again. “Is all we are just a battery for you!” I said loudly. “You plan on using me for that barrier to knock it down?” “Yes” Cobb said. Then he stepped right up to me and stared down from his six foot plus height. “I am planning on using you. You owe a service, this is the service.” He finished speaking and his look dared me to contradict fact.
“Listen you pompous idiot, I owe a service. What if I refuse it. I don't see you have any way of stopping me from leaving.” He straightened and finally looked triumphant. He smelled gleeful, like he wanted me to refuse. “Kaddus! Judge Kaddus! I have need of you!” He roared the name, and a blue nimbus appeared by the fireplace, enlarging and solidifying in moments into the judge that oversaw the trial.
“What now?” he said very grumpily. “I have a dinner waiting for me. Why are you calling me here?” He saw me, and understanding wafted from him like wind across a desert. “She is refusing the service? Smarter than you then.” He turned and faced me full-on. “Ms Fatelli, I understand and sympathize completely with your situation and wanting to refuse the service Mr....... Cobb wants you to perform.”
He smelled of regret, and of resignation. And suddenly he smelled angry and he straightened and spoke sharply to Cobb. “I have had enough of these manipulations! She is going to hear the truth and YOU will not interfere!” Cobb triumphant smell smoldered quickly to a burnt wood angry smell. I still couldn't get used to smelling emotions.
Judge Kaddus faced me and said, “If you refuse the service, someone else will have to take your place. The laws of Underhill state that it would be immediate family that would have to fulfill the service. Cobb wants you to refuse so that he could entrap your brother and sister to perform this service.”
I was confused suddenly. Mad mind you, but confused why the judge would be so up front about Cobb's manipulations. “Why tell me all this?” I asked him. “For two reasons Ms. Fatelli. One, Larry Potter has been a voice of reason the last five years, and many of the fae respect what he has done. I believe, like Mr. Potter, that honest dealings with other races make for better neighbors and allies should necessity arise.”
He stopped and smiled ferally, and I caught a smell of malice from him. “The second reason is I do not like ..... Mr. Cobb. He wants fae to not be so accommodating to humans. We have crossed in the past, and now I find I have an opportunity to ruin a plan of his. Your knowing changes the situation beyond his ability to control, and,” He looked positively gleeful, and smelled it too, “he hates losing control of anything.” Cobb ground his teeth and I could smell hate rolling off of him like a suffocating fog.
I smiled too. Beyond screwing the manipulative Cobb over, family is very big with me considering the only family I have left is Fawn and Larry. I knew too, from talking with Fawn a week ago, that she was pregnant. Which meant if Fawn had to take the service, Larry would jump all over it to protect her and the baby.
What it meant was still a very difficult situation. I most certainly did NOT want to try and do the service. Dragon magic is powerful. Very powerful from all the stories that have been told. But if I didn't take the service, Cobb was free to force Fawn, which would then have Larry volunteering to do it. A classic rock and hard-place.
“I'll take the service, I'll perform it, but I want to know what options I have for this service. Can I hire help or do I have to go this alone?” “You have the service you have to perform it.” spoke Cobb pompously. Judge Kaddus spoke up and said “there are no stipulations in the laws on how the service is handled, only that you perform it. It doesn't say alone, or, how swiftly the service needs be done.”

18

He smiled and gestured once more, and a chair with a beautiful pantsuit and silk shirt appeared from the polar bear. “please take them, they look better than your sweat suit.” “No, dammit, don't you understand what no means!?” He smiled, and gestured and I felt something shift. “That was three refusals, I no longer have to try and catch you Ms. Fatelli, this little game is over. I tell you that all here now are gifts freely given and that you may take without any payment.”
He relaxed visibly. “And thank you for refusing. I do not like some of our games, but the king has decreed them, and so we all must obey.” He took a drink from his chocolate and continued. “Now that you and I have done our duties, would you like to know the extent of your service?”
“Yeah, I want to know, and I hope it's a quick one, I wnat to get out of here and honestly, I don't want to see you ever again after this is done” I said to him. I was tired, and irritable, and still smarting from being trapped so easily by legal mechanizations. that I started trying to push his buttons. All in all, not very smart, I admit it, but that's life, you're never perfect and seldom good, and obnoxious is easy compared to the other two.
To his credit, Cobb didn't bat an eye, nor did I see any tensing of any muscle. He just stared at me like he was sad about something. Sad like a general is sad about sending men to die. That got me. Emotions here in Underhill manifest as smell along with visual cues. It makes it real hard to fool people. Maybe it's one of the reasons the fae don't try to lie.
“If you're done trying to irritate me, we'll get started. I'll ask you a question then. What do you know of the Anolyn way?” He leaned forward as he spoke, and suddenly I was the center of ALL his attention. The answer I gave was what Zhirk had told me years ago.
“The Anolyn Way was a way through the barrier around the island, and a way past all the magickal alarms that Anolyn had set to stop emigrants. There were a series of safe-houses on the island and escapees traveled from house to house to avoid Anolyn's troops. There were a series of safe-houses on the island and escapees traveled from house to house to avoid Anolyn's troops. The final stop was a cave on the island shore at the closest point that the barrier came to shore. The way through the barrier was by boat.”
One wizard got the wild idea to make a giant clamshell made of rock. Once this was done, he rowed the boat out to the barrier, and closed the clamshell. He drifted through the magical alarms and the barrier without incident. Anolyn was enraged by the rock boats, but couldn't alter his barrier spell. It took weeks of preparation on Anolyn's part to cast the barrier the first time, and he didn't dare take it down as the enemies he made would be certain to attack before he could get the barrier back up. So he did the next best thing and patrolled the water himself, burning and sinking any boat he found.
A boat survived Anolyn's attacks and was found by some of the emigrants who took shelter in the cave where the boat was hidden. They had a wizard who was able to spell the clam-boat to be able to swim under water and get through the barrier. It worked, but he was killed before he could teach others how he modified the spell to swim rock boat underwater. This single clam-boat became the Anolyn Way. It ran in secret for years, until the patrols apparently found it and destroyed it” I told him.
He looked at me in surprise. “I'm impressed Ms. Fatelli. Very few humans have recounted the story with that kind of accuracy. Whoever taught it to you is someone I would like to meet.” I went cold inside and my heart clenched at remembering Zhirk as he told that story to me. “You can't he's dead, and his soul devoured by that damn bottle you showed me when you hired me to help you” I spat the words at him like venom.
Zhirk was the best friend I have ever known and knowing that his soul had gone to feed that monster Ahiah, and now to find that the bottle had been re-created really had me angry. “You tell me how you know about that bottle and who the miserable piece of garbage is that made it. When this is all over I want to use that bottle on the damned idiot that made that abomination!”
He actually dared smile at that, and my anger went incandescent. “What the fuck are you smiling about you miserable waste! Tell me who made that damn bottle!” “There is no bottle, I had chatted with you brother-in-law Lawrence Potter, and got the story from him. I used that to get you to agree to take the job I wanted you for.”
I sat down on the rug in shock and relief. No bottle. But I went ballistic again and tore into Cobb verbally for five minutes while he sat there and waited for me to run down. When I finally pulled myself back together, he told me what I was going to do. “I want you to re-open the Anolyn Way.” I blinked. Surely he was joking on this. “You want me to re-open the Anolyn way? Why the hell for? You got a long lost love in there or something?” “Yes” was what he said.

17

The swirling power and buffets of wind disoriented me, and felt like they continued for hours, then it was over so suddenly, I fell to my hands and knees completely disoriented and thankful the ride was over. The first thing I noticed was the clean, earthy smell of the ground. Everything seemed brighter and more, exuberant. Hell, even the earth seemed to feel content and happy. There was a kind of sadness too. It was strange, smelling emotions and not feeling them.
There was no sun but light seemed to come from the very air, and as I pushed myself upright, I noticed that no one cast a shadow here. “Come this way”, said Cobb, “We will see to your comfort, and then we will discuss your service.” He led me along a footpath that led into a gully. As we entered, there was another disorienting surge of magic and I entered into a tremendous foyer.
There was a large circular stand to my left that held wraps and cloaks of many different sizes and all different bright colors. Just behind the rack stood a large wooden box set on its short end and bolted to the wall. Grooves in the box held swords, a mace, and a brass hand-cannon of some kind.
To my immediate right was a huge clay statue that held a gleaming silver sword in one hand, and a weapon that looked like a maltese cross made out of silver. Curiosity would have to wait though, as Cobb merely removed his trench coat and negligently threw it at the circular rack, which extended a hangar and neatly caught the coat and set it to the rack in an open slot. I kept my sweatshirt, it was much cooler in here than it had been in the open air outside.
In front of us was a huge wooden stairway which looked twenty foot across, and curled clockwise around a wide latticed pillar. As I got closer, the lattice revealed itself to be a plant or plants grown together, and the steps were molded from branches I believed. We mounted the stairs and he led me to a second floor that was like a ballroom. The room seemed about a hundred feet across and was barren of any furniture except for three rows of, and I kid you not, red British phone booths.
I decided to keep my mouth shut and see what Cobb would do. He had stopped, as if waiting for a question. When I didn't ask, he walked over to the fourth booth in from the end of the second row, and entered. I followed him in and entered into a large study. Directly opposite the doorway was a fireplace with a cheery crackling fire, a large white polar bear rug lay on the floor in front of the fireplace. To the right of the polar bear rug was a large desk with a glass top. On the desk was a flat panel computer. “I thought you said steel and iron couldn't be here.” I said to Cobb. He smiled and said “special order, all wiring is gold, and any screws are plastic. Not as durable, but it doesn't have to be.”
He gestured over to the other side of the room, where I saw a sofa aimed at a wall with a three-foot by five-foot black rectangle mounted on it. “That's a television? what's THAT doing here? On second thought, let me guess, custom built-no-steel just gold and plastic along with the circuitry.” I said sarcastically. You think you'd see nice natural tings like grown wood statues or beautiful carvings, but this was a real surprise to me. Another example of don't assume anything.
Cobb gestured and a silver service tray with two cups of hot cocoa rose up out of the desk and settled on it. He picked one up and handed it to me. “I claim visitor rights.” I told him coldly. Fae were notorious for offering something and that something NOT being a gift, but an item requiring recompense. That's how some humans get trapped in Underhill. You accept something, you are obligated to pay for it one way or another. I wasn't going to have another debt placed on me.
Vistor's rights mean that you ARE a visitor and cannot be coerced into staying with tricks. It's weird, but the fae are like that, weird little, or weird nasty laws that bite you if you don't know about them. Fae cannot lie, but that doens't mean they have to tell you all of the truth. He sighed, “You are perceptive, I didn't think that it would work, but we do have to play the game Ms.Fatelli.”
“Play it without me, and let's get this service done with Cobb, or whatever your name is, I don't like being here.” “Fair enough, but first let's sit and relax a moment.” He smiled, a real, genuine, smile that almost melted my knees. This guy could turn on the charm! I shook my head to clear the charm. “Quit that! You already have a service, quit trying to get more out of me!”