Electric Blue (32 page)

In the picture, a small girl stood with her mother, Lucy. Lucy was smiling and laughing at the camera. The girl was smiling too, but her eyes looked serious. She flipped the picture over. On the back was:
Poppy and Lucy, 1986.

"You were eight then," Grant said. "I remember that day. . .your mother had tracked me down." He was looking right at her as he talked. "God, I remember Lucy. She used to light a fire inside me, Poppy. I've missed her so much through the years."

"Why did you leave me?"

"I didn't leave you," he said. "Your mother left me." He sat back down and motioned for Alicia and Poppy to do the same. He poured out a sweet smelling tea from a pot that was on a hearth behind him. Its scent filled the small hut and made Poppy sleepy.

"There are things that are going to be hard for you to understand, and there are things we won't have time to talk about. Our time is already precious, and I can feel her growing nearer to us. Already the Darkness has spread; soon, Ashling will be no more."

"Perhaps you better start at the beginning," Alicia said.

Grant smiled. "Yes, that is usually the best place to begin." He paused for a moment before continuing. "You were the happiest thing in my life, Poppy. When Lucy had you, you filled my world up with such light. We lived together, though your mother always refused to marry me at the time."

"If you were so happy, why did she leave?"

"Because of what I am." At Poppy's blank look, he found an owl’s feather on the ground and handed it to her. Its tips were silvery grey. "I didn't tell her what I was. She came in on me one night, in the backyard, when I was changing back." He shook his head. "I saw the revulsion in her eyes, Poppy. She never looked at me the same way; perhaps because she could no longer understand me."

"Why did she run away from you?" Poppy asked.

"Because she was afraid. A perfectly normal reaction, but my heart was broken. I came home one day and found you and Lucy gone. Every trace of your lives had been wiped clean from that house."

"So she just took me and left?"

"Yes," he said. "All that was left was this picture. I found it, later, tucked into the bathroom mirror."

"So she just left?" Poppy asked. "What did you do?"

"What could I do?" Grant replied. "I looked everywhere I could think of, asked her friends where she might have taken you, but no one had even known she was leaving. I searched for the two of you for three years and never found you. Lucy would send me a postcard every now and again to let me know that you were okay, but other than that, that was all I heard of you."

"But how did you come to be here?" Poppy asked. "Were you born a Shape Shifter? Why would my mother lie to me? How did you become a wise man for a tribe of Fairies?"

Grant laughed. "I see you are still full of questions. That is good. But the hour grows late and dawn will be coming soon to Ashling. Mafalda will take you to your hut and we will breakfast together tomorrow morning." He kissed her on the forehead. "Sleep well, my daughter."

Alicia and Poppy left the hut and found Mafalda waiting for them. She was a small Fairy, with long red hair and piercing green eyes. "Hello Ladies," she said. "I will take you to your home. Tholonious has told me to make you very comfortable."

"Pleased to meet you," Alicia said. Mafalda blushed shyly and smiled at them and led the way down a gravel path. When they arrived, Mafalda bid them goodnight and they let themselves inside. Too tired to take in their surroundings, they headed straight for the bedroom. Poppy was still holding on to the photograph. She would have to give it back to her father tomorrow. She placed it on the bedside table and was about to turn out the light when Alicia grabbed her hand.

"What is it?"

"The girl in the picture?" Alicia said. "Isn't that the House Spirit that greeted us?"

Poppy looked at the picture again and could not believe that she had not seen it before. The girl looked like a dead ringer for the embodiment of the House’s energy. As she kissed Alicia good night, Poppy thought that there was a lot more her father had to tell her. Before she could form her next thought, sleep took her softly away.

* * * * *

When Poppy woke the next morning, the sun was already falling through the windows. She sat up and took a good look around her for the first time. Today would be the first time she really saw their hut. It was sparsely furnished, but homey. They were sleeping on a large mattress in a wooden bed frame. The bedside tables matched the dark wood of the bed and the dresser that sat in a corner. It had an old mirror on top and reminded Poppy of an old vanity. The floor was made of rough wooden boards sanded to softness by years of being walked on. There were two windows, both covered with paisley curtains, on the north and south walls. It was through these that the sun shone.

Leaving Alicia to sleep a little longer, she went out into the main room. Looking around, she saw the same kind of soft wood floors and a large table with three chairs. There was a small kitchenette, a large couch and comfortable arm chair sitting beside a bookshelf stuffed with books and a large, soft carpet spread on the floor. There were dishes in the kitchen cupboards and Poppy smelt coffee already brewing. There was a room next to the bedroom, which she assumed was the bathroom.

"Must have been Mafalda," Poppy said, pouring herself a cup. She marvelled at the fact that such a modern convenience like coffee was available in Ashling. When she thought of Fairy lands, she thought of forests and wide open plains. Not huts with coffee makers. She sat at the large table and looked out at the world through the kitchen window. The forest around them looked green and lush. Poppy knew she was protected in amongst the trees, but that if something or someone really wanted to find her, they could.

She sipped her coffee and pondered her predicament. She was inside a house, traveling through an Otherworld that she had a hand in bringing to life. She had met her father and realized that there was more to her life than her mother had felt necessary to tell her. All the years she thought her father had abandoned them and all this time it had been her mother who had run away. Perhaps she had been trying to protect Poppy from what she saw as something frightening. Whatever the reason, it was no excuse. Lucy must have known that with a Shape Shifter for a father, that she would probably face the same fate. She had lots of questions for him today.

She thought of her mother then. She hadn't told Lucy where she was going, but she hoped that one of the others would fill her in about what was happening. With time flowing so differently in Ashling, Poppy wasn't even sure how close they were to Halloween. She would have to ask her father that as well. Poppy looked up when she heard a knock on the front door of the hut. She took her coffee cup with her when she got up and slowly opened the hut’s door. Mafalda was flying in midair, her wings beating softly. She smiled at Poppy when she saw her.

“Good morrow, Lady!" she said. "I trust you slept well."

"Not enough," Poppy said.

Mafalda nodded her head knowingly. "Questions can keep the mind awake. You look as if you are full of them."

"I am. I have a lot to ask my father."

"Twenty five years of questions, I should imagine," Mafalda said. "He's asking for you now."

"Just let me wake Alicia," Poppy said.

"Wait," Mafalda said. Poppy turned back to her. "Leave Alicia sleeping. Your father wishes to see you alone."

"Father-daughter bonding?" she said with a smile.

"I would imagine that your father is just eager to spend some time alone with you. He has not seen you for a long time."

"Likewise." Poppy ran back inside, kissed Alicia on the forehead and grabbed the picture of the bedside table. She stuffed it in her pocket. Grabbing a muffin from a bowl on the kitchen counter, she rejoined Mafalda at the front door and let the Fairy lead the way.

Like their hut, the camp was different during the day. She saw all kinds of Fairy children playing tag, zooming through the air with cries of joy. There were other Fey who lived in the camp too that weren't Fairies. She saw several centaurs, all running in the open field to the left of the camp.

"The Centaurs live with us as well. . .they are not well liked in the world of Fey. They have been given a bad reputation. But they live peacefully here with us. They are able to keep away from prying eyes so deep in the forest."

She smiled and Poppy followed her until they reached her father’s hut in the centre of the clearing. "I will leave you here," she said. "Just knock, he is expecting you."

Poppy thanked her and took a moment to gather her wits. She would be seeing her father alone for the first time that she could remember. She had so much to ask him, but told herself to take her time. She knocked and heard him. "Enter!" he said. She pushed the door open.

She saw that his hut looked different in the daylight too. No longer dark; light seeped through the cracks in the wall, through the hole in the ceiling. Grant smiled when he saw her.

"Poppy," he said. "How did you sleep?"

"Fine," she replied. "In fact, I have never slept better."

"The trees in this forest provide great amounts of oxygen. I have never had a problem sleeping here, except for nightmares."

This caught Poppy's attention. "What are your nightmares?" she asked.

"Ah, we will save that question for another day, I think. I can see by the look on your face, you have much to ask me. Let me prepare breakfast and then we will begin."

He set about making a pot of tea and breakfast of some muffins, bread, apples and cheese. He dipped Honey in their tea and sat the large tray down in front of her. They sat on the floor on two large, multi-coloured pillows. She noticed that he had no furniture except for a shelf filled with books and a writing table. He had a small cot in the far end of the hut, but otherwise, it was empty.

"Alright," he said. "Let's begin. Questions are dancing behind your eyes."

"Okay," she said. She withdrew the picture from her pocket and handed it back to him. "I forgot that I still had this last night," she said. "You said that this picture was of me, but the girl looks just like the House Spirit that greeted us before I began my quest." She looked up at him, into his pale eyes. "Who is she?"

Grant smiled. "She is my daughter," he said.

Chapter Forty Four

Wicked Women

Karma woke in darkness. She knew it must be daytime by now, as the sun had been soft in the grey dawn. But where she was being kept, there was only darkness. She wiped her face; there were dried tears on her cheek. She had been crying. She closed her eyes and remembered what had happened. How she had felt her body being pushed and prodded out of her coffin, clawing her way through the dirt against her will. She had been dead and buried. She had been dead. The thought chilled her. She ran her hand along her face and felt deep cuts there. She recalled the wall of the House blowing up in her face and it killing her on contact. She doubled over in intense pain as her body remembered this, as her mind showed her what had happened.

She began to sob loudly, feeling sadness so deep that she felt as if it would swallow her up. She had died and her baby was gone; everyone thought she was still dead. Maybe if she could get out of here, she thought. Maybe she could get away.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a voice said.

Karma looked into the darkness and watched as Mistress came forward out of the shadows. Karma scooted away from her, dragging herself along the dirt floor she rested on. Mistress' long blonde hair shone in the darkness.

"I can hear your thoughts," she said simply. "It's my magic that keeps you alive. I was waiting for you to wake up," she said. "Do you have nothing to say to me granddaughter?"

"You're dead," Karma rasped. Her vocal cords were unused to speech.

"So are you."

"How can I be if I'm here?"

"Because I am keeping you alive," Mistress said. "With a snap of my fingers, you'll be dead again in a heartbeat; if you had one." She chuckled softly at her own little joke.

"Why didn't you leave me dead?"

"So quick to ask questions. I see some things haven't changed," Mistress said. "You were always an annoying child."

"You were always a horrible grandmother," Karma spat back.

The Mistress laughed a cold, hard laugh. "Such a sense of humour," she said.

"Why didn't you leave me dead?" Karma asked. "I was having the most wonderful dreams."

"Dreams are for the weak."

"You mean people like you?" Karma said.

Mistress leaned forward and punched Karma hard in the face. "Don't you dare disrespect me! You have to respect your elders."

"I know what you tried to do with Monica." Karma felt her teeth with her tongue. The punch had loosened three of them. "I won't let you try that with me."

Mistress laughed. "Oh, I have other plans in store for you. You will be my way into the house."

"What are you talking about?"

"While I was trying to get to you, I had LaWanda and company create a diversion. No one knows that you have climbed out of your grave but me."