Far ahead, past mountains and miles of rough terrain another world waited, a mirror to the Broken, full of magic but light on technology. Well, not exactly true, Audrey reflected. The Weird had plenty of complex technology, but it had evolved in a different direction. Most of it functioned with the aid of magic. In the Weird, the power of your magic and the color of your flash determined the course of your life. The brighter you flashed, the better. If you flashed white, you could rub elbows with blueloods, Weird's aristocratic families.
The Weird, like the Broken, was a place of rules and laws. That's why Audrey preferred to live here, in the no-man's land between the two dimensions. The locals called it the Edge, and they were right. It was on the edge of both worlds, a place without countries or cops, where the cast-offs like her washed ashore. Connecting the two dimensions like a secret overpass, the Edge took everyone. Swindlers, thieves, crazed separatists, clannish families, all were welcome, all were dirt poor, and all kept to themselves. The Edgers gave no quarter and expected no sympathy.
The road turned to dirt. The trees had changed too. Ancient spruces spread broad branches from massive buttressed trunks, their limbs dripping with long emerald-green beards of tangled moss. Towering narrow hemlocks thrust into the sky, their roots cushioned in ferns. Blue haze clung to narrow spaces between the trunks, hiding otherworldly things with glowing eyes who prowled in search of prey.
As Audrey drove through, bright yellow blossoms of Edger primrose sensed the vibration of the car and snapped open with faint puffs of luminescent pollen. By day the flowers stayed closed and harmless. At night, it was a different story. Take a couple of puffs in your face and pretty soon you'd forget where you were or why you were here. A couple of weeks ago, Rook, one of the local Edger idiots, got drunk and fell asleep near a patch of those. They found him two days later, sitting up on a tree stump butt naked and covered in ants. This was an old forest, nourished by magic. It didn't suffer fools, gladly or otherwise.
She steered her Honda up the narrow road, past her driveway, forcing it to climb higher and higher up the mountain. A shadow loomed ahead, blocking the way. She flicked on her brights. An old pine had fallen across the road. She'd have to hoof it to Gnome's house. The road was muddy with recent rain and she had new shoes on. Oh well. Shoes could be cleaned.
Audrey parked, pulled the emergency brake as high as it would go, swiped the plastic bags off the seat, and climbed out. Mud squished under the soles of her shoes. She climbed over the tree and trudged up the narrow road, following it all the way up to the top of the mountain. By the time she made it to the clearing, the sky had grown dim. Gnome's house, an large two story jumble of weird rooms sticking out at random angles, was all but lost in the gloom.
"Gnome!"
No answer.
"Gnooome!"
Nothing.
He was inside. He had to be - his old beat up Chevy sat on the left side of the house, and Gnome rarely left the top of the mountain anyway. Audrey walked up to the door and tried the handle. Locked. She put her hand to the keyhole and pushed. The magic slid from her fingers in translucent currents of pale green and wove together, sliding into the keyhole. That old ornery knucklehead would probably kill her for this. The lock clicked. Audrey eased the door open smoothly, making sure it didn't creak more out of habit than real need.
Flash was a pure expression of one's magic. But most people born with it had a talent or two hidden up their sleeve. Some Edgers were cursers, some foretold the future. She opened doors.
Audrey passed through the narrow hallway into the main room, sectioned off by tall shelves filled with Gnome's knickknacks and merchandise. Being a local fence, he had enough inventory to put Costco to shame. He also functioned as an emergency general store. If Edgers needed deodorant or soap in a hurry and didn't want to drive all the way across the boundary, they stopped at Gnome'. And ended up paying ten bucks for a tube of toothpaste.
A fit of wet hoarse coughing came from deeper within the house. Audrey slipped between the shelves, like a silent shadow, and finally stepped out into the clear space in the middle of the room.
Gnome, a huge bear of a man, sat slumped over in his stuffed chair, an open book on a desk in front of him and a shotgun by his chair. Flushed skin, tangled hair, feverish eyes, all hunkered down in a blanket. He looked like a mess.
"There you are."
He peered at her with watering, bloodshost eyes. "What the hell are you-" Another fit of cough shook his large frame.
"That sounds awful."
"What are you-" Gnome sneezed.
"I brought you goodies." She pulled a box of decongestant pills out of the bag and put it on the desk. "Look, I've got canned chicken soup, Theraflu, and here are some cough drops, and here is a box of Puffs tissue with lotion, so you don't scrub all of the skin off that big beak of yours."
He stared at her, speechless. Now that was something. If she had a camera, she should take a picture.
"And this here, this is good stuff." Audrey tapped the plastic cup of Magic Vaporizer. "I had to hunt it down - they don't make it as much anymore, so I could only get a generic version. Look, you boil some water and put these drops in here and inhale - clears your nose right up. I'll fix you one and then you can yell at me."
Five minutes later she presented him with a steaming vaporizer and made him breathe it in. One, two, three...
Gnome sucked in his first breath. "Christ."
"Told you." Audrey set a hot bowl of chicken soup on his desk. "Works wonders."
"How did you know I was sick?"
"Patricia came down the mountain yesterday and we ran into each other at the main road. She said you had a cold and mentioned that you undercharged her for the lanterns by twenty bucks."
"What?"
Audrey smiled. "That's how I knew it was bad. Besides, I was tired of hearing you hack and cough all night. The sound rolls down the mountain, you know. You're keeping Ling awake.""You can't hear me all the way down there."
"That's what you think. Take this generic or Theraflu before bed. Either will knock you out. The red pills are daytime."
Gnome gave her a suspicious look. "How much is all this gonna cost me?"
"Don't worry about it."
Gnome shrugged his heavy shoulders and put a spoon full of soup into his mouth. "This doesn't mean you're getting a discount."
Audrey heaved a mock sigh. "Oh well. I guess I'll have to ply you with sexual favors then."
Gnome choked on the soup. "I'm old enough to be your grandfather!"
Audrey winked at him, gathering the empty bags. "But you're not."
"Get out of here, you and your craziness."
"Okay, okay, I'm going." He was fun to tease and she was in such a good mood.
"What is with you anyway?" he asked. "Why are you grinning?"
"I've got a job. With benefits."
"Legit?"
"Yes."
"Well, congratulations," Gnome said. "Now go on. I'm sick of looking at your face."
"I'll see you later."
She left the house and slogged her way through the mud down to her car. Gnome was a gruff old bear, but he was kind in his own way. Besides he was the only neighbor she had within two miles. Nobody was around to help them. Either they took care of each other or they toughed it out on their own.
Backing Honda down the mountain in the gloom turned out to be harder than Audrey thought. She finally steered the vehicle to the fork, where the narrow road leading to her place split off and took the turn. Thick roots burrowed under the road and her Honda rolled over the bulges, careening and swaying, until it finally popped out into the clearing. On the right the ground dropped off sharply, plunging down the side of the mountain. On the left, a squat pale building sat in the shadow of an old spruce. It was a simple structure - a huge stone block of a roof resting on sturdy stone columns that guarded the wooden walls of the house within like the bars of a stone cage. Each three feet wide column bore a carving: dragons and men caught in the heat of a battle. A wide bas relief decorated the roof as well, showing a woman in a chariot pulled by birds with snake heads. The woman gazed down on the slaughter like a goddess from heaven.
Nobody knew who had built the ruins or why. They dotted this part of the Edge, a tower here, a temple there, gutted by time and elements and covered with moss. The Edgers, being poor and thrifty, knew better than to let them go to waste. They built wooden walls inside the stone frameworks, put in indoor plumbing and electricity illegally siphoned from the neighboring city or provided by generators, and moved right in. If any ancient gods took offense, they had yet to do anything about it.
Audrey parked the car under an ancient scarred maple and turned off the engine. Home, sweet home.
A ball of grey fur dropped off the maple branch and landed on her hood.
Audrey jumped in her seat. Jesus.
The raccoon danced up and down on the hood, chittering in outrage, bright eyes glowing with orange like two bloody moons.
"Ling the Merciless! You get off my car this instant!"
The raccoon spun in place, her grey fur standing on end, put her hand-paws on the windshield, and tried to bite the glass.
"What is with you?" Audrey popped the car door open.
Ling scurried off the car and leaped into her lap, squirming and coughing. Audrey glanced up. The curtains on her kitchen window were parted slightly. A hair-thin line of bright yellow light spilled through the gap.
Somebody was in her house.
Audrey slipped from the seat, dropping Ling gently to the ground, circled the car and opened the hatch back. A tan tarp waited inside. She jerked it aside and pulled out an Excalibur crossbow. It had set her back nine hundred bucks of hard-earned money, and it was worth every penny. Audrey cocked the crossbow and padded to the house, silent and quick. A couple of seconds and she pressed against the wall next to the door. She tried the handle. Locked.
Who breaks into a house and locks the door?