Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
In the icebox, there is food in packages in neat little rows, each labeled with a painstakingly neat hand. I don’t recognize the language on sight, but the letters form into squiggles and then morph into English. Translation spell. As I found out earlier, it’s a bunch of different kinds of soup, all precooked and just needing to be heated. I grab the beef stew and find a pot to cook it in.
Then I go hunting.
I don’t expect to find much; no safe house is perfectly safe. If the Cŵn Annwn were to find this place, whoever owns it wouldn’t want to give them a list of clues. But people are people, and people like to leave their mark. I hit pay dirt in the second bedroom. The top drawer is empty, and when I start tapping on it, I find a false bottom. “Ha. Oldest trick in the book.”
Inside is an old, weathered book. A book filled with writing from one hundred different hands in dozens of different languages, though there must be a translation spell on this as well because they morph into English before my eyes. I carefully turn the pages. I don’t know how they mark time here in Threshold, but it’s clear that this goes back decades, at least.
I turn to the most recent entry and settle down to read.
I’ll keep this short, because the last thing I want to do is cause harm to those who have helped me. If this book is any indication, I’m not the first, and I likely won’t be the last. I knew better than to be drinking on the night of the new moon, and I was surely taught not to wander the woods. A fairy circle. What a fucking joke. I thought they were myth, and yet I ended up here. In a place where none of the rules make sense. It’s sheer dumb luck that one of them found me instead of the Cŵn Annwn. If it had been the latter, I don’t think I would’ve lasted the fortnight. I’m not a warrior. I have little magic to speak of.
And now I’m going home. Tomorrow, I will follow the instructions I was given, and hike to the north side of the island. There, I will hope with everything I have that I am being steered by benevolent instructions, and I will walk into the red-capped fairy circle. If everything goes as I was promised, it will take me back to my realm.
If you’re reading this, they must’ve helped you, too. I hope you’re able to return home.
Safe travels.
—Tom
“I knew it.”
“Knew what?”
I look up to find Bowen leaning against the doorframe. He seems a little better now that he’s showered, but he’s still too pale. I also highly suspect the reason he’s leaning is because he can’t stand straight on his own reliably. I pat the bed next to me. “Come look at this.”
He joins me and peers over my shoulder as I read through a few other entries. Some of them are long. Some are short. All are from people relieved to be heading through a portal and out of Threshold before the Cŵn Annwn can coerce them into making a vow. Considering who sent us here, I have to believe that at least a few of the Cŵn Annwn are part of this network. Nox is more than proof of that, but there have to be more.
Bowen trails his finger down one page. “A couple weeks ago, I would have called this treason.”
“I know.”
He’s silent for quite some time. I let him think as I continue reading through the entries. My curiosity about these people, about how they got here, about how they’re getting home … it’s like a live thing inside me. I won’t pretend that I’ve been altruistic for any part of my life. Bunny had a strange way of looking at that sort of thing. Or maybe not so strange at all. She charged through the nose for her services, but more than once, I caught her slipping spells to people who never could’ve afforded her prices. I’ve done the same.
This is different.
This is … purpose.
“As a former captain, no one helping these people will believe that I genuinely want to be part of this group out of the goodness of my soul. They’ll assume I’m a plant.”
I carefully close the book and give him my full attention. “For a lot of people, they’ll look at your actions over the last twenty years. It will take time for you to prove that you’re something more than that man.” I make a face. “Though I’m not exactly sure how to handle that without getting us both killed by the Cŵn Annwn.”
“Yes … that’s something I’m considering, as well.” He frowns. “But then again, Nox is part of the Cŵn Annwn. It appears that they’re also part of this movement. I’m not sure how they manage that while being quartermaster to Hedd. There’s no way that he’s aware of this.”