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I fished through my tote bag for Jocko's diary and opened it up. Delilah leaned over to get a better view, and we began thumbing through the pages. Most giants spoke in a guttural dialect of Faerie, and their writing was a phonetic version of their speech. Jocko was no exception. While translating took a little time, we could read the entries if we transposed some of the verbs and nouns. When we were able to decipher his handwriting, that is.
The first few months of entries were pretty standard fare for someone who was worlds away from his home. Jocko had been lonely, he'd missed the mountain air even though he didn't miss being picked on for his size. He missed his mother but was glad to be out of his father's reach. Apparently Jocko, Sr., had a tendency to violence. Jocko was loyal to the OIA, but even he seemed to notice the lack of support foreign-based operatives got.
And then, about midway through the diary, we came to the first mention of Louise.
She came in again today and I asked her for her name. Louise. What a strange name, but beautiful. She's so nice, and she told me that she likes hanging around with Faeries. I said, "I'm just a giant, and not a very good one at that," but then she said I was cute. She's going to take me to a movie this week. I've never been to one. I've heard of them, but was too nervous to go by myself. Everything still seems so strange.
Delilah gave me a broad smile. "He had a crush on her." "And it sounds like she might have returned the feeling." I glanced out the window. I was uncomfortable prying into Jocko's personal affairs. Even though he was dead, it went against my nature to snoop into thoughts that he had expected to remain private. But we had to know what went on and why Louise had been killed.
"We're almost at Puyallup," Chase said.
"This is where that big fair is, right?" In September, Chase had invited me to go to the Puyallup Fair with him, but I had declined. Now, as the highway raced beneath the wheels, I could see that the city had that just-passing-by feel to it. Automobile dealerships lined the highway, and the requisite convenience stores, gas stations, taverns, casinos—all the road stops that would beckon a weary traveler driving long stretches in the night.
"Right. And over there's Rainier," he said, nodding to the southeast. "We're about an hour or so away from the entrance to the park."
After staring at the glacier-covered mountain for a few minutes, I went back to Jocko's diary, skimming pages again until about a week before his death. There, I found an interesting entry.
Louise loved the ring and as soon as I can put away enough money, I'm going to sneak her through the portal. She spends just about every evening with me. I know my family won't accept her, so we'll strike out on our own when we get home. OIA will be pissed, but I don't care. They don't do nothing for me anyways.
Last night, Louise caught Wisteria in the basement. I warned Wisteria to quit going down there. She's not authorized to be around the portal. Neither is Louise, but I know she won't touch nothing. Wisteria said that she just wanted to check on some inventory she thought was down there so I guess it's okay.
I don't know what HQ was thinking sending her to me—she's not much help, and she's a bitch. Won't work nights when Menolly's around, says she hates vamps. I tried to tell her that Menolly isn't like the other vampires, she's good people, but Wisteria won't listen.
"So Jocko was planning on sneaking back through the portal with Louise, and they were going to vanish after that. And who the hell is Wisteria? Did you ever hear Menolly mention her?" I frowned as I thought back, trying to recall if I'd ever heard the name before.
Delilah squinted. "Not that I can remember, but then I never paid much attention to the goings-on at the Wayfarer. Do you think she's our leak?"
"Maybe. We have to look into it when we get home, that's for certain." I glanced at Jocko's last entry. He'd been planning on taking Louise out for takeout the night he died, and then going bowling. It was so routine, so daily-grind life, that my stomach knotted. Jocko hadn't a clue that his life was about to end. He hadn't realized that his presence put Louise in danger. If he would have known that he and Louise were about to die, they would have crossed through the portal and disappeared. Of that much, I was certain. So Jocko was clueless, and now he was dead.
When I looked up again, we were pulling to a stop at a convenience store in a small town named Elbe, whose main claim to fame was the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad Excursion, a one-and-a-half-hour, fourteen-mile round-trip train ride through the lower-lying foothills surrounding the mountain. It actually sounded fun, and I made a note to come back later, once things had calmed down, and take the ride. I could do with a bit more wild energy than was provided by the woodlands surrounding our home.
"Anybody need to use the restroom? Get a bite to eat?" Chase opened the door and went to fill the gas tank. Delilah and I hopped out and wandered around.
Set near Alder Lake, the little town managed to keep afloat, thanks to the numerous tourists on their way through to see Mount Rainier. The Ashland Market, the store at which we'd stopped, overlooked the lake, and I meandered over to the edge, staring at the wide expanse of water. The clouds were thick, threatening to break open with a deluge at any moment, and the wind whipped the waves on the surface of the lake into a nice froth.
Delilah joined me, though she hung back a few feet from the bank. Like the majority of catkin, she had a natural reluctance to go near the water, and though she bathed without a problem—thank the gods—she had only learned to swim through the insistence of the OIA. Since she received her certification, she hadn't set foot in a body of water bigger than a hot tub.
She tightened her jacket, stuffing her hands under her arms. "Damn, it's cold. I don't like it here. It's too wild, too old."
I stared at her. "Too old? We come from Otherworld, and you think this place is too old?"
With a shrug, she said, "Maybe not that… I guess… it's just that this area feels wild in a way Otherworld doesn't. The magic in Otherworld's forests makes the trees sparkle and brings them to life. Here, the trees don't talk to people. They grow in their own dark realms, and I can't hear what they're thinking."
What she said was true. In Otherworld the land was so linked to the inhabitants that it felt like a community. Even in the dark woods, there existed a sense of comprehension and understanding. Earthside, a great chasm divided the forest from the people, underscoring the sense of distrust that I felt from the majority of humans that I met. They didn't trust the wild, they feared the primal, and went out of their way to tame everything within reach. It was as if the wild places were at war with humanity. If only a compromise could be reached.
We watched as a hawk flew low over the lake, hunting. "Sometimes," I said, "I wonder what it would be like if Otherworld and Earth were freely linked once again, like they were in the past, with no rules or regulations about who came and went. How would that change things?"
"It would be death to both worlds." Morio had crept up behind us, so silent that neither one of us had heard him. Startled, I jumped, but he put his hand on my shoulder. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." He glanced at Delilah, then back at me. "With the progression Earth has taken, it would be a huge mistake to open free movement between the worlds at this point. Maybe sometime in the future, when both sides are ready for the culture shock."
"Ready?" Chase called to us from beside the SUV, looking vaguely disconcerted. We hustled back to the car. He was holding a bag full of snacks, but a disturbed look told me that he had more on his mind than potato chips.
"What's wrong?" I glanced around, wondering what had happened in the past fifteen minutes.
"I was chatting up the clerk. There have been some pretty strange goings-on around here lately. Abandoned buildings burned to the ground, a few cows and sheep missing, and some blood splattered in the area. Strange UFO sightings being reported. What's that sound like to you?"
"Dragon on the loose, that's what." I glanced at Morio and Delilah. "I have the nasty feeling we're going to meet old smoky."
The prospect of battling a dragon made me queasy. And for that matter, what the hell was it doing around here? And how was it connected to Tom Lane? The photograph in Georgio Profeta's notebook seemed to indicate they were linked. And what was so special about Lane, anyway, that he possessed one of the spirit seals?
