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Ray packed it up in the blanket along with our other supplies, and stowed it in back of the raft. Then he carried me down to the waterline. Our new vessel did not look any better close up, but I decided not to mention that.
However, there were some things that I hadn’t seen from a distance. Ray had made two indentations in the pile of sticks that I assumed were supposed to be seats. They actually worked pretty well, I discovered, after he lifted me onto the one in back. The sticks had been piled up high, giving me some support. They also curved slightly around me, like a half cage, so that I wouldn’t fall out, I supposed.
He checked it anyway, rocking me back and forth to see if I’d shake loose. Only when he was satisfied did he get in the front “seat,” settling himself and causing the contraption to sag somewhat. That left my legs in water almost up to my knees, and to my surprise, it felt a bit cold. I could actually feel the chill of the current, which was more than I’d been able to do yesterday.
I felt myself getting excited at the idea that perhaps my legs weren’t completely dead, after all. But I quickly tamped it back down. Dhampirs usually healed quickly, vanishing minor wounds within a day, and major ones within a week or so. But a week was a very long time in Faerie.
Still, I decided to take it as a good sign. And then Ray reached back and pulled my feet up, tucking them into the briar patch of a raft and out of the stream, and I thought I felt that, too. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking.
“What was that for?” I asked.
“Same as this,” he said, and leaned over the side to pick up what looked like another pile of sticks, which had been floating in the water.
I’d assumed that it was merely additional driftwood that had not been needed, or perhaps a trash pile that had accumulated against the rocks. It contained leaves as well as sticks, a few clumps of grass, and some fish carcasses, the latter of which I recognized as the remains of our meal from last night. Even the crab shell was there, perched on top like a weather vane on a house.
And then perched on top of us, when Ray dragged the whole thing over our heads.
“Ray!”
“This is how we used to smuggle stuff,” he explained, working to arrange the thing, so that it formed a type of canopy. I could now see that it wasn’t flat bottomed, as I’d thought, but hollow, with the trash carefully woven across an archway of sticks.
It was dim in here, but I could still see, especially when facing forward. The trash was thinner there, probably so that Ray could see to navigate. But there were also places along the sides where the riverbank was clearly visible.
“Like I said,” he continued. “Getting around Faerie is dangerous, even when people aren’t chasing you. And when they think you’re smuggling, they usually are.”
“But you were smuggling snack cakes—”
“Well, they were more of a sweetener—ha!” he added, seeming pleased with himself over the pun.
“You are good with humor,” I said truthfully.
He glanced back at me and grinned. “Thanks. Anyway, food is always appreciated, ‘specially when it’s something you don’t get every day. I’d add a crate or two of honey buns or something to the delivery to get a better price. You’d be surprised how quickly people change their tune when you’re waving their favorite treat under their nose. I always used to suggest we have a sample with our tea, while we negotiated.”
“Negotiated for what?” I asked, because it didn’t sound like Little Debbies formed the majority of his inventory.
He shrugged and pushed us off from the bank with a driftwood paddle. “Weapons mostly, like we talked about last night, and wards—”
“Wards?”
“Yeah, ‘specially any big enough to hide a barn so that an enemy couldn’t burn it down. Or to camouflage a safe house stuck somewhere out in the woods, where a family could retreat if needed. Wards were a big seller.”
“But I thought Earth magic didn’t work in Faerie.”
“Oh, it works,” he said, aiming us toward mid-stream, where the current was swiftest. “Just not for long. Earth talismans can’t gather magic from Faerie—”
“You could use a fey talisman,” I pointed out, but he shook his head.
“Yeah, but then the magic it collects will be fey, too, and that only runs fey spells. When the whole point of buying from me, or other human smugglers, was to get something different. Something their enemies wouldn’t know and might overlook. Or that might blow them away because they never seen it before.”
“I see.”
“I made out better than most ‘cause my stuff lasted. I got some coven witches to do the spells, and coven magic is basically a cross between human and fey. So, their talismans will work here, only not as well. But a little help is better than none at all.”
“Yes,” I agreed and looked down, to where some small fish were attempting to nibble at my toes. They were silver bright and shining in the sun dappled water, and followed us for a minute before realizing that they couldn’t quite reach the tempting morsels. They gave up, darting after easier prey, as our speed increased.
This world was so beautiful, I thought, looking around. Like Earth in many places, but an untouched Earth, with clean water and old growth forests. Yet, just like back home, all anybody seemed to want to do was fight.
“It is a shame that the fey only wanted weapons,” I said.
