Maya and I continued those visits every day for the rest of that week. I still hadn’t found any further notes now that I had procured a human. Uncle Aengus should have put a trigger into the next step to reveal itself near the first, but nothing more showed itself as I reached the book’s end. Going back to the beginning and running through each of the margins again made me stay up long past when I needed more sleep. Maya’s short sojourns afforded a pleasant diversion for a few hours, but those were hours taken from my work, from my bed.
Around her fourth or fifth visit in a row, I forewent my usual experiment with food. She didn’t seem to notice or mind as she stepped through. I glanced over my shoulder and offered her a quick greeting before diving back into the glowing letters of the book. What had I missed? There had to be a second step concealed somewhere within those pages.
Maya muttered a paltry, “Hey.” She had seemed less talkative since I became carried away describing Fuamnach’s demise. Perhaps she saw that I was otherwise occupied.
While she hadn’t engaged me in further conversation, the weight of her presence made me reread lines and scroll over margins I had already combed through. To be a poor host was one of the biggest offenses one could give a guest, or so the Aos Si believed. If she was there, courtesy demanded I make seat for her, or attend her needs, or make meaningless small talk after her affairs.
“I’m not in the best of moods at the moment.” I massaged my throbbing forehead. “Today may not be the best time.”
“You need me to leave, I get it,” she said, her voice soft and resigned. “Just a couple more minutes, alright?”
I peered behind me and sought her out. What could possibly delay her departure?
She had taken liberties with my bed in the prolonged silence since her arrival and laid on the edge. Sunshine from my skylight fell across her face. She’d closed her eyes and sprawled her arms across my pillows. Her skin drank in the rays like a starved plant longing for nourishment. The expression on her face was serene and wondrous, a criminal in exile given the rare privilege to glimpse their homeland.
She came from a land where the sun shone most of the year. If my scries to find her and her mother were correct, she’d known nothing else since her infancy.
I hesitated to speak, to break that vulnerable peace, but the question slipped. “What is it like where Riona lives?”
“It’s a big hole in the ground. She’s got some candles in the walls to light the place up, but it’s not much.” Maya hadn’t opened her eyes yet, not moving from the sun’s light. It gave her warm skin a soft glow of its own and made her resemble some foreign breed of Aos Si, if such existed.
“Haven’t you ever been outside?”
“Only that one time when we saw your mom. Your sister says it’s too dangerous.” Maya shrugged, still basking. “I get why. Somebody could see me and that’d break the terms of the deal she made. Then I’d be killed to either clean up her mess or punish her, or something else bad.”
“Ah. And how long does she leave you in said hole every day? Our visits tend to go on for a few hours at least.”
“Yeah, she usually gets back a while after I do. I’d say it’s anywhere from five to ten hours. Don’t quote me on that. No clocks or sundials or whatever you use in this place to tell time.”
I pressed my mouth into a line. My finger was still pressed to the page of the book, most of it blank save for the small section highlighted by my touch. I peered down. It was the beginning of the passage detailing the Key’s creation. The end of the next page would have the portion about how the Key would gradually kill me once Bodb dubbed my usefulness over. Following Aengus’ logic, I had until Samhain, which was still a couple moon cycles away. I still didn’t know what Maya needed to do to make Aengus’ solution work. Tracing the same pages over and over, obsessing over the grim fate in store for me, was fraying my wits. The short fits of sleep I had managed were plagued by nightmares of nothingness and the sensation of my own nonexistence. I’d wake up exhausted, but terrified to slip back into the same dream. Maya coming every day had been a boon, holding the dread at bay with all of her eager questions.
“Alright, I’m about ready.” Maya sat up and kneaded her eyes. “I’ll get out of your hair.”
“There’s no need, really.” I set my cloth marker back in the book, saving my place. “Now is as good a time to pause as any. I don’t have any food prepared for today. I could find something else to make your stay a bit easier.”
“Um, let me think.” She bit the piercing in her lip. “You got any music?”
“Aos Si are masters of that art. What sort were you thinking?”
“Something fast with a good beat. You wouldn’t have any punk or hardcore, would you?”
“Why would we carry that noise?” I had skimmed over showcases of those small, riotous groups in my past visions. They used large electrified guitars and complex configurations of drums and gongs. Even a full blooded Aos Si would have difficulty making use of those. “Half of them don’t have the skill to play a simple melody or the voices to carry discernible lyrics.”
“Seriously?” Maya inclined forward, elbows on her knees and ready for hardy debate. “So you don’t like the Ramones?”
“Their singer mumbles everything.”
“The Sex Pistols?”
“Why should they be any different?”
“What about anything Celtic punk? Dropkick Murphys or Flogging Molly?”
I turned my nose up and refrained from comment.
“There’s so much you’re missing out on! The Descendants, Bad Religion, Rise Against. There’s this indie band in Washington I found, Only North. They’ve got a great style you’d have to like. They’re around my age but their sound is a good blend of melody, hardcore, and metal.” She twisted the beads set high on her ear. “If there’s one thing I wish I could’ve brought when your sister grabbed me, besides my mom, it’s my music. I haven’t touched it since Abuela passed away. Now I’d kill for some kind of sound to fill all the quiet here.”
“Tir Na Nog isn’t supposed to be that way. If you ever saw a feast, the reels alone would play in your mind long after you had left. Actually…” I made my way to the mirror and waved for her follow. “Come. I’ll show you. This last Imbolc had a very catchy player, and most of her songs were even faster than those groups you like.”
Maya pricked upright and sped over. I summoned a scry of the fair Aos Si musician in question running her bow ragged over her lyra. Every dancer who’d entered that circle became winded by the end of the set, a mighty feat considering Aos Si endurance. I had only endured through two songs.
We spent the rest of those few hours comparing the music of our respective cultures, breaking up the silence of our mutual isolation. It was strange to share something as basic to my people as their music and tales, and see how Maya’s reactions varied from appalled to enraptured. When she described the merits of her musical tastes, I attempted to imitate them with my own assortment of glamoured instruments. The arrangements she explained seemed to couple well with the bawdy and politically charged lyrics she sang out.
I had only one quandary once she left: had I made a friend of my accomplice?
* * *
Maya and I continued the pattern of her regular visits. It proved reliable in breaking up the monotony of my copying from the book and reinvigorating my spirits. My new ally wasn’t the most fascinating of creatures, as far as humans went. Her clothing style and shape ran on the homely side, yet in conversing with her, I found myself becoming more comfortable. We exchanged questions in a natural banter, and I was reminded of those long talks I would have with Mother, Uncle Aengus, or Aunt Brigid. I’d never had that sort of familial experience with a stranger, let alone someone who had no impressions of me as a boy, or as just “The Key Bearer” or “Midir’s Son”.
On her following visits through the mirror, I continued to make those attempts at human meals. A cabbage salad I attempted lacked color while its cream dressing resembled a porridge. Frying battered onions went better, though they came out more burned than crispy. These tries made Maya roll her eyes and cringe, but in the end she ate them with gusto.
On our tenth meeting, I produced something supposedly simple: a grilled cheese sandwich. It waited for her on a plate in her earthen seat once she emerged through my mirror a little before midday.
“You’re early today.”
“What’s on the menu?” Her eyebrows pinched at my creation. “Is that grilled cheese?”
“With butter and ham slices, which was the easy part. Replicating a thick, wheat-based bread and more modern, foreign cheeses was a challenge.” I offered her a thin dinner knife and a glamoured fork.
“You don’t have to do this stuff, you know.” Still, she sat and cut the sandwich into diagonal halves. “But if you have any tomato soup, that’d be nice.”
“Hmm… Making my best guess at tomatoes was a disaster the last time I attempted. Would a stew work?” I strode to the mirror and summoned the Dagda’s Cauldron, which resided on the other side of the realm in Connacht. When I projected my expectations to the artifact, it spewed out a bowl of steaming meat broth with hearty chunks of mutton floating in it. Not precisely what I asked for, but it would have to suffice. I reached into the mirror and took the bowl. “And while I don’t have to, you’re the one who must suffer through my attempts at modern human cooking. I’d say you getting a free meal in exchange for being my test subject counts as a fair arrangement.”
“If you want to try something hard, try Cochinita Pibil. The pork takes forever to cook and spicing it right is a pain. But you guys probably don’t need Publix or a Walmart to get the ingredients.” She watched the mirror with wide eyes. “Where does the food come from?”
“Oh, from one of the Aos Si’s sacred treasures. The Dagda’s Cauldron supplies us all of our food in unlimited quantities. Though, the selection is limited to food available before the walls closed unless I try experimenting. Has Riona never used it to feed you?”
“She has a magic cabinet she pulls our food out of.”
“It must have a concealed portal to the cauldron inside with a preset selection of meals. That’s a simple enough construct.” I tapped the glass and the cauldron’s image disappeared. After delivering the stew, I resumed my seat. “How is it?”
“Hold on. I haven’t had time to take a bite.” Maya dipped one of the triangles into the stew. She munched on it for a moment, her expression more perplexed than disgusted. When she swallowed, she offered an uncertain shrug. “It’s not too bad.”
“And the cheese?”
She took another taste of the sandwich, her nose wrinkling. “It’s…sour.”
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“Adjusting how a magical cauldron makes cheese is bound to affect the flavor.”
Maya stabbed her fork into the stew and devoured a piece of mutton. “Why have you been practicing your cooking on me?”
“For when Mother and I are in the human world. She won’t know the language and will not be likely to learn it, so she will have to rely on me to help her navigate our new life.”
“What’s your plan?”
“We’ll find a little cottage or flat on the edge of a city, not too far from a grocer, but separate enough from civilization to not attract much attention. I’ll have to find an occupation doing something, perhaps assisting on a farm. We’ll have a small vegetable crop in the back, of course, where I can grow much of our food.”
“It’s a pretty picture, but to buy a house you need a mortgage. If you find somewhere to rent, most applications need a credit check. To work an official job, you’ll need a social security card, unless you do it under the table. At least that’s how it is in America. Were you guys going to live there or in Ireland?”
For a moment, what she said resembled describing complex magical theory. The words made some sense, and the translation spell upon her helped the concepts come through, in a sense. I blinked and tilted my head one side. “Are those all things you had to do?”
“Kinda. During the last couple years, I got Abuela to let me sit down with her whenever she had to do budgeting or bills. When we had to move last time, I helped her coordinate everything.”
“Abuela… Your grandmother, then? Your mother didn’t teach you these things?”
“She tried teaching me what she did know when she was stable, but I didn’t really listen to her and she got frustrated easy.” Her shoulders fell as she stared at her sandwich and shifted the remaining triangle with the tip of my knife. “Abuela always had more patience, even though she didn’t like me handling stuff without her.”
“I don’t recall seeing her in any of my visions. Does she live somewhere far away?”
Maya went quiet, shaking her head. Her entire demeanor drooped.
“So she doesn’t visit often?”
“She had a heart attack a month or so ago. We didn’t find her in time. Didn’t I tell you that?”
“Yes, that’s right. I had forgotten.” I remembered then how I’d dismissed the comment about her grandmother because I couldn’t use her in my faked vision. Perhaps I shouldn’t have brought up her family, knowing what I knew. The guilt at the part I’d played in deceiving her clawed at my stomach anew. I’d almost settled into believing my own falsified version of events. While Jennifer Diaz’s fate wasn’t entirely certain, the amount of blood seeping from her head wound suggested a bad end. Which meant Maya would be all alone when I brought her back home.
“Well, you pose a good problem.” I cleared my throat, hoping to drive off some of the awkwardness invading the moment. “I may have miscalculated how well Mother and I will get by in your world on our own. I may need more assistance than I thought.”
“What’re you asking?”
“Could you teach me how to be human? I thought I knew enough to get by, but you’ve made it painfully obvious I was wrong.”
“You sure?” Her round cheeks gained a faint tinge of red. “It’s not like I’m an expert. I’m still learning a lot of this stuff. Hell, I’m barely out of high school.”
“You know how to survive with a loved one who depends on you.” I frowned as the gravity of my next words dawned on me. “For as long as Mother is alive, I will have to care for her in a world that is very new to both of us. You grew up there and know its minutia as commonplace, while I have viewed it as a novelty from afar all my life.”
“Alright, that makes sense. You’ve been explaining how a ton of your magic stuff works. I guess it’d be the same for you if you had to use a debit card for the first time.”
“Pardon?”
“You know, the plastic cards with the numbers you swipe in those machines so you can buy stuff.”
“I thought you exchanged paper bills and coins for items.”
“Cash works too, but cards are easier.”
“I should have paid more attention to the commercials in those television programs.” I gulped, realizing just how much I had to learn.
“It’s alright.” Maya laughed and patted my shoulder. “As long as you guys stay in Florida for awhile, I can help.”
“Does it ever snow in Florida or is it too tropical?”
“Oh, don’t get me started on the weather…”
We began plotting some logistics of how Mother and I would start a life of our own in Maya’s world. I had to produce a thorough backstory and a slew of falsified documents to make it believable. There were so many things to figure out before Samhain. But planning the next steps aloud for when Mother and I crossed over to the mortal realm made it seem like a legitimate possibility. For the first time, my tentative hope bubbled into an eager excitement at my future.
* * *
“To get somewhere without a car, one rides the city bus.” I pinched my tunic as I ran over the rest of Maya’s previous lesson on public transportation and travel. She had given me one each day since I made my request, and I had accumulated ten sheets of notes detailing them.
Maya nodded with expectation. She held my notes in her lap, flipped over so the blank side of the bottom most page faced me rather than the writing. We were nearly finished with the review session.
“That requires either bus fare, money paid for one ride, or a bus pass, which costs more currency, but lasts for more than one ride. It stops at multiple places, so it takes a longer time to reach your destination. This is not to be confused with a longer distance bus, like from the ‘Black-Hound’ company, in which one must purchase a ticket for one trip, much like they do with airplanes.”
“It’s Greyhound, not Black-Hound.”
“Blast.” I smacked my knee, my frustration getting the better of me. “That breed does make more sense. Black hounds are foreboding.”
“That’s still a ninety-nine percent. A-plus!”
“Of course. I expected no less.” My chest warmed for the praise, regardless. “What shall the next topic be?”
“Hygiene.”
“You mean bathing and the like?”
“More than that.” Maya handed me back my notes, gesturing I should start writing by scrawling something in the air. “Daily showers, deodorant, toothpaste, antibacterial soap.”
“Aos Si don’t have to deal with things like that.”
“Yeah, but your mom will. And they didn’t have any of this stuff where she’s from, right?”
“No.” I took my enchanted quill from my desk and steadied it against the blank side of my notes. “Being human is rather complex in your time, isn’t it?”
“It gets worse. We haven’t even started on the internet yet.”
Something tickled the back of my neck, making the fine hairs there stand on end. It wasn’t anything solid, but the feeling of another’s power invading my own. It came from the mirror, seeping through gaps in my wards. The gold frame glowed amber a moment, the High King’s color.
“Hide, quickly!” I scrambled to gather the book, my notes, everything sprawled and stacked across my desk.
“Where?” Maya glanced about the room in a frenzy. The circular design and lack of private spaces made my request a challenge. Her gaze settled on the bed, though, and its stacks of pillows. “From what?”
“Anywhere.” I hoisted Maya to her feet as I demolished the earthen seat I’d produced for her. It turned to small pile of dirt and rocks upon the floor. I spread it smooth with my foot. “The High King himself calls from the mirror.”
Maya’s eyes widened in evident terror as she dove at the bed and ducked behind it. Considering it was round, it would give her ample enough space to move, should my uncle decide to come inside. I pulled the tie holding up the curtains on the canopy and they cascaded down around her. So long as she didn’t squirm too much against the sheer fabric, they should help conceal her.
Bodb’s power sent gooseflesh prickling under my sleeves and up my arms. The Key bubbled up in my chest, reminding me of my direct tie to him. Oh how I ached to sever it in that moment. I adjusted my glamour to its minimal state and smoothed out any wrinkles in my tunic. I had to school my panicked breathing, even though my heart raced in my ears. The best way to deceive is to use the truth as much as possible, I repeated to myself—Uncle Aengus’ favorite lesson.
As I walked up to my mirror to answer the summon, Bodb’s face appeared, his beard and bulk taking up much of the glass. The hunting trophies littering his walls leered over his shoulders. A roaring fire from his massive hearth made his visage dark and foreboding, moreso than usual.
“Daire, you shouldn’t tarry when someone calls, especially your superiors.” Bodb’s voice boomed through my quarters, making me wince with the momentum of his chiding reprimand. “It can be perceived as an insult.”
“I meant no offense, your majesty.” I changed my speech to my native tongue and bowed low at my waist. My hair fell across my shoulders as I dipped my head. “I did not expect you to call, so I was taken aback. You tend to reach me through Father.”
“When I hear of something being off about your activities, I’m inclined to surprise you.” Bodb frowned, the thick hair on his upper lip hooding his mouth. “You’re very important to me and all of Tir Na Nog. Your safety is essential.”
“Of course.” I held back a biting remark about my so called importance. “What is it about my behavior that has you so personally concerned?”
“I’m told you’ve hardly been outside your quarters in weeks.”
“And where did you hear that?”
“Don’t be coy, boy. I have my ways.”
“How much longer will this be?” A familiar woman sighed behind him. Riona? Was she playing spy for Bodb in hopes of currying his favor? Was that how she’d earned the privilege to take Maya? “You know very well I must be back home to attend someone.”
From the corner of my eye, my bed curtain twitched as Maya sucked in a sharp breath.
“You and I will resume our discussion once I’m done.” Bodb’s attention flicked to my bed.
“And what’s so odd about staying inside for a change?” I spoke up, letting some of my insolence creep into my voice. If there was anything the High King despised, it was my sass.
“You are a child who obsessively tends his gardens.” Bodb’s dubious regard shifted back to me. “They’re starting to become overgrown and you haven’t noticed. Something else distracts you.”
I grimaced. How much of a mess would I need to fix to curb his suspicion? He wasn’t wrong, and that was the problem. My thoughts had been consumed by the Key, the book, and Maya for as long as I had been in my room. As well as Mother… “If you want to know the reason, ask Father.”
“I should have figured as much.” Bodb groaned as he shook his burly head. “Any squabbles between you two are not mine to intervene in.”
“Oh really?” Riona’s smirk showed in her voice, despite that I couldn’t place where she stood in the room. “What did our neglectful sire do now?”
“None of your concern, Iron Witch.” I crossed my arms over my chest and tilted my chin up. No doubt she could see me.
“It’s serious enough to inspire crying fits. Do make him tell, your majesty. It’s been so long since he entertained me with his plight.”
“Hush!” Bodb turned and raised his hand in threat of a slap.
Riona went silent.
That curtain stretched and trembled, as if someone gripped it in a clenched fist. Such bluster was a common enough way to administer reprimands to unruly underlings for the Aos Si, but it made sense that a show of such aggressive discipline might set off Maya, someone from the modern age. If only I could assure her such a threat was more posturing than anything. Father had done the same plenty of times when I spoke out of turn, but he never followed through on it.
“Is there someone in your bed?” Bodb asked.
“I’m entertaining company.” I folded my hands behind my back, my fingers strangling each other. “Might I resume it?”
“Very well. Tend to Bri Leith’s grounds soon. I’ll speak with Midir about your issue.” Bodb tapped his mirror. The colors of his form swirled into a blur until they settled into my reflection.
I collapsed into my chair, holding my chest as my heart raced out of control and my panic subsided bit by bit.
“That was a close one.” Maya pushed my bed curtain aside.
“You need to school your emotions better.”
“I don’t do great around jerks.”
I went to retort, but a certain familiarity in her tone gave me pause. “You’ve met the High King?”
“Your mirror wasn’t the first I tried to use.”
“How are you alive? Uncle Bodb hates humans.”
“Your sister bailed me out.” She lowered herself to the edge of my bed, then bolted upright. “Wait, that guy’s your uncle too?”
“Yes.”
“Which means he’s your sister’s uncle.”
“Naturally.” I cocked a brow at her. “Is it so shocking that we’re connected to him by blood ties?”
“No. I’m just realizing I’m stuck in a telenovela.” Maya groaned and swiped her fingers through her bangs. “I should get going, just in case your sister comes home early.”
“Yes, and I need to straighten my gardens. As long as I take care of the vines and rearrange the flowers, it should be enough. The trees behave themselves.”
“You’re the one that does all the flowers?”
“Of course. It’s thanks to me Bri Leith has the finest grounds in all Tir Na Nog.”
“I kind of remember seeing them when we snuck out the one time. You could host one of those backyard makeover shows. Seriously, look into landscaping once we get out.”
I smiled at the compliment, my spirits lifting a moment before the reality of our near miss hit me. If Bodb investigated further into who could be visiting me, he would figure out the truth. “We need to prepare for next time this happens.”
“There’s shouldn’t be a next time, right?” Maya started toward the mirror.
“Perhaps yes, perhaps no. If we want to succeed, we cannot be careless.” I pressed my lips together, dreading the words I knew must come next. “I hate to impose this on you, but we need to spend some time apart, to be safe.”
She stopped just short of my mirror, her hand resting on the frame. Her shoulders fell. “You need to get your stuff straightened out and find the next step in that book, right?”
“Yes.” My stomach sank, uncharacteristic sadness falling over me that hadn’t been there a few weeks ago. “Three days should be enough.”
“Alright, that’s not that long.” She offering me a reassuring grin. “Don’t worry, I’ll catch up on sleep or something.”
“What made you think I would worry?”
She drew a circle in the air with her finger, encompassing my head in the gesture. “That sulky face.”
My cheeks became hot and I crossed my arms over my chest. As much as I wanted to deny her observation, she was right. “I will be fine.”
“Seeya in a few days.” She offered a snicker and a mock salute as she slipped through the glass and disappeared.
It was then the quiet of my quarters became palpable, when the empty space Maya once occupied felt wrong. It wasn’t that I usually ached for companionship, my family supplied that plenty. Then I’d found the book’s secret and the curse of that very family’s making. It had been nice, sharing things with someone unrelated to the entire situation, who listened without judgement and shared my motivation to see my task accomplished.
Enough wallowing. I would see Maya again soon. It was three days. The extra hours meant I could dedicate more time to investigating the book rather than experimenting with human foods and music. When I expended too much energy on the book, I could catch up on tending my flowers.
It was only later, when I realized how much I would miss Maya’s company, that the next step in the spell revealed itself.