Eccentric Circles

Chapter Fourteen

Aelvarim, the elf. Piper didn't know who she wanted to strangle first, her mother, her aunt, Africa, or Aelvarim. She couldn't stand Africa's sly knowing smile glaring in the bright afternoon sun. "Follow me to Grandma's house. We can talk there."

Keeping track of Africa's car in the rearview mirror, Piper drove home. After seeing the change in the parlor, with the furniture cleared off and all the books shelved, Africa insisted on touring the house, to see what Piper had been doing, before she settled into one of the chairs in the parlor.

A puff of dust rose from the old burgundy and blue cushion of the Queen Anne chair as Africa sat. The place might be straightened, but it still needed to be cleaned. Piper wondered if she'd ever get the chance, between work and investigating who murdered Grandma.

"Now, tell me about this Aelvarim."

Piper collapsed into one of the chairs, raising another puff of dust that went circling and twinkling through the stream of sunlight coming in the window. Piper wondered what she should do about the gaps appearing in the Human world. She didn't have time to chit chat about silly handsome elves who showed up unexpectedly in the kitchen and turned everything upside down. "Oh, well. He's one of Grandma's neighbors. I met him the day after I moved in here."

Africa made a "more" motion with her hands, stirring the floating dust a bit.

"Tall, dark, handsome. Nice personality. I don't know. What do you want to know about him?"

"What I want to know is what you think about him. Is this serious? I mean, do you think he might be the one?" Africa scooted to the edge of her seat, fingering the worn rounded edge of the wooden trim around the seat of the chair.

"Africa, the man is .... He thinks he's an elf. He dresses like a refugee from a renaissance fair. He has these big blue eyes, and dark red hair that looks almost black, and little pointy ears. And he carries a harp. And ...."

Smiling, Africa cooed, "So you like him?"

"There isn't a woman alive that wouldn't drool over him." Piper sat up and rubbed her temples. She had a headache, from fear and weariness. "But I'm afraid he might be terminally loony. And it may be catching." And it may be dangerous.

"So, you think he's an elf, too?"

Yes. I think he's an elf. I believe in Fairy. And I'm in way over my head. But Piper didn't say any of that, she wasn't about to tell Africa that. She settled for just giving Africa a strong look.

"You don't care what he may or may not be, as long as you can drool, or perhaps more than just drool?" Africa said, and snickered.

"I don't think he is interested in me that way." Piper slouched back into her chair, still rubbing her temples.

"Poor thing. I forgot, you're not feeling well. I should let you go get some rest." Africa leaned over to pat Piper's knee encouragingly. "Do you need anything? Is there anything I can get you?"

Just to be alone. "No."

"All right. You go get some rest." Africa stood and shook her finger at Piper. "But I want to meet this elf of yours. He sounds very interesting." She glanced at the door. "Any chance he'll be by soon?"

"No. He's at work," Piper lied. For all she knew Aelvarim could walk through any minute. She, too, watched the door, and noticed that the painted frame around the door was loose and needed to be nailed back down. A quick look around the room confirmed that there were no black gaps opening into nothingness in the parlor, but Piper expected them at any moment.

"What sort of work does an elf do?" Africa asked.

"He's a storysmith."

"That doesn't sound like a job with regular hours." Africa looked hopefully at the door, but no one knocked or came in.

"How about I have you and Sherlock over for dinner to meet him sometime?" Piper asked. Anything to get rid of her now.

"Sure." Africa brightened. "How about tonight?"

"Not tonight." Piper scrubbed her face with her hands. She had to do something about this headache. And the gaping black holes appearing everywhere. "Tomorrow night."

As soon as she was sure Africa was gone, Piper hurried out the back door. The early-afternoon spring sun shone down on the new pale grass sprouting up through the dried brown remnants of last year’s yard. A slight breeze blew, enough to cool the air, but not leave things chilly.

She ran through the weedy yard, past the gazebo and what had been a vegetable garden, to the tall blue spruce trees bordering Grandma's yard. Slipping between two trees, she came out to discover a small dirt path running between a fence and the trees. She'd run straight to the developments behind Grandma's house.

Looking wildly around, Piper didn't see any black holes in the yards or fences, so that much was all right. But she also didn't see the path she usually took to get to Larkingtower's spire. Not so good. Squelching her panic, she retraced her steps to the house. She could still get to Fairy. She'd just forgotten to concentrate on where she was going before she left the house.

Entering the kitchen, she saw the small stone mead jug sitting on the counter, surrounded by the remnants of her hasty breakfast and the other things from the basket Malraux had given her. A momentary impulse seized her to drink some of the thick sweet mead – she'd need all the energy she could get – but she ignored it. Concentrating on getting to Aelvarim, she left the house again. This time the yard was greener, less weedy, the development was gone, and the familiar dirt path wound over the leaf-strewn ground, between thick evergreen trees, up and down over rolling hills.

The increasing number, and size, of the black holes scared Piper more than she could say. She dodged around them as she hurried past, taking note of where they lay on the ground around the path, in case she had to leave the path to get home again.

A thin tendril of smoke rose from the top of Larkingtower's stone spire, but Piper just hurried past, running swiftly over the rolling green meadow. She hurdled the stream and kept going into the forest on the other side at a dead run, leaping over gaps in the path, dodging when she couldn't leap. Panting and gasping for breath as she ran.

The glade by Malraux's cavern was coated in black splotches. The contrast between Malraux's home and Larkingtower's struck her, as she turned down the path to Aelvarim's house. If the gaps started first in the areas of Human and Fairy farthest apart, then Malraux was much farther from human influences than Larkingtower. Piper wondered how that might have affected his relationship with Grandmother Dickerson.

She nearly flew across the tree-bridge to Aelvarim's house. The shimmer was gone, but the house remained. It was a quaint stone cottage, one door, two windows, steep roof, and flower beds across the front. It too gave Piper the same strong impression of a face as Grandmother's house did. She knocked, but Aelvarim didn't answer.

Malraux did.

"Come in," he said, opening the door wide. "Aelvarim isn't here, but I expect him back soon."

She looked around without stepping in. Inside was a single room. A large fireplace with a roaring fire dominated the far wall, giving the inside of the cottage a heavy smoke scent. A few pieces of rough furniture and a few pots and pans completed the decorations. On a heavy wooden table sat the statue Malraux had been carving. Piper could see now that it was someone mining with a pick.

"Thank you, but I really need to find Aelvarim. Quickly."

"What seems to be the trouble? May I help?"

Try as she might Piper couldn't make the laugh lines around his small dark eyes into sinister crows-feet, and his beard-covered, rosy, chubby cheeks looked more Santa-like than dastardly evil. In person it was hard to imagine him casting a murder spell on anyone.

While she hesitated on the doorstep, Malraux stepped out of the cottage, coaxing gently, "I know Aelvarim was upset about something this morning, but he wouldn't say what. Please, let me help you."

Piper gushed in panicked worry, "There are gaps appearing in the Human realm. I don't know what to do. I need to talk to Aelvarim and find out if he's found out anything more to add to what we discovered last night." She found she was wringing her hands.

"Oh." Malraux appeared flabbergasted and worried. "Time is running out. Aelvarim said he was going to look for clues in the Human world. You might find him there."

"But where there? Do you know where he might be?"

"I don't know. I've never been to the Human world. I'm sorry, but I don't know."

"The gaps, in the Human world, I was the only one that could see them. How can people avoid them if they can't see them? Is Aelvarim safe there?"

"No one is safe anywhere now." Malraux wrung his hands. "People in the Human world can only see the gaps if they know about the world of Fairy. You can see the gaps because you know what used to be there. You've been tainted enough by Fairy that you still remember. For everyone else all that no longer exists, and never did. You'd better hurry; find Aelvarim. If gaps are appearing in the Human world also, there isn't much time left. The rift will continue to grow, until our worlds are ripped apart and there's nothing left. Hurry." He waved her off.

Piper ran back the way she'd come, through the darkening forest. It wasn't until she'd reached Larkingtower's spire, and stepped out into the meadow, that she realized it wasn't night coming on, but the gaps swallowing up the sunlight trickling through the forest's leaves and branches that were making it appear dark.

A trail of smoke from the chimney of Larkingtower's spire let her know that he was at home, but she didn't want to disturb him. She wasn't sure if he'd assist her, shout at her, or just ignore her, if she were to stop and ask.

She continued at a normal pace across the meadow, to allow herself to catch her breath and give Larkingtower an opportunity to step out and offer to help her if he wished. But the door to his spire remained closed, and she heard no sound from within.

The forest path back to Grandma's house was dappled with shadow and black splotches. Some of the trees drooped; even the evergreens seemed gray and foreboding. No flowers raised their colorful heads to cheer her. Spring seemed blighted with a return of winter, even though the air was still warm, and beyond the forest the sun still shone down. The real and illusory ability of the gaps to swallow the light withered the beauty of the forest.

Entering the house, Piper looked around. Somewhere around here there were clues, or at least a clue, something to let them know what had happened to Grandma. Who had tried to cast an evil spell that was now ruining both worlds? And what had that person done?

Piper concentrated on finding Grandma's manuscript. The fairies’ dream returned to her, starting with her opening the trunk in the attic, pulling out the wedding dress .... She stopped herself; this was no time for foolish fairy shenanigans.

She hadn't checked the wardrobe yet. She raced into the bedroom and started flinging her things from the wardrobe onto the bed, careless of any damage she might be doing to the antique wooden wardrobe. When she'd cleaned out Grandma's clothes, she hadn't thought to look for hidden drawers or such. Running her fingers along the bottom, back, and sides produced no secrets, no hidden drawers, no splinters. Under the crumbling paper lining of one drawer she found a picture.

Sitting in the window seat, Piper examined the old, faded picture. It was her great-grandparents’ wedding picture. Grandma was wearing the wedding dress from the trunk up in the attic. Grandpa was looking nervous in his suit. Something seemed wrong to Piper.

Grandpa's arm was down by his side. He had no black book in a white-knuckled grip in his hand.

That had been in her dream. So her dream image had differed from reality. That was no big surprise. But the book had been in more of her dream than just in the picture. Where? Piper remembered the book had been at the bottom of the trunk with the wedding dress. So what?

"The book is in the bottom of the trunk!" she shouted at herself. The fairies had been trying to help her, and she hadn't paid any attention. She needed to apologize to them. If she ever saw them again.

Her attempt to fly up the narrow stairs to the attic failed, and left her crawling swiftly up with a bruised knee. She fumbled with the lid to the trunk, and it squealed in protest as she opened it.

The smell of mothballs rose from the trunk as Piper disturbed the contents. She carefully removed the wedding dress, keeping it still in its rustling paper wrapping, setting it gently on the stack of trunks. The paper-wrapped veil followed it. Then Grandpa's suit.

At the bottom of the trunk, along with a layer of crumbling old mothballs, was a stack of yellow, legal-size pads, with a faint scrawling script covering them.

Piper snatched the stack of legal pads up and started to leave. She set them down to replace the suit and veil and dress, and to close the trunk. The clothes had lasted this long, it would be a shame to lose them because of her carelessness.

She raced down to the kitchen to read the handwritten manuscript. She didn't have time to read thoroughly, she skimmed the pages, looking to catch the gist of the story, and hoping not to miss any clues.

The faint scrawling script was difficult to make out, and the yellow paper didn't help any. There were cross-throughs and notes going chaotically up and down in the margins. All the splotches, blotches, misspellings, and mistakes that had always made handwritten documents so tedious were flagrantly displayed on the yellow pages.

Slowly she read, occasionally skipping whole passages or pages, rarely turning back to catch something she missed.

It was a story of a human woman. Piper couldn't find any clear reference to the woman's age. Sometimes the woman seemed to be an older woman, sometimes a younger woman. Even knowing the author had been a great-grandmother was no help in determining the age of the character. After all, Grandma had at one time been a young woman.

In the story the woman has been dabbling in magic, and, through her attempts to learn and cast spells, accidentally stumbles onto Fairy. She attempts to learn the ways of Fairy to help with her magical undertakings. However, she quickly becomes caught up in how the worlds of Fairy and Human interact with each other. How they affect each other. And how they provide wonder to each other.

She meets several denizens of Fairy, but only the fairies were well-defined. For most of the other characters it was difficult to determine what species or sex they were. Though Piper couldn't be sure whether that was due to the author's inability to clearly define her characters, or due to the current reader's careless skipping of certain passages in her haste to finish the manuscript.

As the story progressed, the woman was assisted in her discoveries by an undefined male figure from Fairy. He provided her with spell books, assisted her research, gave her pointers, and generally was nearly obnoxiously helpful.

It was plain that he loved her, but that she was interested in him only as a friend. She felt it would be impossible to ever love him, since she didn't fit in his world, and he didn't fit in hers.

Piper picked up the last yellow legal pad, now reading every faintly scrawled word.

The story had reached a confrontation between the woman and her male friend. He declared his undying love, offering her his heart and everything that he had, if only she would be his. He was determined to prove that he was her one and only true love, and that nothing could ever keep them apart. That there was no impediment that was insurmountable, no chasm of differences too great to span. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, he wouldn't do for her.

She tried ever so gently to explain how much she valued him as a friend, but only as a friend. He wouldn't listen. When the heroine declared her final no, he went crazy, throwing spells like a two-year-old in a tantrum. When that didn't change the heroine's mind, he begged and pleaded, clutching her arm.

Then he threatened to kill himself, or her, or both of them. To bind their souls together. If necessary to destroy both worlds to keep her with him.

Piper flipped the last page up, to confront the plain, unmarked cardboard backing to the legal pad. There was no more story. The ending was missing.

She searched back through all the other legal pads, but she'd looked at all the previous pages. The ending wasn't there. She looked a second time, then a third.

Each pad was numbered, at the right corner of the upper binding, and on the reverse side of the cardboard backing. Each page was numbered, bottom center, sequentially from the first, so that even if one or more pages had come loose from the others, they could still be put back in order.

Had she left one in the attic? Piper retraced her steps, carefully checking the floor and stairs. No more yellow legal pads. She opened the squealing lid of the trunk, carelessly lifted out the dress, veil, and suit. But only broken and crumbling mothballs covered the bottom of the trunk.

With care she put the clothes back in the trunk and closed the lid. Back in the kitchen she searched again through the stack of yellow legal pads.

The story had no ending.

Had Grandma not gotten to the ending? Was this what Aelvarim meant when he said they had to complete the story? Or had Grandma tucked the end in another hiding spot, to keep it safe from whoever was trying to destroy her?

Piper flipped back through the pages but could glean nothing more from the story. Mostly because she was skimming it even faster than the first time, while she thought.

Aelvarim had said that the manuscript would hold clues to who had murdered Grandma. Piper didn't see any clues there that she hadn't come up with by herself already. It had to have been someone Grandma knew in the world of Fairy: Aelvarim, Malraux, or Larkingtower.

Larkingtower pretended to hate women, but secretly liked them. He'd saved Piper from attack by the fairies, then run her off with his spells. He'd been trying to do what he could to stop the rift. That was really all Piper knew about him.

Malraux seemed so nice and kind. He'd given Piper the stone to keep the fairies away, shared his mead, and welcomed her into his home. But, he hadn't lifted a finger to help Aelvarim solve this puzzle, other than offering a bit of advice.

Aelvarim was handsome enough to catch any woman's interest and leave her drooling, even Grandma. He was the only one of the three that Piper could imagine showing that kind of willingness to help, offering his assistance in learning and research, or giving out spell books.

She stopped herself, reviewing that train of thought. The logic was inescapable. Piper rechecked a few passages in the manuscript, making sure she hadn't misread the faint scrawling script.

It had to be Aelvarim.

Piper looked up from the manuscript. Aelvarim was standing in the open kitchen doorway, watching her.

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Eccentric Circles copyright © 2001 by Rebecca Lickiss

Cover art copyright © 2009 by Alan L. Lickiss

www.lickiss.net 

To see cover photo and other art by Alan L. Lickiss go to:

http://cophotog.deviantart.com/

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