Page 8

Chapter eight

“ A re you sure this is the best place to do this?” Ash looked around the backyard of his childhood home.

Hallow nodded. “I’m sure. Magic’s always better outside.”

Willow clearly spent a fair bit of time back here. The flower beds were weed-free and the trees nicely trimmed. Ash could see several of the neighbour's windows from where they were positioned.

“Someone might see though.”

“Well, let them look.” Hallow was fiddling with his crystals and seemed quite preoccupied.

Ash blushed but went ahead and spread a picnic blanket on the lawn. He sat on one corner of it. There wasn’t much wind but he didn’t want things to get messed up.

They’d spent a good couple of hours eating and skimming the magic books, making notes and deciding on a plan of attack. Well, Hallow had come up with the plan, since he knew what he needed to make things work, but Ash had done his best to help. Now they were readying themselves for the actual weaving of the spell.

“If you’re going to sit there, I’ll go here.” Hallow sat in the centre of the picnic blanket, cross-legged with his knees pressing against Ash’s. “We need to be touching if you want to come through with me.”

“Just tell me what I need to do and I’ll do it.”

Hallow looked up from the book in his lap and wiggled his eyebrows. “Oh really? I didn’t know you were into stuff like that, but I can absolutely be the boss if that’s your thing.”

Ash’s blush was almost painfully intense. “Can we please just focus?”

“Of course.”

Hallow sat up and placed a finger on the text in the book and scanned it before clearing his throat. “Hum from deep inside yourself.” Hallow set the book down on the ground and dusted off his hands. “I’ll dance.”

“Uh, sure.” Ash really hoped that the neighbours weren’t watching now. He hummed the first thing that came into his head. ‘ Dance All Around the World’ by BLERTA. A classic Kiwi song.

Hallow closed his eyes, lifted one arm in the air and executed a perfect body roll.

Ash’s breath stuttered. He tore his eyes from Hallow’s lithe form and concentrated on humming instead of watching the fey man move.

From deep inside? What did that even mean?

The song had a deep meaning for him, did that count?

Or was the instruction more about projecting from the diaphragm? He focused on his stomach muscles and pushed the air out as he got to the chorus of the song, switching from hums to the lyrics.

Hallow seemed to be enjoying himself. When Ash started to sing words, he caught his eye and nodded approval. For his part, Hallow was a born dancer. He twirled on his toes, flicked his fingers out like a ballet dancer, then swooped into a more sensual movement. He was beautiful. Every movement was perfectly executed, the line of his body forming graceful shapes.

Ash wondered in the back of his mind when he’d know if the ritual was working.

He felt it before he knew, an oppression in the atmosphere, akin to the moment before a thunderstorm starts, or a crowd holding its breath before a public fireworks display.

Haze shimmered in the air, like heat haze on a beach.

His ears blocked up. Ash fought the urge to stop singing to pop them.

Hallow spun faster and faster, spotting like a professional dancer, his head whipping around with each turn to focus on Ash.

Ash’s heart thumped hard.

Hallow stopped, his chest heaving from the effort of his movements. He pointed at the centre of the magic circle. A door sprung up between them.

Ash’s words died in his throat. That had happened, the door was really there.

He should be past being surprised by magic, but he wasn’t. One moment there was him, Hallow and a picnic blanket. Now there was a door in between them. Pressing the blanket into the lawn. A door with a frame, and a handle, and a fresh-looking coat of yellow paint. “There’s a door.”

Hallow snorted and peeked around the doorframe. “Yes, I know. We put it there.”

“Huh.”

Ash got to his feet. His knees felt distinctly wobbly. “Okay, so… We walk through it?”

“That’s the idea.” Hallow ran a hand through his hair and pocketed his crystals.

“What happens to it after we go through? I don’t want to leave it here for my sister to find and follow.”

Hallow nodded slowly. “Yes, very good point. I’ll cloak it.” He lifted his hands, gestured a complicated movement that looked a bit like that style of dance where people made shapes with their fingers. What was it called? Tutting?

The door didn’t look quite there anymore. Ash knew it was there, but he wanted to look away, to let his eyes slide to the side.

“That ought to keep it from being noticed. Come on.” Hallow took Ash’s hand and turned the doorknob with the other.

Ash held his breath as they walked through, although he didn’t know why.

On the other side of the door was the alleyway, exactly how it had looked in his dreams.

He breathed in, his nostrils picking up the scents of old beer, decomposing vegetables, petrichor and dirt. It felt like home.

He turned to look at the door as it swung shut behind him. “We should mark it so we remember which door it is.”

“It’s tied to my magic.” Hallow shrugged. “I’ll be able to find it again.”

“Well, sure, but let’s be certain about it.” Ash dug in his pocket and found one of his travel bandannas. He was in the habit of carrying a few of them. They always came in handy. He tied the bright green fabric to the doorknob. The door wasn’t yellow on this side, it was slate grey with a scrawl of graffiti over it. Ash wasn’t at all confident he would be able to recognize it without the bandanna.

He turned back to Hallow, who was looking at his chest.

Ash glanced down. The void was back.

It made him queasy to look at, so he shook his head and took Hallow’s hand again. “Come on, show me around?”

Hallow laughed, pretty and musical, and tugged him down the alleyway. “None of these doors look like the one to my home, and I can’t sense it, so let’s just have a look at what we do have. There’s a bar that way, it’s full of all sorts of people. We could get a drink?” He looked up at Ash. If he was disappointed at not immediately finding the way home, it wasn’t evident on his face. He looked hopeful. His eyelashes fluttered.

The void in Ash’s chest tugged . He took a half-step closer to Hallow. Their faces were inches apart, and mostly now separated by Ash’s height. “Hallow…” he whispered. He wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted to say, but his chest was pulling him and he wanted… he wanted.

“Come on. You like beer or wine better?” Hallow was off, tugging him towards a large door that stood half open.

“Uh, whatever?” Ash said. Disappointment flooded him over the loss of the moment with Hallow, but he sucked it up, curious for what was next.

They went through the door and into a huge bar. Bar was the wrong word for it, maybe tavern was better? The bar, tables and chairs were all aged wood. Hunting trophies decorated the walls — some of deer or antelope, but some were of mythical creatures, dragons and unicorns.

The place was crowded and noisy, with people clustered around the tables. A lot of them, like Hallow when they’d first met, looked like they’d stepped out of a fantasy novel.

There were people with goat legs, people with wings, elves and halflings and a man with a bushy beard who could only be a dwarf.

As Hallow wound through the crowd, towing Ash towards the bar, a boisterous table caught his attention. They were playing some sort of dice game. Some people seemed pretty much human. Could they be like him, people who dreamed about this place in between worlds and chose to spend their time here? It was a tempting thought. He had nothing left to explore in Auckland, nothing that needed doing… except of course, his father.

The bar was a circular island in the middle of the room, and there were several people tending it.

Hallow waved at one of the bar staff.

The barhand who approached them seemed to be more bird than human, with delicate limbs, huge eyes, feathers sprouting from their hair and shoulders, a large pair of wings folded at their back. Ash expected their voice to be high and hooting, but they sounded more like a gruff trucker. “What can I getcha?”

Hallow grinned. “Honey mead for me, please and my friend will have…?”

Ash leaned forward, trying to read the labels on the bottles shelved behind the bird person. “What spirits to you have?”

“All kinds, we have imports from all over the multiverse. What kind of flavours are you after?”

Ash’s tongue recalled the flavour of a blueberry soju in South Korea. He named the brand, expecting the bird-person to look at him blankly. Instead they nodded and turned to grab something from the shelf.

Hallow dug in his pockets and produced a handful of coins.

“What is the multiverse currency?”

“Any money,” Hallow said. “You heard them, they have imports from all over, so they take whatever currency people have.”

“That’s incredible.” Ash took their glasses as Hallow paid the bird person. How nice it would be to travel between countries and not have to exchange his lira for pounds or whatever the local currency had been. But he couldn’t imagine the difficulty humans would have in introducing such a system. Wars would break out.

But here, it seemed to work. He looked around, trying to see if there were any free seats, and spotted a small, empty table. “Over there.”

He and Hallow wound their way through chairs and past people to get to it. They sat and Ash set the golden mead down in front of Hallow.

Hallow lifted it immediately into a toast. “To us making a door together!”

“To us.” Ash tapped his glass on Hallow’s, then took a sip of his soju. It tasted exactly as it had back in that small bar in Busan. “This is pretty cool.”

Hallow grinned, bouncing a little. “Right? It’s only my second time here but it’s just as lovely.”

He leaned back in his chair, kicking his legs out so one of them brushed Ash’s calf.

Ash looked him over and was engulfed in a wave of affection.

What was he doing here? Falling in love with a fairy from another dimension who was trying to get home?

It was stupid. But they’d made something together. Ash had sung and Hallow had danced and between them they’d woven real magic, made a door that led between worlds.

And here was Ash, drinking soju and sitting with a void where his chest should be as if that was normal. He shook his head. “I feel crazy.”

Hallow laughed and leaned forward to take Ash’s free hand. “It’s a lot to take in, huh? Your world doesn’t have much magic in it. Here it’s pouring out the walls.”

Ash’s ears cleared abruptly. He’d all but forgotten that they’d been blocked. The noise of the tavern increased in volume. Laughter, exclamations, the general noise of people drinking and having fun together, it was the same whatever the language. “You’re right. It’s so strange to me. Two weeks ago I was travelling, and thinking that I’d seen everything I wanted to see. Now I’m here, and there’s… there’s so much more.”

“There is.” Hallow squeezed his hand. “But we can’t forget about the Quetch.”

“Right.” Ash’s shoulder’s tensed as if mentioning the thing’s name would immediately summon it. “And it’s after you—we’re sure it’s you in particular and it just doesn’t like anyone moving between worlds?”

“Well, yes. Like I said, I get the feeling it wants to collect me for some reason.”

“Hallow…”

“Listen, if it had a problem with everyone moving between worlds this bar couldn’t exist.” Hallow puffed out a breath and the hair hanging over his forehead fluttered.

“Good point. So, for whatever reason it’s targeted you.”

“And once it locks on a target it doesn’t stop until…it stops.” Hallow sipped his drink.

Ash squeezed Hallow’s hand, wishing he could comfort him more. “Okay. We’ll try and find your door, and if The Quetch comes, we duck back through our door?”

“That’s the basic plan, yeah.” Hallow slumped. “I wish I could show you all the nice things and not worry.”

“No use in being sad about something we have no control over.”

“I suppose.”

“Let’s focus on getting you back to the Grefanlands and your Lonely Forest.”

Hallow sighed. “The Quetch locked the door somehow, and I need… I need to retrieve a cure before I return. I was looking for it in the alleyway, but I couldn’t find it, and I guess I was too distracted in your world.”

“Something for the yellow fungus?” Ash guessed. “Tell me more about it and I’ll see if there’s something I can think of that would help?”

“My people, the village, or collective or whatever you want to call it, the community where I live, we get our food through farming and occasionally foraging the woods. But now, we can’t eat the things we grow, only what we forage, and the forest can’t sustain constant foraging for so many people.” Hallow’s shoulders slumped.

“That’s awful.” Ash’s mind was at work. Hallow had described it as a fungus, but it could it be some form of parasite? Chemicals, weed killers and fungicides might help if that was the case. “Can you describe it?”

Hallow opened his mouth just as someone nearby started to play guitar and sing. Hallow shook his head and sipped his drink. They’d have to shout to be heard over the song.

Ash nodded along with the tempo of the song.

The person singing was some sort of toadstool woman. She wore a full skirt in moss green, a matching blouse cinched in by a brown bodice, and her hair fell in waves under the wide brim of a toadstool cap. She played very well, moving between the tables and smiling as she sang. When they came close to their table, Hallow dug out a coin to offer her, she stowed it in a pouch hanging by her side with a third arm that Ash hadn’t seen before that point. Her eyes were the sort of golden-white that Ash associated with sickness, but for her appeared to be the peak of health. She spun so her skirts billowed out then moved to the next table.

“Do you know where she’s from?” Ash leaned forward to whisper.

Hallow shook his head but took advantage of the proximity to kiss Ash’s cheek. “Could be anywhere.”

“I think we can rule out my world.” Ash looked over as the woman’s third arm accepted an offering from a centaur.

“Mine too.”

Ash felt bad for thinking about fungicides. Something like that would be poison to a woman like her. Well, it wasn’t like he’d brought anything with him.

He drank the rest of his soju. “There’s some things back home that might help, things humans made that prevent blights and infections of crops. But it’d be trial and error getting the right thing and even then it might not work.”

“It’s worth trying.” Hallow said. “We’ll head back there in a moment. Did you want to see more of the alley? I don’t know how long we can stay here without getting… its attention.”

“I’d like to see more.” Ash watched the movement of Hallow’s throat as he swallowed the last of his mead. “But I agree we should be cautious.”

They left the tavern and went back out into the alleyway. Much like at The Magic Shop, the noise of the place vanished entirely as soon as they closed the door on it. It was a handy magic, one that Ash could have used in many of the hostels and cheap motels he’d stayed at over the years.

The alleyway stretched out in both directions. Hallow turned slowly in place, trying to sense something, maybe.

Ash examined a peeling poster on the nearest wall, advertising an opera at something called Opera La R?ve, which was French. But he couldn’t recall any such place when he’d visited Paris. He pulled out his phone and took a photo of the poster.

“Don’t use that here.” Hallow put his hand on Ash’s shoulder.

Ash stashed his phone in his pocket but he was too fast, and it slipped right back out again, clattering to the floor. He crouched to pick it up.

“Shit.” Hallow didn’t swear much.

Ash looked up to see what Hallow looked worried. “Sorry, I didn’t realise it was a no-phones zone.” He stood up, phone securely in his back pocket.

“It’s all right, it’ll just attract attention. We don’t really want attention now.” Hallow put his hands on his hips. “Shall we try another door?”

“Absolutely.” They examined the doors nearest to them.

Ash felt himself drawn to a blond wooden door with a tree etched into it. The tree had a stout trunk and billowing wide branches of fluffy leaves. “How about this one?”

“Is that an Ash tree?” Hallow grinned. “That’ll be why you like it.” Ash blushed. “I didn’t think of that.”

“It feels positive to me, let’s give it a try.” Hallow reached past Ash to open the shiny brass doorknob.

It opened with the cheery jingle of a bell, and they stepped through to find themselves in a bookshop. It was similar to the Magic Shop in that there were rows of bookshelves and the same similar spell of dusty books. But this place differed in a couple of key ways. One was a gigantic table laden with books in the centre of the room. The other was that rather than the walls being lined entirely with bookshelves, here they were broken up with couches, nooks and booths with chairs and tables.

Each table held a vase of fresh flowers. Some Ash recognised, some he didn’t. Many of the tables also sported stacks of books. The chairs and benches were all lined with mismatched cushions. Ash spotted baskets of blankets dotted around the place.

“It’s Heaven,” Ash breathed. Hallow giggled. “Is that a good thing?”

Ash paused, hand reaching for a book titled ‘ Native Plants of Netherbourne.’ “You don’t know what Heaven is?”

Hallow shook his head, shrugging.

“I’ll see if I can explain. In my world we have this thing called religion where people believe in a higher power, like, a god who created everything and they get together regularly to kind of… celebrate that?”

Hallow arched one perfect eyebrow. “Uh huh?”

“Yeah, and they have this concept of good and evil, where God—”

Hallow raised a hand. “Hold on. If this is going to be a lengthy explanation, perhaps we should sit down before you get any further.”

“Not a bad idea.”

Hallow moved towards the nearest booth, hips weaving like a dancer. Ash’s mouth went dry. It was far too easy to imagine those hips naked, and Hallow on top of him again… He grabbed the plant book and followed him, trying to get the images of Hallow out of his head.

They sat facing each other. Ash sank into the cushions with a sigh. It was very comfortable after the hard chairs of the tavern.

“Where were we?”

Hallow leaned forward on his elbows. “Good and evil.”

“Yes, okay and there’s this special book called the Bible. Well, other religions have other books, but a lot of people believe in the ones which use the Bible. I’m really oversimplifying this.”

“Simple is good. Stick with simple.”

“Lots of the religions have these rules for how to be good, and this concept of Heaven and Hell. After you die, you go to one or the other. Or I guess there’s purgatory, but that’s more detail than we need right now. The thing is, Heaven is for good people. In Hell, you get punished for what you did in life, in Heaven you get rewarded. I always imagined something like this would be the perfect eternal reward.” He licked his lips, wondering if he’d skimmed over too much. “Is that clear, or should I go more into the nuance?”

Hallow held up his hand again. “I get it. But like, does that mean your people are only good to each other because they think they’ll be rewarded after they die?’

“No.” Ash swallowed. “Well, that might be true of some people, but lots of us don’t believe in a religion. And then there’s some religions which don’t have Heaven or Hell, and it’s about being a good person because it feels right. Morals and ethics and so on, these are things that humans have debated and agonised over for centuries.”

“Like your friend, Satre?” Hallow blew out the side of his mouth and made his pink fringe flutter. “Huh.”

Ash blushed, flattered that Hallow had remembered their previous conversation. “What’s it like where you come from?”

“Most of our spiritual practice is to do with ancestor spirits, there’s nothing about reward or punishment. We have rituals for certain times and events, then we just look out for each other because we’re a community.”

Ash nodded. “That makes sense.”

“I miss it.” Hallow pushed a hand through his hair and then stood up. “I’m gonna find a book.”

Ash considered his hands. Had he gone too deep? Freaked Hallow out somehow? He hadn’t even gone into religious persecution or all the wars and crusades that had been fought in the name of religion. It was all too much. A simple life of rituals and events sounded enticing in comparison.

His father had been Christian as a kid, Presbyterian maybe? But once he’d married Ash’s mother, the family had never practised anything. Instead, his father had encouraged Willow and Ash to be curious, to love learning and finding their own answers. They had a good strong sense of right and wrong without religion.

He really needed to visit his father.

Ash had participated in countless ceremonies in his travels. He’d stayed in Buddhist monasteries and felt awe, even community with the monks and the other people staying, but they’d always been a disconnect. He didn’t believe in a higher power.

How did that sit with what was going on now? He was using magic, travelling between worlds, sitting in a place that felt so real, so familiar (just another bookshop), but it was more akin to something he’d dreamed than any place he’d actually visited.

There was something more to the world. Maybe it wasn’t God as Christianity understood it, but there were certainly mysterious forces and things he couldn’t explain. What did that mean for him? For the way he lived day to day? What would it change for him going forward?

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” he quoted, softly.

“My name’s not Horatio, but can I get you anything from the menu?” A soft, feminine voice asked.

Ash looked up, stifling a gasp.

The person who had spoken was tall, impossibly so, maybe nine or ten feet in height? She had a waterfall of golden hair that fell in a sheet with her ears poking out. Her skin was a gentle shade of powder blue and her dress looked like something from a Renaissance Faire by way of Hot Topic. The skirt hung to the floor, made of a gorgeous satin fabric with skulls and crossbones woven in. Her bodice looked like something a Disney Princess might wear, ribbons and lace. She had mushrooms growing on her ears.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realise there was a menu.”

“It’s right here.” She reached over to a stand of cutlery recessed in a nook in the wall on the end of the table and withdrew a handwritten menu.

“This looks amazing.” Ash scanned the options. There were sandwiches, omelettes, curry and rice, salads, roast meals and a few things he didn’t recognise. Ash’s stomach rumbled. “Um, something relatively light perhaps…” He stabbed the menu with one finger. “Ham sandwich please. My companion might want something too?” Hallow appeared as if summoned and peered over his shoulder, one knee up on the bench, digging into Ash’s ass. “Curry rice please, and lemonade?”

Ash tried to drag his attention away from Hallow’s casual contact. Thankfully he moved away. “A pot of green tea, please.”

“Of course, coming right up. Welcome to my book café, my name is Mina. Please let me know if I can get you anything else.”

“Thank you, Mina.” The words ‘book café’ echoed through Ash’s mind. Heaven indeed. “And while you’re here feel free to look through any of my books.” She bustled down the aisle towards the back of the place.

Hallow sat down opposite him with a stack of seven books. “Hopefully something here will help.”

“Yes.” Ash looked at his own selection and took one of Hallow’s to speed up the research. Soon Ash smelled the enticing scent of curry. His stomach rumbled again. The book he was reading was interesting, stories from the alleyway, but it wasn’t giving him any particularly useful insights.

He closed it and reached for another, just as Mina returned. A tea trolley rattled behind her with no visible means of being controlled. Mina set their orders in front of them with a gentle smile.

“Thank you, this looks wonderful.” Ash’s sandwich was made with a crusty homemade roll, and the smell of the ham and mustard made his mouth water. Hallow’s curry rice was a generous portion and looked hearty, full of meat and vegetables.

“It’s my pleasure,” Mina said. “Just call out if you need anything else.”

Ash picked up his sandwich and took a bite. It was every bit as delicious as he’d hoped, with crunchy lettuce and slices of hard boiled egg complementing the cheese and ham perfectly. Hallow took a bit of his and his eyebrows shot up. “So good,” he said around his mouthful.

Ash swallowed. “Mine too.”

Between the food and the books, it felt like they spent hours in the book café. Ash could have happily spent more.

Hallow started to get antsy though. He kept changing his position, pulling his legs up to fold them under himself, stretching them out, crossing them under the table and sighing.

“Are you all right?” Ash asked, when Hallow sighed for the third time.

“Yes, but I can feel it looking for me. It knows I’m close.”

Hallow didn’t have to specify what it was. Ash’s heart sped up without any further prompting. “So, we should move on?” He downed the dregs of his tea and stacked the books back up.

“I think so, yeah.”

Mina moved up the aisles towards them. “Ready to settle the bill?”

Ash and Hallow both stood up. Ash wished he could take the books with him, or possibly stay forever. “Yes, here.” Hallow set coins on the table. “Thank you so much for your hospitality, Mina.” He bowed to her, and Ash copied him.

“Truly, a wonderful place you have here. Thank you.”

Mina smiled wide at the both of them. “You are welcome back anytime you like.”

She walked them to the door, and Ash’s chest for once, didn’t feel empty or sore. He glanced down and saw there was still a void, but it didn’t feel so awful as usual.

“I’ll definitely be back. Thanks again.” He shook her hand and walked into the alleyway, Hallow behind him.