Chapter 6

If all of the books in the world are going to be burned and you can only save a handful of them, which ones do you save? It's a common enough question, but this was essentially Kristabell's dilemma. The only thing that made this easier was that the books were not actually going to be destroyed so she could pick books that were important to her personally without taking the rest of the world into account. She thought about her book shelf at home, the books that had been burned, and tried to think of the ones she loved best as she dragged Rowan and Leif through the massive second hand book store. She figured The Comic and Book Emporium was her best bet.

The Prydain Cronicles by Lloyd Alexander, or The Fionnavar Tapestries? Joan D Vinge's Snow Queen cycle or A Wrinkle In Time? There were so many she loved. But in the end, when push came to shove and it was time to leave the store, the books she couldn't leave behind, the ones she couldn't walk away from, were The Last Unicorn By Peter S. Beagle and Faeries by Brian Froud and Allan Lee. She lucked out when she couldn't find Faeries on the shelf and asked the guy behind the counter if they might have a copy somewhere else. He pulled one out from under the counter, “This is hard to come by these days. I've heard rumours that they might do a reprint.”

She ran her hand appreciatively over the pristine cover. It was an original edition still in excellent condition. She flipped through looking at the pictures. “That one looks like you,” Rowan pointed to one of Allan Lee's paintings. Kristabell asked the man behind the counter to triple bag the books then tape the bag closed. As they left the book store a helicopter flew over the city. Leif and Rowan stopped to watch the helicopter, but no one else on the side walk except for a three year old boy seemed to notice it.

She took them to Granville Street Skytrain Station and paid for transfers still using the cash from the briefcase. She really had taken too much. The escalator down to the train platform was long and steep with strange, cool, metallic smelling air creeping up to meet them. “Why do they call this a Skytrain? I feel like we're travelling into the bowels of the earth,” Rowan asked.

“You'll see when we come out of the tunnels,” Kristabell replied. “We'll get off at Commercial Drive. It's not far to Sheila's house from there.”

They stood on the escalator as it travelled down. Leif behind Rowan, Kristabell in front leaning against Rowan's chest. It was strange, but it was also good to be there with him. They looked for all the world like a perfectly normal couple. It felt right, and complete, to have a chance to say goodbye to this world with Rowan, so he could see that part of her.

They rode the train into East Vancouver and as it glided along on its elevated track Leif gawked out the window in amazement at the stadiums, skyscrapers, and congested, car filled streets. Rowan, on the other hand, was miserable aboard the train. He hadn't been happy in Sheila's car either but this was far worse. He was jumpy and paranoid. He stayed close to Kristabell maintaining a death grip on her hand but in the end it was Rowan's paranoia that saved her life. Just as the doors slid closed at Main Street Skytrain Station a stranger slipped onto the train. His hair looked as if it had been artificially touched up with chemically dyed low-lights and his skin was damp and pale. Not a luminous pale, but something closer to a cave dwelling frog's underbelly. It made those passengers near to him squirm and recoil fractionally, the way one does when a big slug is found in the lettuce that is being prepared for dinner. He wore a black leather trench coat—stereotypically reminiscent of a certain turn of the century science fiction movie—but with her back to him Kristabell couldn't see him. Leif's attention was entirely absorbed by the modern city flying by outside the window, but Rowan noticed him right away. He lowered his face to Kristabell's ear and momentarily rested his cheek against hers whispering, nearly inaudibly, “Don't turn. Stay still. There's an elf behind you.” Then he kissed her cheek casually as he drew away.

Kristabell froze. There was a nebulous cloud of death behind her pressing against her back like a cold blinding mist. She broke out in a cold sweat and her mind started gibbering uselessly at her. She fixed her eyes on Rowan's face hoping to find some clue as to what was happening behind her. If the elf was looking for her, he wouldn't have to see her face to identify her. There weren't any other small women with hip length ash coloured hair on the train. With her heart pounding she watched Rowan reach casually into the denim jacket that he was wearing over the hoodie. Neither he nor Leif had left the house unarmed that morning. Kristabell had watched them carefully concealing a dagger here, a knife there. She'd had reservations about this, but she had also recognized her own fear that something might be out there, and a knife was better than nothing. Although there was also the very real prospect of somehow being caught by the police with concealed weapons.

It happened then, more quickly than it seemed like it ought to have been able to. Rowan had kept his hand in his jacket, not looking directly at the elf, just waiting. Kristabell was terrified, obviously. It could be nothing, but it probably wasn't, and the seconds stretched. They were standing holding on to the poles that were anchored in the floor and ceiling for that very purpose. Kristabell's back was to the greater portion of the train and she was between Rowan and the elf partially blocking the elf's view of Rowan. The train slowed as it pulled into Commercial Drive Skytrain Station then it came to a stop and the people on the train began to scream. Rowan's movements were a blur. Kristabell barely saw him throw the knife. A gunshot sounded, sending Kristabell's already pounding heart into a frenzied overdrive, but the bullet clearly hadn't hit her because the doors on the train had opened and she and Rowan were running with Leif hard on their heels. Kristabell caught the barest glimpse of the elf lying on the floor of the train with a gun in his hand and a knife handle sticking out of his eye.

Luckily it was mass exodus from the Skytrain station and it was relatively easy for them to slip away, but Kristabell knew that now they really had to get out of this world. Rowan and Leif didn't have proper I.D. which was problem enough, but Rowan had just killed someone and it may have been caught on a surveillance camera, although Rowan had thrown the knife so fast that she doubted if anyone on the train had seen it clearly, so this wasn't a likelihood, but still. They moved as quickly as they could without drawing attention to themselves. “We have to get to Sheila's house, get the horse, and get out of here as fast as we can. This neighbourhood is going to be crawling with police in another few minutes,” she told them as they reached the alley behind Sheila's house and broke into a run. Kristabell unlocked the garage and they rushed to the pile of clothing, armour, and weapons and began frantically changing clothes. Kristabell removed Sheila's cardigan and pulled on the vest drawing the laces tight, pulled off the jeans and then dragged on the wool leggings. She would have stayed in the jeans but the wool was more waterproof and once they were back in the forest she would need it. The men were still gearing up so she helped them with buckles, fingers working frantically. Rowan was finished first. He saddled the horse who, luckily, hadn't been taken away by the S.P.C.A. or the City. Kristabell locked the garage then ran to put the garage key, along with the key to the briefcase under the door of the house. When she ran back to where Rowan and Leif were waiting they looked at her expectantly. “I can't pull us through here. I have to get away from the houses and the concrete,” she told them. “We should go down to the lake.”

They were just south of Trout Lake and there was a group of willows on the eastern edge where she thought maybe she could get them through the threshold and back to the other world.

“You ride with Kristabell, I'll run. We'll make it a little faster that way,” Leif said to Rowan.

They rode to the end of the alley and cautiously crossed to the other side where the park began. Once on the grass Rowan urged the horse into a gallop and headed for the eastern edge of the lake. It didn't take long and with the trees around her and the lake and the earth, she could indeed feel that now familiar feeling of magic building in her. She could see a police car in the distance. Panic was taking over. The officer got out of the car just as Leif ran up to them. “Here we go!” she shouted as the magic filled her near to bursting like a roaring surf in her ears. She let it rip through her, and with barely a notion of what she was doing, pulled them across, away from the world where she had been born, and back to that other world.