The Keeper Ch. 03

Niamh Harpe shifted back from her were-panther form and walked naked down the lane the last hundred yards to her cabin on Wolf Creek Road in north-central Washington State. She liked to shift away from her cabin lest her panther-form cause the female striped skunk who lived under her porch to lose her mind.

The weather, typical of high mountain country, had started sunny and changed to a cold driving rain that hinted of snow. She ignored the rain as she ignored the pain of the shards of gravel beneath her feet. Niamh never allowed discomfort to rule her.

The six-foot blue-eyed blonde was in a good mood. She'd had a good two-day run in her panther form. Her belly was still full of a careless mule deer buck she'd taken down the first day in a good stalk. Refreshed and reinvigorated, she was eager to get back to her latest vacation project, a large mural on a five-foot by six-foot old-growth cedar panel she was carving for a Seattle law office lobby.

Her good mood evaporated when she came within sight of her cabin and found two stocky middle-aged women standing by an elderly jeep. Their elaborate braided hair was as black as a crow's wing, they looked enough alike so they had to be sisters maybe five years apart.

They smelled of Wolf-Kin.

She could also smell their uncertainty and fear--that wasn't unusual. She was an enforcer for the police arm of Were-Council. Beings were often fearful around her.

"Singer and Song bless you, Niamh Harpe," the eldest said. "A fine place you have here."

"Thank you, I like it."

Niamh stood quietly watching them, waiting for them to tell her what they wanted. She couldn't imagine what it would be. She worked for the Council, not for any individual pack or clan.

The eldest of the two licked her lips and spoke. "My name is Aiyana, and this is my sister Aviaja. Perhaps you could get dressed and then we could talk."

Niamh sighed. Her carving was going to have to wait.

"Very well."

She led them into her cabin.

"Have a seat, I'm going to shower and get dressed. I'll be down shortly."

The two women were looking around wide-eyed at the interior of the cabin. Niamh smiled slightly at their reaction. She was proud of her home. Her great grandfather had built the cabin, and each successive generation had added on to it. Her contribution had been a new kitchen wing.

As she showered and washed her hair, she considered her visitors. They were probably from the Chelan Pack. The pack had a new Alpha. She had liked and respected the old alpha. She did not like the new one. He was arrogant, but all alphas were arrogant. His problem was that he was dumb and ambitious as well, a bad combination. Thankfully, it wasn't her job to deal with him.

**

Niamh brewed the tea and placed cups and her grandmother's good teapot on a placemat in the center of the ancient heart pine table that dominated her kitchen.

The two women stood close together, eyes downcast, twisting their hands nervously.

Their submissiveness was irritating.

She gestured them to sit and poured the tea, making a ceremony of it to calm them.

Niamh spoke the blessing:

"May the Mother of All bless and keep us." She took a ceremonial sip of tea and watched them nod in appreciation for the brew.

She waited to find out what they wanted.

Aiyana spoke. "My niece is missing. We're afraid somebody abducted her. They say you search for the Lost Ones. Are they right?"

Niamh ignored the question.

"When?"

"Three days ago, we were babysitting for my sister who had to be over in Seattle. We took little Katrinka shopping with us in Wenatchee at Old Navy. I went into the dressing room and when I came out, she was gone. Avi and I searched the store and the parking lot. But no scent of her anywhere."

"How old is she?"

"Kat just turned eight."

"Does she know how to shift?"

"Yes and no. You know how it is. At that age, the shift is painful-so the little ones are not always willing to go through with shifting back and sometimes they forget how to do it."

"How long were you in the dressing room," Niamh tried to build a mental picture of how things went down. Despite herself, she was interested. It was a puzzle. She liked puzzles.

"Hmm, I don't know. Normal time, I guess. I wasn't feeling well, so it couldn't have been long."

"Aviaja, what were you doing?"

The younger woman had tears in her eyes. "I was watching. I promise you I was. I had just turned my back for a minute and she disappeared."

"What did the other folks in the store say?"

"They remembered nothing. They were having problems with a rude woman up in the front screeching about how she'd been cheated."

The two women watched and fidgeted as Niamh digested what they had told her.

"What did your new Alpha say when you told him?"

"He said he'd look into it," Aiyana's lips thinned, "but I could tell he won't do anything. Katrinka's grandfather was the pack's former Alpha. He's playing politics. His position is stronger if she isn't around to remind the people of her grandfather."

Niamh agreed silently. The man was a slimy individual--that was exactly what he would do.

"Okay, I will look into it. I'll keep in touch, but you be sure and call me the second you hear anything."

"Her mother is missing too. Would you let us know if you see her?"

Niamh nodded.

The women were so pathetically grateful, it was uncomfortable. She sighed with relief when they drove off. Her home was her refuge. She rarely had visitors, and she liked it that way.

After they departed, she puttered around her kitchen cleaning up when her phone chimed a text message from her boss.

"Get on Zoom," it read.

Damn Harlan. What the hell does he want? They're going to ruin my vacation, sure as hell.

When Niamh logged on, she found both of her superiors, Mina and Harlan, looking back at her from a headquarters conference room in Bellingham.

"Greetings may the Singer and Song bless you, Niamh Harpe," Mina said.

Mina Albright was Ursa-kin--were-grizzly. A big woman with iron-gray hair and a determined mouth, she had a mind like a steel trap and little patience for fools. She was Niamh's boss's boss on the Council, the organization that governed all were-kin.

If Mina was the hammer, Harlan Hanks was the velvet glove that concealed it. He was a were-coyote known to his subordinates as, The Trickster. He looked like a nice, rather absent-minded uncle; the one who sent you odd Christmas presents--until you noticed how pitiless his winter gray eyes were. He was dedicated to the council's goals and would sacrifice anything or anyone to achieve them. Niamh was careful to always plan an escape route in case he figured she needed to be the sacrifice.

Niamh trusted few people, especially anyone who reported to her grandfather.

She waited patiently to find out what they wanted.

"How much do you know about the Keeper's Boy?"

Wow, that was out of left field.

Niamh took a couple of beats before she answered, trying to figure out where this was going.

"You mean Lachlan Quinn?"

Mina nodded.

"I've known him a while. I met him when I was thirteen. He grew up in Emory. I know he's a vet, a combat medic, or more accurately a navy corpsman. He served several tours with the Marines. I heard they awarded him some medals, so he was good at what he did. I think he lives down in Seattle somewhere."

"He grew up in Emory; is he a witch?"

"No, he's mundane through and through. Old MacLeish would have never allowed a witch under his roof."

"Did you meet him," Mina asked, "Keeper MacLeish, I mean?"

"Sure, I used to go with my grandfather to Emory. He introduced me on one of those trips." Niamh shuddered, remembering the old man's hawk-yellow eyes. "That old man could freeze the blood in your belly with a glance. He scared me silly."

She looked at her two bosses who shifted their eyes from hers.

"Okay, what's going on you two? Why the questions?"

"In a minute, Niamh. First, tell me how you met Lachlan Quinn."

**

"This is boring, boring, boring," thirteen-year-old Niamh Harp muttered to herself. Grandfather was inside talking to the scary man he called The Keeper, and she was left sitting in the truck. A colossal waste of time. She couldn't get the stupid radio to work. She couldn't go exploring because the woods outside the old man's house were off-limits.

"Do not go into the Opari," was Grandfather's cardinal rule about the woods in front of her. He stated it like a mantra every time they came to Emory.

It was a stupid rule. She was old enough to shift into her panther form. She prowled for days by herself all over the wilderness of northern Washington and Canada. How could this forest be any different? She was a shifter, for Mother's sake--an apex predator.

"This is stupid, stupid, stupid."

She eyed the old-growth cedars that marked the border.

Maybe just a brief run along the edges. Nobody would know.

She crept around behind a massive six-foot-thick cedar, undressed, and shifted.

A game trail beckoned.

Soon Niamh found herself in a forest like none other she had ever seen. The cedars that lined the border gave way to hardwoods like hickory and beech. The damp air grew warmer, more like July than April. The smells of the place were strange and confusing. Creepy. She kept glimpsing shapes out of the corner of her eyes that disappeared when she looked at them. Something, a lot of somethings, lurked in the dark recesses of foliage, watching her. She heard the quick scampering sounds as they followed her progress. Lots of whispers and mad giggling. They smelled alien, like no other animal she'd ever scented.

Maybe I made a mistake.

Hackles raised and snarling, she turned to make her way back to the truck, but the game trail had disappeared.

Stubbornly refusing to admit she might be lost--she never got lost. Niamh continued. A short while later, she pushed through an opening in the dense underbrush and emerged into a small meadow. A beautiful spring-fed pond at its center beckoned. Good deal, she was thirsty.

She crept out into the meadow and triggered a snare trap.

Snarling in panic, she found herself hoisted five feet in the air, dangling from a vine tied to a tall young maple tree. She shifted back to human form, thinking to untie herself from the tough vine.

With no success. The knot was too tight--she had no leverage. She sobbed in frustration and terror as she furiously fought to untie the knot.

"Do you need some help? Boggles don't like trespassers, so you might want to keep quiet."

The voice startled her. She jerked on the vine, settling off a series of violent up and down bounces.

When the oscillations finally stopped, she looked over her shoulder. There was a boy about her age sitting on a log looking at her. A bright green sprite sat on his shoulder, whispering in his ear.

And she was hanging upside down, with one leg tied to a vine.

Naked.

"I most certainly do not," she said furiously. "Stop staring at me. Go away."

"Okay," he said, "but you better hurry and get yourself free, cuz the Boggles will be back pretty soon." He pointed to a pile of bones she hadn't noticed. "This is one of their hunting spots, and it's nearing dark. They patrol their snares at dusk."

"What's a Boggle?"

"It's a hairy primate with big teeth. Meat eaters with bad tempers. You've heard of Boogey-men? That's Boggles."

He and the tiny sprite continued to calmly sit on the moss-covered log. He had a bag of M&Ms that he was sharing with it. They munched on the candy and stared at her like they were at the zoo and she was one of the featured exhibits.

Tears prickled. Oh. My. God. She was going to cry. She took a deep breath and when she had control, she said, "Anyway, what are you doing here, you stupid boy."

"Oh, I'm on break. I saw you go in and I followed you. Now, I'm waiting to see how you escape. It looks pretty difficult to me but maybe you have skills."

"Sweet Mother of All," she yelled, "would you stop staring and help me?"

"Not so loud." He made shushing motions. "Noise attracts attention. Holy cow, you sure are a grouchy girl. I may be stupid, but I'm not the one caught in a trap that a five-year-old would have seen. What's your name?"

"It's Niamh. Would you PLEASE just shut up and help me?"

"Yup, typical girl. I thought you wanted me to go away." He walked over and pulled her down so he could jump and cut the vine holding her.

"Hey, watch where you're putting your hands.

"Quit wiggling. Criminy, you sure complain a lot." He jumped surprisingly high and with a slash of his knife, the tough vine parted and dumped her onto the ground.

"Oof, you could have warned me, you jerk." She glared at him while untying the noose around her leg. She shifted and dashed into the forest.

"Hey girl, you're going the wrong way," he yelled.

She stopped and wound her way back to him. Stubbornly staying in her were-panther form, she looked up at him expectantly.

"This is the way back." He pointed out a trail that she would have sworn wasn't there a minute ago.

After ten minutes, they emerged out of the forest and stopped alongside her pile of clothes.

"I better get back to work," he said. He flipped the final M&M to the little sprite, who grabbed it with a grin and disappeared into the woods.

"Lan, oh there you are. I've been looking all over for you." A tall girl with green hair and pointed ears glared at him.

"Okay. Okay Sari, keep your pants on. I'm coming," the boy said. The two of them walked across the meadow without a backward glance at Niamh.

Right then and there, that was when Niamh decided she hated him.

Her grandfather was waiting in his truck after she got dressed.

"Now you know," her grandfather said.

"Now I know," she said. "That is a very scary place."

"The Opari, SHE is deadly. That is for certain."

"You talk about the woods like it was a person."

"Not a person, Niamh. This is no ordinary forest. The Opari is as close to a God as you'll ever meet on this side of the grave. However, you need to learn about HER, so next summer I'm going to send you to Anna, the hedge-witch. She'll teach you a bit about Opari."

"I met the strangest boy there. Do you know who he belongs to?"

Grandfather gave her a stern look.

"When I send you down here, I want you to stay away from that boy, Niamh, I mean it. Stay the hell away from Lachlan Quinn. He is no good. They should have sent him away. I do not know why the Keeper lets him stay around."

Weeks later when grandfather had sent her to Anna. She asked Anna's apprentice Healer, a girl her age named Mandy, about the strange boy.

"Yeah, I know him. He used to be nice, but now he's a stuck-up jerk face," was her tart reply.

**

Niamh finished her story (minus the embarrassing parts) and sipped her tea.

"Hold on a minute," Harlan said. "You can walk the Opari? Why didn't we know that? The witches say people enter and never return."

"I can get in and out of the fringes. Lachlan is the only one I know who can travel freely. Even Anna, the hedge witch who lives and makes her living there, just pokes around the edges.

"You have to understand that on our side of the Thinning, the Opari rainforest is minuscule-- a few hundred acres, but on the other side it's vast -- many millions of square miles of wilderness, for all I know it might be infinite. It's more dangerous than you could possibly imagine. Every monster out of humanity's legends lurks there--and they all She paused, then went on. "I suspect you know most of that, so why don't you two quit stalling and tell me what's going on."

"Okay," said Mina. "Some background first. The two Emory Covens have petitioned to declare Cayden MacLeish dead. He has been missing for seven years, so it's sure to happen legally. Our question is why now? Up 'til now, we're sure they liked not having the Keeper around interfering in their affairs. Honestly, we didn't mind the freedom either. Old man MacLeish was a my-way or the highway type. He was not an agreeable sort. He got in our way just as much as he did the covens. The two covens never got along, but lately, their relationship is worsening--but things must be bad if now they have come together and agreed to tolerate a new Keeper."

"Anyway, they've concluded that Lachlan Quinn is the heir. We always thought the Keeper's Boy was just the old man's charity case--a bit of Seattle's flotsam that washed up in Emory that the crafter community adopted. We were wrong. The question the Council wants to know is what there is about him that's so special."

"The other question is why now. What aren't they telling us?"

"Okay," Niamh said, "but what does all that have to do with me? The witches and I don't get along."

"Your job hasn't changed," Harlan answered. "We still need to find out who's kidnapping children and find where they're being taken. It's sure money the gods-damned Fae are involved."

"What we want is that in the course of your investigation, see if you check up on this Quinn quietly. You should have plenty of opportunities. You're going to be down in Old-Town and Emory as well. You're an old friend. The council needs to know if he's capable of being Keeper."

"What if they decide he isn't suitable?"

"You will be ordered to sanction him," Harlan said. "There is far too much chaos now in our camp and the coven's camp to allow someone unsuitable as Keeper."

"Who gets to define what unsuitable means? You? I'm not ending Lachlan Quinn on your say so."

"Mother of All, Niamh," Harlan yelled, "You will do as I say. Or else."

"Really?" she asked her voice cold, "Are you threatening me? Do not go down that trail, Coyote. You will not like what you find at the end of it."

Harlan paled, then opened his mouth to respond, but Mina interrupted him.

"Settle down you two. Niamh, we've got a dangerous situation developing here. More and more reports are coming in of missing kids from both sides of the border. We know the Fae are shipping drugs, we suspect they are trading for children. We can't work the Fae side, but we can find out who's doing the kidnapping on our side. If we don't get to the bottom of it, the council will lose control of the local kin-packs. We're sure to see vigilantes emerge. The Kin will return to the anarchy of the old days.

"On top of that, there are rumors of a Hag on the loose. There is no doubt in my mind that the Fae are behind all this chaos. We have no way to stop them, that's always been the Keeper's job, and these days we have no Keeper."

The big woman finished her explanation and poured more tea in her cup and nodded to Harlan.

"I will do my job, but if they pass the decision to sanction him, I want to know that the full procedures have been followed."

"Fair enough. Okay, that's the background. We hate to cut your vacation short, but we need you to get back to work. Get us whatever you can on this Quinn person and press harder on the lost ones. I have a bad feeling this is all connected somehow." He pushed his chair back and stood up. "By the way, your grandfather wants you to visit him up in Bellingham."

"He can want all he wants; I have no interest in him or his plans for me."

"Well, like it or not Niamh," Mina said. "Your family is the closest the Kin have to royalty. You are going to end up on the Council eventually."