The Silver Thread (10 page)

“I honestly don’t know what to expect from an Italian queen,” replied her husband coolly. “I’ve only known a Spanish princess, and she was much more obliging than your friend.”

“I’m sure she was,” Annika said, having a pretty good idea of how well he was obliged. She knew that Talvi had sown enough wild oats to supply a flour mill, but that reputation was supposed to have been left behind in a parallel universe.

They watched as James marched up to the clerk behind the sales counter and spoke to her, making a lot of wild gestures with his hands. She handed him a pair of scissors, looking a little scared. He disappeared into the dressing room and there was more bickering. Finally the door swung open and Annika was baffled at who stumbled out. A very cute boy in slim-fitting dark blue jeans and a lightweight green sweater was peering at himself in a full length mirror in wonder. His transparent, shiny wings had been pulled through two slits in the back of his sweater and were folded down behind him. His flaming red hair was no longer competing with his clothing. On the contrary, his sweater complimented his hair perfectly. James looked very pleased with himself and walked back to the clerk, handing her the pair of scissors. Chivanni turned in anxious circles, looking for someplace to hide. He kept trying to cover his orange wings, but they were in plain sight as he crept over to where the other two were waiting for him. He looked scared as he tip-toed over to them, clutching at Talvi’s arm for protection.

“Chivanni, I’ve never seen you…in the fifty-eight years I’ve known you, I don’t think you’ve ever worn any modern clothes before,” Talvi said, mystified at the transformation as he absentmindedly handed a few large bills to the sales girl. The fairy kept trying to cover his wings, looking very uncomfortable.

“What’s the matter?” Annika asked. “You look great!” Chivanni’s cinnamon brown eyes grew wide and watery as he craned his neck upwards to look at his friend.

“I want my cloak back!” he wailed, and grabbed Talvi’s shirt, burying his face in his chest. “I’ve never felt so exposed!” The elf wrapped his arms around the winged fairy and rubbed his back, trying to fend off the impending tears.

“It’s called coming out, and I’ll bet you’ve needed to do that for a long time, you winged fairy,” James said with authority. He took the change and receipt from the clerk and joined them. Chivanni stared at him, watery-eyed and confused. James seemed to grow impatient at his level of naïveté.

“You know, coming out of the closet—revealing to the world who you are, and if they don’t like it, tough shit. They can just go to hell,” James explained.

“We can’t have him revealing what he really is to the world,” Talvi pointed out. “It would be best for him to stay inside of the closet. At least we could give him his cloak back to cover his wings.”

“Oh, yeah, because that bright yellow cloak was so subtle,” James said sarcastically. “As long as you don’t float shit around, no one will care too much about your wings. We’ll go to the Alberta Street fair next month and you’ll see what I mean.”

“But…but…” the winged fairy protested to the human fairy, as Talvi curled his arm around Chivanni and coaxed him towards the door.

“But nothing. Stop trying to hide who you really are and just be yourself!” James insisted from behind, walking next to Annika. “I for one am glad you got rid of that damned cloak. You’ve got a cute little…set of wings.”

When they arrived at the grocery store, it was Talvi’s turn to take James aside and tell him a few things.

“First thing’s first,” he said, giving James a stern look. “Neither Chivanni nor I eat animals, and since we are guests in your home, I would hope that there is no cooking of them whilst we are staying with you.”

“You’re seriously asking me to give up meat?” James replied in disbelief.

“He doesn’t mean tube steak,” Annika joked, nudging James in the ribs with her elbow. He rolled his eyes at her and then turned them back to Talvi.

“I’m only asking you to not bring dead animals in the house,” Talvi said, curling his protective arm around his winged friend’s shoulders. “I can tolerate the smell when I must, however, you may have noticed that Chivanni is quite sensitive. He would likely cry for days if anyone cooked or ate an animal under the same roof where he sleeps. It’s so easy to forget that other living creatures have feelings when you call them pseudonyms such as veal. And until you’ve tasted his cooking, I don’t think I would complain very much about having a gourmet chef in the house.”

James glanced at Annika, unsure of what to make of the request.

“He
is
a really good cook,” Annika assured him. The compliment made Chivanni’s wings flutter slightly as he smiled, and James gave a reluctant shrug.

“What the hell, I’ll give it a shot,” he muttered, and started to head for a shopping cart.

“I wasn’t finished speaking, James,” Talvi said in a polite, yet firm tone. “Chivanni has certain dietary needs and he can only have clean food. He can’t eat anything with chemicals or he’ll become very sick. And he doesn’t know how to read English, so you’ll have to help me look at the labels and make certain nothing contains any preservatives or hormones and the like. Organic would be best for him. And we’ll need quite a few liters of spring water. He can’t drink anything from your tap, and I’d rather not, either. I’m told it contains chemicals as well as residuals from all the medications that humans take.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” James whined, tossing his tousled hair as he rolled his eyes a second time. “That’s Charlie’s area of expertise, not mine. I don’t pay attention to that shit.”

“It’s not so complicated,” Talvi insisted. “This is part of who Chivanni is. Did you not in fact tell us all earlier that if someone doesn’t like you for being different, tough shit? They can just go to hell, right? I’m quite fond of that philosophy myself.” The light in his eyes danced merrily as James realized he had been bested by the best. “Perhaps it would be easier if you and Chivanni focus on the produce, and leave the rest to Annika and I. You can’t really go wrong if you’re gathering things such as lettuce and bananas.”

“If I’m gathering
what
?” James asked, grinning wide.

“Lettuce and bananas,” Talvi repeated, making James smile even wider.

“I’m really sorry, Talvi, I still didn’t understand that last thing you wanted me to get.”

“James, are you bloody deaf? I said
bananas
!” he cried in exasperation. James just laughed and shrugged, loving the way he said bananas in his English accent.

“Okay, I heard you that time,” he sighed happily. “Can I start getting those ba-
nah
-nas already, or is there something else I need to know about Chivanni?”

“Oh, yes,” Talvi said with a mischievous smirk. “He bites on occasion, so you better get on his good side while you still can. I’ll let you figure out the rest on your own.” With that they split off into pairs, each with their own cart.

Compared to riding horseback together over hill and dale, dueling gypsy songs on their guitars, dancing in elaborate ballrooms, and being rescued from flesh-eating trees and bloodthirsty vampires, doing something as domestic as grocery shopping with her husband seemed incredibly lame to Annika. But then again, it was interesting to see what kind of things he was putting into their overstuffed cart, when they finally were put there. Talvi wasn’t joking at all about Chivanni’s dietary needs, and he spent most of the time reading every label on every item that Annika handed him. She began to lose track of how many of her favorite foods were disqualified and handed back to her. Her favorite cereal, her favorite ice cream, and her favorite potato chips were all replaced with brands and flavors she had never tried before.

“When you said Chivanni would get sick if he ate the wrong thing, how sick are we talking here?” she whined when Talvi handed her a few approved jars of peanut butter instead of the brand that she’d been buying for years.

“It depends,” he replied, spying some almond butter and snatching it off the shelf as well. “It could be as mild as a runny nose and a rash, but if he were exposed to a large dose at once or small doses over a long period of time, he could very well die. His entire family was killed when they were sprayed with pesticide, which is why he was raised by his aunt. Being that I am responsible for his welfare, I can’t afford the risk.”

Annika shivered and vowed not to complain about the groceries any more, and instead asked Talvi to show her how to read a label properly.

“So, I have to ask, now that we’re at least somewhat alone,” Talvi asked casually as tried to choose between orange marmalade or blackberry jam, “is there anything else you wanted to talk to me about? Any particular concerns you’ve had since I last saw you? You do seem a bit preoccupied since we were last together.”

Annika grabbed both jars out of his hands and set them on top of three large containers of organic orange juice and six boxes of all-natural black licorice candy.

“Nope,” she lied, turning around. The very public jam aisle was the last place she seemed to want to have this very private conversation, but Talvi was determined one way or another. He knew she was trying to avoid answering him, and she knew that he wouldn’t simply let it slide, either. He would dig to the deepest depths to find out what she didn’t want to say. Talvi wondered how long Annika could hold out on him, and he wondered how much longer it would be until James and Chivanni joined up with them again.

“Annika, you’re certainly not the first individual who’s experienced this type of anxiety before. My sister had a very difficult time dealing with it as well, but you would never know it to look at her now,” he said delicately, putting his hand on her shoulder. Talvi smiled as he continued, “There was one time when she and I were much younger; we encountered a tribe of maenads, and I thought she would never be the same after that disaster. It took her quite some time to reconcile, but eventually she did. And now Yuri’s just as good with a sword as I am.”

Annika turned around to face him, utterly confused. “Yuri?” she asked. “I thought you were talking about Anthea.”

Talvi snorted in amusement. “How could you think
that
, when you know how different my sisters are? Anthea’s a homebody; she would certainly never venture anywhere near maenad territory! Besides, she’s got those two maggots to look after, and now that Asbjorn’s home, she wants more. Just what I need; another stinking, squirming larva crawling underfoot when we come home. Aren’t two enough? My sister was actually upset when Father told her that the twins in our family run in the males on
his
side, because that means she won’t have a chance at them. It will either be my brother or myself. Why would anyone actually
want
double the mess, double the fuss, double the noise, and double the amount of lost sleep, when one screaming larva is bad enough?” And just as if to prove his point, at that very moment, a baby in the next aisle screeched so loud that it threatened to shatter every glass jar in the entire store. The painful pitch made Annika and Talvi both grimace.

“My poor mother…can you imagine
twins
making that horrendous sound at the same time?” he said, still recovering from the severe audial intrusion. “There’s not enough fairy brandy in the world to drown out
that
racket!”

“No, there’s not,” Annika squeaked. Talvi felt certain that the shaking in his wife’s hands wasn’t from the coffee she’d had at breakfast. What was going on with her?

“For some reason, it’s difficult for me to read your thoughts as clearly as I used to, so you’ll need to be a little more open with me about things. I want you to know that you can talk to me about anything, and I’ll understand.” When he glanced up at Annika, he was not expecting her to look white as a sheet, gripping the handle of the cart to keep herself steady.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, worried. “You look absolutely terrified.”

“It’s just…I don’t think I can deal with…with…”

“With maenads? Good gods, love,
you’ll
never need to worry about them,” he chuckled, and began searching for the maple syrup.

After the groceries had been put away, the foursome reassembled upstairs in Annika’s room to help Talvi and Chivanni unpack. James folded his arms across his chest, frowning a little as he summed up the situation. Since her return, he had only dared peek his head in her room, never fully capturing the splendor that one unemployed and depressed person can create.

“Annika,” he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose under his glasses, “I don’t even know where to start.” He looked around the bedroom, making lists in his head of what needed to be taken care of first. There were dirty dishes cluttering up her computer desk that needed to be brought to the kitchen; empty vodka bottles and juice boxes that needed to go in the recycling bin; trash that needed to be taken out; a thick layer of dust to contend with; papers to be filed; and mountains of shoes and clothes to be put away, along with other boxes of belongings.

James tossed his head a little and finally walked over to the three laundry baskets filled with clean clothes, and he began to hang them in the closet.

Annika pulled open some of her dresser drawers and added those clothes to the pile that James was working on, giving Talvi some room for his things. The past three months had been spent getting used to the idea that she may never see him again. It had not been easy, getting back on her feet after being swept off of them.

“What are all these papers?” Chivanni asked, as he approached her desk. “Are they important, or shall I dispose of them?” He picked through envelopes, sticky-notes, the backsides of bills, and receipts that all had a few lines of scribbling on them.

“They’re just ideas for songs,” she said, coming over to join him. “You don’t need to worry about that.”

“It’s really no trouble,” he said, while Talvi lifted one of the envelopes.

“
It
comes as no surprise, and I find love only gets in the way,
” he read out loud just before she snatched the paper out of his hand. “Hardly the musings of a new bride,” he teased.

“It’s not ready yet,” she said peevishly, adding the envelope in her hand to the pile of papers on the desk. She shuffled them all into one pile and put them in the top drawer of her desk, shutting it harder than necessary. “I’ve had horrible writer’s block. The music’s no problem at all, but the lyrics just aren’t coming to me.”

“They’ll come out of the woodwork when they’re good and ready,” Talvi assured her, “Give them time. It will be worth the wait.”

And then he said no more. Annika thought for sure that he would have teased her further, and said her song lyrics sounded cheesy, but instead he had only smiled and let it go.

Meanwhile, he had taken a small metal box covered in strange writing out of his messenger bag. He opened it cautiously before reaching into it. First his fingers slipped in, searching around for something. Apparently unable to find it, he reached in further. Then further still, until his entire right arm was shoved into this box. James stopped hanging clothes and watched skeptically, as there was no place for Talvi’s arm to go, except through the bed…but it was definitely inside the box.

Talvi rolled his eyes in annoyance and began taking out things right and left, scattering them upon or around the bed as they swelled up to their normal size.

“What the fuck? That box is like Mary Poppins’ magic carpet bag,” James remarked, watching in wonder.

“Where do you think the concept came from?” asked the elf. “This is known as a ‘Fairy Poppins Box.’ It was invented by a fairy named Poppins over five hundred years ago. They’re becoming quite popular, because they’re so cold.”

“Cold?” James repeated. “‘Cause it’s made of metal?”

“No, I think he means it’s
cool
,” Annika informed him, smiling a little at Talvi’s misuse of slang. She and James looked on with interest as Talvi unpacked a guitar case, a wooden longbow, a quiver filled with arrows, a black-handled knife, a few sets of clothes, Annika’s mp3 player and digital camera, and a small mountain of books in various thicknesses and strange languages that she couldn’t read. The few she was able to decipher sounded incredibly interesting, with French titles such as
Transformations: A Guide for New Vampires and Their Loved Ones
,
Various Demons and the Objects they Possess
,
The
Art
of Mind Cloaking
, and one that caught her eye, simply titled
Samodivi
in Macedonian.

“Funny you should notice that one above all others,” he said, seeing her glance at the book. “That’s the same one Finn insisted I bring
specifically
for you, from his personal collection.”

“He did, did he?” Annika pondered why Finn would pick that one particular book out of the tens of thousands he owned, just for her. To say Finn had a lot of books was like saying the Pacific Ocean had a lot of water, and she would never forget the day she stumbled upon him reading in his bedroom, surrounded by bookshelves that stretched higher than the arched windows, all the way to the ceiling. He had invited her in, set her down directly in front of him, and asked her what it was like to be a modern girl. It was the most memorable interview Annika had ever experienced.

She snatched her camera, having not seen it in months, and walked over to her desk, inserting the memory card into the computer after she sat down. A slide show of evidence began to play, and Annika motioned for James to come over and watch it unfold while she gave him a little narrative of her adventure. It had been so hard for her, to not have any proof other than her ring. She needed her friends and family to understand her…to believe her.

Her photo montage started with a few shots of the Balkan Mountains, then one of Uncle Vince and his friends huddled around a table loaded with dishes of food and glasses of vodka, smiling brightly. Then there were some scenes of downtown Sofia. Then more mountains. And then everything changed.

There was Runa, braiding her long blonde hair next to a wood burning stove. And Talvi’s older sister Anthea smiling sleepily at a table while two small children with pointed ears were eating out of a bowl on the kitchen floor. There was a shot of Talvi walking through the barn with two large pails, silhouetted in black, and then many pictures of adorable, cuddly barn kittens. There were a few shots of Runa, Hilda, Sariel, and Yuri lying in the hay, snuggling with the kittens. Then there were Anthea’s music rooms, filled with dozens of different instruments from all over the world. When the next photo appeared, James reached over and hit the pause button on the computer screen.

“Who is
that
?” he asked, and Talvi and Chivanni wandered over to join the viewing.

“Oh, that’s just my brother Finn,” Talvi answered.

There he stood beside his brother, mirrored almost perfectly, each of them with a bow in their hands. Talvi’s was in his right, and Finn’s was in his left. They both had their opposite elbows drawn back, and were grinning over their shoulders at the photographer. They were unmistakably brothers, but Finn was taller, with relaxed brown curls instead of wild black hair. The smile on his face was warm and kind, rather than devilish and wicked.

“
Just
your brother Finn,” James mocked, adjusting his glasses as he admired the photo. “Annika, will you email this to me? I need a new screen saver for my laptop. And my phone.”

After taking a moment to send the photo to James, Annika resumed the slideshow, displaying a ballroom filled with elves and wood nymphs, with fairies mingling within the crowd, and also floating above it. Then there was Talvi, sitting at his desk, making love to the camera with his bedroom eyes. A sheepish laugh escaped when she saw the next few pictures of her in his room. She was wearing nothing but an annoyed look on her face, which grew less annoyed with each new photo. Then she was sitting on Talvi’s lap, both of them smiling at the camera.

“I think we can skip past a few of these,” Talvi suggested discreetly, trying to hide his blushing face. “The troll photos are at the very end of the roll.”

“It’s a digital camera, sweetie. There’s no roll of film,” she explained, as she turned the screen away from James and Chivanni, searching for the last few photos she wanted her roommate to see. When she returned the monitor to its previous position, James took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, leaning in close. There stood a giant green-skinned troll, over eleven feet tall, covered in wool clothing, with huge fanged teeth jutting up from his smiling lower jaw. His huge barrel chest was puffed out with pride, and in front of him stood Runa and Annika, with carefree smiles on their faces even though they were less than half his height.

“That is
insane
!” James said in a squeak of a voice.

“No, that is
Ohan
,” Talvi corrected him. “He’s a troll.”

“Gee, ya think?” James asked sarcastically, squinting at the image again before putting on his glasses. “I need a glass of wine. I think my brain’s going to explode.”

He went back to gather Talvi’s new clothes in one of the baskets that he’d emptied, and with Chivanni’s levitation skills, the two fairies followed the dishes and wastebasket down the steps and into the kitchen.

Once they were alone, Talvi reached into the metal box a final time and withdrew a hemp sack that jingled when he set it on the rug. He gave Annika a wink before he opened it up, revealing key chain after key chain full of gold and silver rings of all different sizes. Some would barely fit on an infant’s finger; others were larger, thicker, and wider.

“Where did all of this come from? You told me that you don’t have a job.” She kneeled down next to the sack and sank her fingers into the metal rings, lifting up a large handful. There was a chorus of different pitches as Annika let the rings fall from her hands back into the bag with a
plinkity-plinkity
, plink
.

“I have had many jobs, my love,” her husband snickered, watching her with amusement as she picked up another handful of gold and silver rings. “You only asked me if I had a regular job, and I told you I did not. For one thing, I was on hiatus when you asked me that question. For another, my jobs are very irregular, but I’m very good at the things I do. Therefore, I find myself appropriately reimbursed.”

“Then how come all of your family and friends mentioned at one point or another how lazy you are?” she pointed out, still playing with the treasure. “I can’t even remember how many of them told me that.”

“As I said, I am
very
good at the things I do,” he explained, raising one eyebrow at her. “And coming home to relax afterwards is one of them. It is only logical to expect that I would like an extended rest when I’m home. Wouldn’t you agree that when one travels constantly for the greater portion of the year, one would also enjoy sleeping in front of the fire as often as possible? Besides, you speak as though I brought my life’s savings with me. I only brought a small portion,” he said with a slight shrug. “I’m certain we’ll get by just fine while I’m here.”

“This is ‘
getting by’
?” Annika squeaked, looking into the bag one last time before he tied it shut. They had never really spoken about what he did to earn his keep, and that might be something a wife should like to know. “What did you do to earn this much money?”

“This and that,” he chirped mysteriously, and shoved the burlap sack into the little metal box just as James and Chivanni came back.

“Hey, I found this down in the basement behind the washing machine. Is it yours?” James asked, cutting through Annika’s state of wonder. He was untangling the chain of a silver necklace. He held it up, letting the light catch on two jeweled fish swimming in opposite directions to form a circle. One of the fish was deep blue; the other a dark shade of blood red. “It looks antique.”

Talvi’s mind darted to another reality as he and Annika looked at the amulet swaying from side to side on its silver chain. The image of a young man in a horned helmet flashed into Talvi’s vision. He saw Nikola’s ice blue eyes as clearly as if he were standing directly in front of him…and he could see his matching amulet. He swallowed back his jealous thoughts as he remembered Nikola explaining the powers that their twin amulets possessed.

It
’s a very complex combination in a single amulet. The sapphire is a stone with many supernatural powers.
It
will protect you against both violent physical and psychic attacks.
It
will ward off the sorcery of your enemies, and even accidental death. The garnet balances yin and yang energies.
It
will increase your psychic abilities, courage, and confidence, and will fend off evil spirits while you sleep.
It
will help protect your aura, and if that’s not enough for one little stone to do, it will also keep you safe while tr
aveling…

“That’s the amulet Nikola’s grandmother gave you,” Chivanni said, with his eyes growing wide. “But why ever did you take it off?”

“I think I took it off to clean it, and then I misplaced it…I’m not sure.”