Trapped

«
    » I’m all for it, « Granuaile said, » but I’d like a fresh set of clothes first. «
    » Oh. Right. «
    We returned first to the workshop to pick up Oberon, then we shifted to a safe house of sorts in the Uncompahgre Wilderness in southwestern Colorado. It was a cabin located near the old Camp Bird Mine, some ten miles west of Ouray, and I had bought it under an alias six years ago to conduct some business with Odin. Surrounded by a forest tethered to Tír na nÓg, it was an ideal rendezvous point and a place to store changes of clothes for times like these. It was also out of Coyote’s territory and a safe place for Oberon to spend some time by himself if necessary, since it was equipped with a large doggie door and plenty of food and water—not to mention squirrels and deer galore.
    Granuaile and I changed clothes quickly and told Oberon he’d be on his own for a while.
    › How long? ‹
    » Hopefully only a few hours. Less than three months. You are terrible with time anyway. Now, listen, you are absolutely forbidden to go into any mine shafts around here. They’re off limits, you understand? If a squirrel runs inside, you count him dead; you don’t go after him. And you don’t get to pretend that they are Batcaves either. You can’t save Gotham from here. «
    › Okay. I remember the rules. ‹
    » Have fun hunting, buddy. « I petted him and he wagged his tail. Granuaile finished strapping on a replacement set of throwing knives and kissed his head.
    » I hope we’ll get to go hunting with you soon, « she said.
    › Yeah! Maybe we’ll try for caribou. There are fewer pungent aromas in the tundra. ‹
    » That’s very considerate of you, « she said, smiling.
    › Hey, will you put in disc two of The Fellowship of the Ring before you go? I need a refresher on the mines of Moria. ‹

Chapter 24
    We shifted to the first dryad’s tree in Olympus and cautiously scanned the area. Seeing no one, I opened a portal to the island of slow time, with the admonition to Granuaile that she should watch. » I’m going to have you do the later ones. «
    » Okay. Why don’t we just open portals wherever we want? «
    » You can’t open them at all if you’re not in an area that’s been bound to Tír na nÓg. But we avoid them because it takes longer to open one and uses far more energy. We shift via trees because it requires the least amount of the earth’s power. That’s why Aenghus Óg’s huge portal to hell drained the earth and killed it. «
    Parts of the dead land around Tony Cabin were functioning on a basic level again, but large patches were still dead, and it had taken us years of toil to bring it back even to weak levels of life.
    The first dryad we’d separated from her tree stared uncertainly back at us, suspended in midair a few feet above the ground of the Time Island. Her arms were splayed out toward us in a final, desperate bid to grab hold of this plane. I held on to Granuaile’s left hand and told her to reach through and pull the dryad back with her other.
    » I don’t need some kind of long pole or something? «
    » No, as long as half of you stays here, you won’t get pulled into that timestream. «
    » What about pulling her out, though? Won’t that cause whiplash or something? «
    » No, in that timestream she’s only begun to fall. Gravity just figured out she’s in the air above the island, but she hasn’t even had a full second to fall five yards or so. Look at her. She’s hardly moved, and it’s been almost two months for us. So yanking her back right now would be no worse than one of those tango moves where you extend your arm and then pull your partner back to you. Grab her gently. Remember, to her we’re a blur in the sky. «
    » All right. « Granuaile reached through the portal and took her time wrapping her fingers around the dryad’s wrist. » Ready? «
    » Yep. Do it. «
    Granuaile pulled, the dryad found her feet on solid ground again, then reeled as soon as Granuaile let her go. The dryad blinked and sat down heavily underneath the canopy of her tree.
    » What happened? My head spins. «
    » Sorry about that, « I said in Latin.
    She peered at me and her eyes widened. » Your face. Wasn’t half of it scarred and melted a moment ago? « She noticed that Granuaile looked different too. » And now you have strange markings on your arm. What magic is this? «
    » It is the magic of the earth and of the Fae, « I replied. » I apologize for the