Spells of Summer by AK Faulkner

Author:AK Faulkner [Faulkner, AK]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ravensword Press

Initially, Laurence thought that everything was gray. The sky, the air, the ground, it all seemed to be a mix of dreary shades of blue-green soot. As he sat up and took a better look, though, he began to make out more color and texture.

He sat — naked — on a riverbank, with limp, pewter-green grass underneath him which faded down to sepia pebbles that disappeared into murky, sludge-green water. The river was only twenty feet wide, and slurped along at a leisurely pace with the occasional shadow bobbing under the surface.

Overhead, the sky was slate behind clouds like smoke from a wood fire. There was no sign of the sun, which didn’t surprise Laurence too much; it didn’t seem to feature much in Otherworld, that he’d seen.

Beyond the river, the opposite bank rolled off into a field that disappeared into the horizon, also covered with dank grass, but also dotted with tall plants that ended in spears of white or yellow, star-shaped flowers and their filament-like stamens which rendered the edges a little fuzzy. He didn’t see a whole lot of them in California, but Laurence recognized asphodel easily enough. They were native to the Mediterranean, especially in and around Greece, and not dangerous in any way.

“I don’t see him,” Rufus muttered.

Laurence tore his attention from the fields and toward Ru, but looked away quickly. Of course Rufus was butt naked. But at least in Ru’s defense he had no choice about it this time. “Yeah,” Laurence breathed. “Me either.”

He stood and brushed dirt off his ass as he turned to examine their surroundings more. A lead-colored mountain sprouted from the ground to his right, and the river was flowing sluggishly from a cave in the foothills which was so dark that even he couldn’t see into it. The mouth of the cave was surrounded by bright scarlet splashes of poppies growing with wild abandon, which were towered over by a copse of black poplar trees, with their branches and leaves which looked forever shaped by winds that were no longer around.

At his back, more hills, and more grass. To his left, more of the same.

This place was vast, and yet almost completely uninspiring.

“I don’t think this is our Otherworld,” he said as he looked toward Rufus and did his best not to focus on anything below the nipples. “These plants are all native to the Mediterranean.”

Ru grunted. “Yeah,” he agreed. “We should go.”

Laurence licked his lips and tried to think. “Wait. We followed Freddy, right?”

Ru nodded.

“And the only place we can’t see is that cave.” Laurence pointed toward it.

“Which means that’s probably where Freddy is,” Rufus agreed. “But we’re not going in. We have to—”

The river began to swirl. An eddy quickly became a whirlpool, and then the whirlpool rose into the air as a column of water, a tornado with no wind that settled into the shape of a woman.

She stepped onto land as her clothes were still forming around her, and her black hair settled into

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