Read Online Jack, the giant-killer by Charles De Lint - Free Book Online Page B

in… in faeries?” she asked.
    “Faeries as in gay, or faeries as in Tinkerbell?”
    “As in Tinkerbell—but not all cutesy like that. More like faerie as in the realm of Faerie, with gnomes and wizards and giants and that sort of thing.”
    “Seriously?”
    “Seriously.”
    Kate shook her head. “ ‘Fraid not. Are you doing a survey?”
    “No. What about ghosts? You know, vampires and the walking dead and spooks that come out at night?”
    “Well, I don’t know about ze Count and his friends, but ghosts… maybe ghosts.”
    “Really?”
    Kate sighed and poured them both some more tea.
    “Well, not really . But sometimes when I’m alone at night and the house’s creaking—you know. You get that feeling. Would you stay overnight in a graveyard?”
    “I suppose not.”
    And there it was, Jacky thought. The first person she asked confirmed what Finn had told her. People believed in the darker creatures of Faerie, in ghosts and the undead, far more readily than they did in gnomes and the like. She was sure that if she asked anybody she knew, they’d come up with pretty much the same answer as Kate had given her.
    “What’s with all this talk about spooks?” Kate asked. “Have you been reading Stephen King again?”
    “I wish I was just reading about it.”
    “What?”
    Jacky frowned. “Nothing,” she said.
    “Come on, Jacky. I know something’s bothering you.” She looked at Jacky, then shook her head. “God, what am I saying? First Will walks all over you, and then some lunatic on a motorcycle chases you all around Ottawa South. I wouldn’t exactly be jumping for joy either. This guy didn’t hurt you, did he?”
    “No. But what if I told you I’d seen a gnome tonight?”
    “I’d say ‘That’s nice.’ ”
    “No, seriously.”
    “I am being serious—it’s you that’s not making any sense.”
    “What if I could prove it?”
    Kate laughed. “Please don’t pull out some clipping from the National Enquirer .”
    “No. I mean, what if I could show you what I meant?”
    “You’re really serious?”
    Jacky nodded.
    “Oh, jeez. Now you’re scaring me.”
    “Look,” Jacky said. “This biker that was chasing me—
    “He was a gnome? Hell’s Gnomes? Come on .”
    “No. He’s not a gnome. He’s a part of some kind of Wild Hunt. Remember in Caitlin Midhir’s book Yarthkin , when those riders are chasing the girl and one of them’s got these big antlers? It’s like that. Except they’re riding motorcycles.”
    “Antlered men riding motorcycles?”
    “I didn’t say he had antlers,” Jacky said a little crossly.
    Kate held up a hand. “Time out. This is getting too weird for me, Jacky. And it’s scaring me because it’s not like you at all.”
    “Is it because you’ve never seen anything like it before?”
    “Well, that’s good for starters.”
    “Well, you’ve never been to Japan before either. How do you know it exists?”
    “I’ve seen pictures. I know people who’ve been there. I saw it in a movie.”
    “Well, I saw Gremlins , but that doesn’t mean those little things are real. But this rider is, Kate. And I can prove it.”
    Kate sighed. “Okay. For the sake of argument, prove it.”
    “We have to go to the front of the house,” Jacky said standing up.
    As she led the way, the redcap dangling from her hand, she was of two minds. On the one hand she wanted to prove to Kate that what she’d been experiencing was real, just to have someone else who could see it, someone to be there to tell her that she wasn’t going crazy. Because that was scary. But on the other hand, if the rider was there, that was even scarier. She didn’t know what she was hoping for, but by then they’d reached the living room. Standing by the front window, they looked out at the street. There was no one there. Just some parked cars. A cat was lying on the hood of one— the engine was probably still warm and it was stealing what heat it could before the metal cooled down.
    “So now