Red cove

By high noon our little crew was back together and Pierce had been brought into the fold about the details of my early demise. Being your generic tough guy, the words red and cove didn't pull from him as large of a reaction as it did the others, but we were all sat down and ideas were flying left and right. Being the newbie of the group, it fell on me to interrupt those untranslatable half-sentences and mind-linked exchanges. It was a task not well received.

"Could you just dumb it down for me?" I asked, furious, unable to connect the dots. "Why does this red cove matter?"

A game of looks was played, and Saul seemed to have lost it, for he was the one to explain.

"Because it might help us. If we can get to it. And we can figure out what it is."

"And how do you know it will help."

Saul opened his mouth, but Pierce interrupted. "We don't know. Not for sure."

Saul leaned back. "You explain then. You are the only one of us ancient enough to have been around back then."

Whether the comment was an insult to his age or not, Pierce ignored it and folded his hands on the table. "Alright. Back when we were at war with the witches, openly so, it's like two hundred years ago now, and we were getting our asses kicked due to that new invention - the werewolves, a rumor started to spread. Red cove. A combination of words that frightened the witches. Some kind of a weapon they did not want vampires to know about. At least that's what we thought it was. But it was a desperate time. We were grasping for some deus ex machina to save our kind.

"It might have been a fairy tale spread by some faction of our kind to improve the general mood, so we wouldn't give up. Or, it could have been a lie from the witches to get us to spend our resources on chasing for something that didn't exist..."

"Or it could have been the real thing!" Saul interrupted.

"Saul here is a big believer in the Red Cove. He pretty much built the rebellion on this delusion."

"You know that it's a delusion about as much as I know it's real."

"Haven't found it, have you? Because, as long as it's out of reach, it might as well not exist at all."

There was clearly more on Saul's mind about the subject, but he decided to pull back, only rolling his eyes.

"Either way," Pierce continued, "we did look for it, for almost a year. And, as far as I know, nobody made any progress. And then, out of nowhere, the war was over. Witches came to the table and a treaty was hacked out. I don't know why. I don't think our leaders know why. They are just thankful it happened. It was a crappy deal though."

"And then people stopped looking?"

"I guess, for a while. Saul did restart the search."

I turned to him. "Why did you stop?"

He scratched his forehead, clearly uncomfortable. "I had my reasons."

I accepted the lousy answer for the time being.

"We got to start looking again, right? This red cove has to be something."

But my excitement didn't earn any jubilant agreements, only silence.

Oliver broke it a few moments later.

"This could be some trick. A trap. Maybe the witches are trying to end the treaty? First killing a warlock, then turning him, and then sending him to search for the red cove. This could be a linchpin."

"Or maybe it's the humans?" Pierce retorted. "I'm sure they'd be happy if the war restarted."

That didn't make too much sense to me.

"You really think that turning me could start a war? I'm no princess of Troy, you know?"

My humor was not well received.

"There are any number of ways this could turn bad." Pierce said, "but we seem to only have bad options. Locating Red Cove might be worth a try."

As if deliberately defiant, it was now Saul who wasn't ready to jump on board. "We need more information. Running around looking under rocks, it doesn't work. I've tried."

That felt hard to argue with. "Who could we talk to?" I asked. "Are there any witches...?"

All the heads started shaking.

"No. Not witches," Pierce said, "but there is someone."

That seemed to surprise Saul. He studied his brother in law curiously. But the man with Viking build seemed to hide from his gaze. "I haven't told you everything, Saul," he said, some obvious guilt in his voice. And he took a deep breath. "I got her back."

Saul stared at Pierce dumbly, piecing something together. But whatever picture he formed, he didn't want to believe it.

"Got who back?"

Pierce continued to hide his eyes.

"Margaret. I got her back."

Saul looked like a ghost who had just seen an even bigger and scarier ghost.

"Wha wha what?" He stuttered, almost falling out of his seat. "Margaret? What? How? How could you not tell me?"

"You were... gone."

Saul jumped out of his seat, furious.

"You knew exactly where I was. You're the one who sent me there." He paused, something new occurring to him, "You wanted to get rid of me! You... you!"

And then the door opened... And Pierce was gone. Gone like the wind. Gone like my plans of becoming a dentist. Gone so quickly even Saul could not see it happen. He remained standing, staring at the open door.

I did not dare to speak. This, I knew, was not a Saul who would answer questions. Nor was he one who cared about the Red Cove, no matter how important finding it could have been.

"Saul," Oliver broke the silence. His voice woke Saul from some dream. But instead of answering, he marched right out of the room.

Alone with Oliver, I could not stop myself.

"Who is Margaret?"

Oliver stood up, fists on the table.

"Margaret's his sister. Come on! They need time. Let us see if we can get you to do magic."