Teagan's Books

Saturday, August 5, 2023

Welcome to my sanctuary, everyone.   Thanks for following this wild, urban fantasy serial. 

When I asked Pat at e-Quips blog for the random reader things for this episode I asked her to think about things that might be at or near a lake.  Pat gave us boat house, hammock, and oar(s).

I have a couple of cautions before you read.  There is a bit of violence, but it isn’t nearly as graphic as even network TV programs.  If you’re that sensitive, then skip to the end.

Also, this episode is packed with action.  The pace is fast.  I’ve used short paragraphs to help you absorb details.  But you need to really pay attention if you want to understand.

Ready?

Previously

A sleek sparkling white motorcycle roared up beside Bheema.  The rider wore head-to-toe white to match.  Although he wasn’t exactly wearing riding leathers.  It looked more like some kind of technically advanced modern body armor.  Removing his helmet, Fletcher Hodge grinned at us.

“Oh, a real-life white knight,” Maudie began in a bemused voice.  “But that one would go beside the empty square for the king, not the rose-gold queen,” she added.

A chill went down my spine.  I realized that once again, Maudie was seeing more of what was happening than I was willing to admit to myself.

Atonement in Zugzwang

Episode 21

Deputy Fletcher Napoleon Hodge looked consideringly at Adelle.  He seemed to be evaluating her emotional state as well as selecting the right words before he spoke.

“Miss Metatron, you should know that Sheriff Warden has your sister, Annie, in lockup,” he said, earning a collective gasp from Adelle, Maudie, and me.  “She assaulted an officer.  That’s to say, she pushed the sheriff so hard that he fell over a desk.  I think he has a concussion.  Dr. Leggett is a psychologist, not an MD, but she was there with Miss Annie, and she took a look at him, since he wouldn’t stop work to go to the doctor.”

Fletcher paused, lips tightening.  I thought he wasn’t satisfied with how he related the information.  Indeed, Adelle assailed him with questions.

“Sheriff Warden knows she only did it because she’s distraught about her son,” the deputy continued, hands spread in a placating motion.  “She’s only in lockup for her own protection — not because of the assault.  Not that it was alright for her to do that, but the sheriff understands.”

“Horsefeathers!  Why didn’t she call me?” Adelle cried, her preference for slang of the Roaring Twenties showing.

“I believe she was trying to get in touch with your grandfather.  Of course, we wouldn’t limit her to the standard one phone call,” Fletcher commented, but Adelle’s exclamation interrupted him again.

“Oh!  How could I forget?  Bushwa!” Adelle Metatron hissed at herself and continued to mutter strange remarks about a teapot and something about brewing.

Carrying a capacious handbag, she darted back inside the erstwhile gas station home that my uncle had left me in his will.

The unexpected clothing of Bheema Parvati and Deputy Fletcher Hodge was enough to take a few of my brain cells off Adelle’s odd behavior, as well as my distress that she expected me to take my kitten into a clearly dangerous situation.  She believed the tiny thing could somehow track her missing nephew, Donny.

Although completely different in style, and I suddenly realized function, the unusual garments the men wore certainly must have had significant meaning and purpose.

Maudie was right.  Fletcher really did look like a knight in white armor.  Although it would be a knight in high-tech body armor, riding on a motorcycle rather than a horse.

Abruptly I wondered if the next time I saw the chess table, I would find a chess piece that looked like the deputy.

“Bheema, you didn’t wear your battle leathers?  You chose ceremonial robes?” Fletcher asked in a surprised tone.  “It sounded to me like a fight was in the making.”

A fight?  This is sounding so much more serious than a teenager who might have simply gone out somewhere that broke his mother’s rules, I thought, and his use of the word battle made me shiver.

“There will be no battle at the lake today,” Bheema turned to Fletcher, speaking in an unexpectedly imposing tone.

Equally surprising was the fact that the deputy immediately conceded, as if Bheema had authority over him.  My mouth moved, trying to form questions, but my brain hadn’t caught up with it.

“Fletcher, they mean to wage a war of intimidation.  They will begin with a show of force.  Doubtless their entire group will be on the opposite bank of Lake Uktena,” he began with stone-like calm that was so different from his usual warm and casual manner.

“All of the chess pieces have not yet gathered,” he murmured thoughtfully, but then continued with certainty.  “Do not engage our adversaries.  Not under any circumstance.  Even if they cross the lake, only act on my order,” Bheema stated flatly, and Fletcher gave a reluctant nod.

I heard my front door close.  Adelle rushed back outside.  The woman’s expression and body language spoke of determination edged with relief, and conversely, a new kind of worry.  Her eyes went to the sky.  Following Adelle’s gaze, I gaped in wonder.

Waves of feathery green lights, like an aurora borealis flashed across the breadth of the horizon.  The aurora began to strengthen.  Then it began to swirl.  A luminous cyclone of light, it started to move.  Its progress stopped in the distant sky, and I was unaccountably convinced that it was beside the lake.

The swirls of the aurora tightened into a rotating column.  Abruptly, it winked out of existence.

“Green…?” Fletcher muttered.  “Like Old Green Eyes?  I mean, do you think that’s something he’s got up his sleeve?” the deputy asked Bheema.

Parvati slowly shook his head.  He murmured that he didn’t know.  Fletcher cleared his throat uneasily.  However, he quickly got back to his cop-like manner.

“Bheema, do you need a ride?” the deputy asked.

“I’ll travel by other means,” Bheema told him.

Maudie and I looked askance at each other again.  Spike gave a playful mew.

♣ ♣ ♣

Fletcher’s exit was such a dramatic scream of white speed that I didn’t notice where Bheema went.  Seconds later Maudie, Spike, and I were in Adelle’s limousine-like Range Rover as she drove.  She was going so fast that I was surprised we didn’t overtake the deputy.

Echoing my thoughts, Maudie said as much.  I speculated that the sheriff’s department would need to cover more area.  Fletcher may have had a different route.  Regardless, Adelle knew exactly where she was going.

Soon, a lovely blue lake came into view as we rounded a curve.  The Range Rover stopped at the tree-lined shore.  At another time, it would have been a calm, picturesque setting.  However, the moment of peace I felt evaporated.  A green glow tinged the sky.  Then the aurora borealis lights fanned out across the sky in the distance to my left.

I noticed a tiny mouse skitter across the ground and into a boathouse.  With all the flexibility of a kitten, Spike managed to get out of her harness.  She bounded into the structure after the mouse.

“Spike!” I shouted.

“She’s going in there!” Maudie cried, not realizing that Spike was chasing something in play, rather than being a feline-GPS and tracking Donny Metatron.

Adelle, Maudie, and I ran to follow Spike into the boathouse.  I was actually relieved, feeling like the kitten was safer inside the structure.  I was tempted to close the door and lock all three of them inside, securely out of the way.

A black-haired man stepped out from the side of the building.  To my surprise, Bheema Parvati was already there.  He looked at me with a grin that was slightly distorted by the large scar that ran alongside his nose.  Then in quick movements he closed the boathouse door and slid an oar through the handles, locking Adelle, Maudie, and Spike inside.

A moment later the two women began to yell.

“Adelle, descendant of Metatron, keeper of the watch and artifacts, you were commanded not to enter into this confrontation,” Bheema intoned in a formal, ringing voice, which brooked no argument.  “Maudie Rocket, I charge you with keeping the knight and this Metatron safe during this meeting.”

My eyes widened in shock as Bheema spoke.  Something in his voice caused goosebumps to rise on my arms.  There was some kind of vague power in his voice.

A kind of magic? I wondered.

I was no less astonished to hear Maudie immediately consent.  Adelle was clearly angry, but I got the sense from her brief rant that she felt obliged to obey some hierarchy that I didn’t understand.

A short distance away Deputy Hodge, still in white body armor, drove his motorcycle onto the scene.  Someone rode behind him.  I blinked when I saw it was Dr. Mary Sue Leggett.  She stayed close to Fletcher as he approached Bheema.  The three faced me.  Coincidentally, they were in a line of descending height that made Bheema look quite tall.  Mary Sue was shorter than Fletcher.

Rather than her tailored business suit, the psychologist wore tall brown boots of soft leather.  Olive green denim jeans were tucked into the boots.  The rest of her clothes were also green and brown.  A breeze stirred her ash-brown hair, revealing pointed ears.

I blinked.  Overwhelmed, I voiced my insane thoughts.

“You don’t look like any elf Hollywood ever produced,” I started.  “No wings, so not a fairy.  That would make you a pixie, right?” I stated, abruptly feeling awkward, but she only smiled and chuckled.

“I see you know your English folklore.  Contrary to the depiction Disney popularized, pixies do not have wings.  There actually is a species of winged pixie with green or blue skin, but they haven’t interacted with humans in a thousand years,” she began, a mischievous light in her sage-green eyes.  “But yes, Pepper, you are correct.”

I wondered what, if anything besides making trouble, pixies could do, especially in a situation where physical and magical strength might be required.  However, that time I kept my mouth shut.  I didn’t want to offend her.

Across the lake, Leonidas Gathright lounged indolently in a hammock, one lanky leg dangling.  I was sure he had seen us, but when he got up, he took his time.  Though his walk appeared unhurried, long strides brought him to the opposite shore swiftly.  When he spoke, his voice carried across the water with other than natural ease.

“So, you’re finally here.  Not much of a war party, I see,” Gathright drawled, but then his stance shifted.  “I demand to see the king’s bishop.  Show yourself!” he shouted.

He paced once, and turned, his long coat flaring.  He raised one finger theatrically.

“Oh, wait!  You can’t, can you?  Because I have it!” he jeered and held up a barber pole, although the sphere that normally decorated the top was missing.  “No matter.  It’s just as useless to you, as it is to me after the orb was taken.  Undoubtedly by one of your spies,” he added with a sneer.

Pacing once more, Gathright casually tossed the barber pole into the air, catching it.  Then he wheeled, eyes locked on Fletcher.

“Knight, you’re all that’s left to protect your king.  And only a cute, fluffy baby animal to protect your queen,” he added, chortling so hard that he bent over and slapped his knees.

To Gathright’s left, I saw the dance troupe from the Rowdy Rooster, the Bitches of Zeus.  Their cavorting had slowed while Old Green Eyes spoke, but when he stopped their movements became fervent. The harpies twirled and summersaulted, but their movements were more organized than they had been at the saloon.  It became clear that they were performing some kind of ritual.

Then someone I hoped I would never see again strode up beside Leonidas Gathright.  It was the drooling trike rider from the saloon’s parking lot.  I immediately thought of one of the latest pieces to appear on the chessboard.

What had Adelle called it?  The Erymanthian Boar.  Kapros.

The drooling creature got onto a modified jet ski.  He rode it threateningly close to the lake’s shore where I stood.  Fletcher’s motor cycle reared onto the back wheel as he zipped between me and the edge of the water.

An instant later, Mary Sue, in a tumbling run, put herself between the deputy and Kapros.  Her boots barely made a splash, she landed so lightly in the shallow water.  The petite woman turned toward the huge beast as if to challenge him.

The Erymanthian Boar screamed frustration.

Leonidas Gathright, summoned Kapros back to his side.  The huge boar-man snorted a spray of mucus, but he returned to Old Green Eyes.

Mary Sue sprang over to Bheema.  She spoke to him in a soft voice, but I was close enough to hear.

“The sirens aren’t here.  I would have sensed them when I stood in the edge of the lake.  They aren’t across the lake, and they aren’t under the water,” she whispered.

Bheema gave a barely perceptible nod in reply.  His facial expression did not change.  His dark eyes were fixed on Gathright.

The “Bitches of Zeus” leapt higher into the air.  Their harpy aspect became visible, pale faces of women and long clawed hands on the bodies of birds.  Their acrobatics took them higher into the sky where they swooped and darted.

Across the lake, a dazed figure was in the middle of their ceremony.  I couldn’t make out much more than the fact that the person was male.  They had dressed him in a white hooded robe.

“Donny?” I wondered aloud.

Then four of the harpies clustered around him, lifting his prone form high into the sky.

A fifth harpy zoomed upward and above the hovering group.  She held a long knife.  The blade gleamed as a stray sunbeam came through a crack in the clouds.

Circling them, the fifth harpy cackled taunts to us on the shore.  The creatures on the opposite bank of the lake hooted encouragement to the harpy.

Though the rain had stopped, leaden blue-gray clouds threatened.  A denser cloud detached from the rest.  As it glided downward, it was obviously no cloud at all.  Great wings flapped, spreading a wave of cold air.

“A dragon!” I gasped.

It was huge compared to any bird I had ever seen, even an eagle.  However, it didn’t match the enormity of dragons in stories.  Even so, it was big enough to dwarf the harpies.

The beast’s hide was mottled gray and blue.  Its talons grabbed the knife-wielding harpy on her head and shoulders.  I heard a sickening crack of bones.  Her claws released the knife, which plunged harmlessly into the lake below.  The blade was followed by something round and about the size of a football.

Or a head… I realized and looked away as a body with bird-legs and wings glided at a slower rate before splashing into the water.

A trio of harpies who had remained on the ground soared up to join the other four.  They made as if to attack the dragon.  With a mighty swipe of a wing, the dragon sent two harpies tumbling.  They landed in the lake, and slowly made their way to shore.

Things had already been happening fast.  However, that was the moment when several different actions came into play within seconds of one another.  Things were no longer happening fast — they were moving at warp speed.

Hardly noticed with so much action right there in front of us, the green aurora borealis lights stretched across the sky at the far end of the lake.  They started to spin again, forming a single column.  Although the column wasn’t solid.  Rather, streams of auroras created a narrow rotating spiral.

“The rotation,” I murmured, mystified.  “It reminds me of the way a barber pole turns.”

Retreating, the remaining harpies abandoned their sacrifice, allowing the young man’s body to drop.  The white robes fluttered around the slight body.  The hood fell back.  Short dark hair fanned on the air.

“It’s too high,” I muttered.  “Hitting the water from that height might kill him.”

Leonidas Gathright stood on the opposite shore, below the action.  He screamed in fury at both the dragon and the harpies.  His plans blew up with his inability to control his unruly minions.  In a louder than human voice he yelled at the remaining harpies.

Filled with excitement from the action — and with rebellion, Kapros, the Erymanthian Boar bounded back onto the modified jet ski.  The powerful motor roared and the ski leapt several feet into the air as it rushed across the lake.

In the same moment, the dragon folded its wings in a dive.  Wings snapping out at the last minute, it delicately clutched the falling body in sharp talons, inches before the young man would have hit the water.  The dragon flew to the shore, alighting near Bheema, smoothly depositing the unconscious form.

Looking past Bheema, movement caught my eye at the boathouse.  A mouse emerged from a hole at the base of the structure.  To my dismay, Spike followed the mouse outside.  I heard Maudie and Adelle yelling.  Then the sound of a window breaking reached my overstimulated ears.

Without realizing my feet were moving, I hurried away from Bheema, Fletcher, and Mary Sue.  I tried to intercept the kitten.

Meanwhile, just before Kapros reached the shore, he glanced over his shoulder at the ranting Gathright and gave an insubordinate snort.  With the jet ski at full throttle, he looked right into my eyes as it sped toward me.

Kapros lifted a large recurve bow, but against his huge form it looked dainty.  Quickly taking aim, he fired.  As the arrow left the bow, it made an audible thwack noise.

Behind me, I heard Maudie shriek.  Off to my side, Fletcher yelled.

Pain blossomed in my chest.  I fell.

Spike’s cool nose pressed against my face.

Above me the aurora continued to rotate.  Reality spiraled with the lights, and all was gone.

♣ ♣ ♣

Come on now… You know we were due for a real cliffhanger.  What about Donny?  Is the green aurora bad or good?  How did that dragon show up?  I love to hear from you, so friendly comments are encouraged.  Hugs!

♣ ♣ ♣

The Atonement Series

Atonement, Tennessee

Full series of e-books with one click:  relinks.me/B087JV25JT

Kindle:  rxe.me/HGSVA8A

Paperback: relinks.me/1481826948

Also in Spanish, translated by Olga Núñez Miret! The title for the Spanish-speaking market is Expiación y Magia

Atonement in Bloom

Kindle:  rxe.me/5RRBLH

Paperback:  relinks.me/1726882128

The Glowing Pigs, Snort Stories of Atonement, Tennessee

Kindle   rxe.me/LTBDNH

Paperback   relinks.me/1725891972

♣ ♣ ♣

This is a work of fiction.  Characters, names, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2023 by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene

All rights reserved. 

No part of this work may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.  Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

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