Blood Creek Beast

by Jay Barnson

  “What if the murderer’s goal wasn’t to take the throne?”

  Bachan said nothing. Jack continued to get dressed, warily watching Bachan’s blade. Bachan didn’t make any move to sheathe it, and Jack remembered all too well the lethal skill the captain had shown during his training. At length, Bachan said, “It is true, there may be other motives for regicide. Now, please indulge me and tell me everything you remember of your meeting with the king last night.”

  “Didn’t Delcina already...”

  “I want to hear it in your own words, please. Be as objective and as complete as possible.”

  Jack told the story to Bachan. At the end, Bachan swore. “We really need to find Aidan.”

  “So what now?”

  “Now, I am afraid I have to put you under arrest. You are to have a guard outside your door, and you are not to leave this room.”

  “When can I see Delcina? Or Rumela?”

  “I don’t know, Jack. Give us time. I promise you, we’ll solve this. Justice will be served, and the king will be avenged. I don’t care if the culprit is my own dear mother, I will see justice done.”

  Jack stayed within the room for two days, with no communication with anyone but the guards. The Royal Guards watched the door for the first day and were at least cordial with him. The servants who brought him food and changed his chamber pot refused to speak to him, seemingly terrified to be in his presence. By the second day, Jack thought he was going crazy cooped up in his room. It was stuffy and hot during the day, and not much larger than his bedroom back home. There were only so many calisthenics he could perform, and he already stank of sweat.

  The guards who escorted the servant the second night did not wear the uniform of the Royal Guards. The maid dropped off a plate of supper on Jack’s table and quickly left under the smirking gaze of one of the new guards.

  “What’s with the uniform change?” Jack asked.

  The man leered at him. “Oh, yeah. You wouldn’t have heard. They found the evidence. You and your friends are going to face the headsman before the week is out.”

  “What? What evidence?”

  “The queen recovered. She said you and the princess poisoned them with help from Bachan. That one guard, Aidan, tried to warn them, but they found his body with the princess’s knife buried in his back.”

  “That’s a lie! None of that is true!”

  The man laughed. “Just what a guilty man would say. Your Royal Guard friends can’t help you. As for me, I am gonna enjoy watching your foreigner head roll off your shoulders.” He closed the door and locked it with a louder jingle of keys than was necessary. Jack buried his head against the pillows and tried to ignore the sound of the guards’ laughter outside the door.

  He forced himself to think critically. He had faced almost certain death once this week already. He had no idea how he was going to get out of this one. At least not yet. The window was too small for him to slide through, and he was pretty sure Jenny’s protection amulet was used up and wouldn’t protect him from either a fall or a headsman’s axe. He fell asleep without coming up with any clever ideas.

  Long after dark, he awoke to the sound of keys in the lock. Jack sat up in confusion, which only grew as the queen stepped into the room with a lantern. “Leave us,” she said to the guards.

  “But your majesty...”

  “I will be fine, I promise. Go downstairs. I will call for you when I am done.”

  The men nodded and left. The queen didn’t bother closing the door behind her. She stared at Jack with merciless brown eyes. Jack imagined most men would squirm under such a gaze which made him all the more determined that he would not. He wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

  “Why did you kill him?” Jack asked.

  She ignored his question. “Where is the gateway, Jack?” she asked. Her voice was only distantly related to the woman who had spoken in the king’s library two nights before. This voice made ice water run through his veins and a frigid tentacle slither up his spine. A primal fear ripped through his guts. He’d felt this way once before, and not long ago. He’d reacted the same way when he first saw the man in the white suit.

  “You’re his daughter!” Jack exclaimed. “The gal everyone thinks is locked up out in Morgantown. All this time, it was you!”

  Her eyes widened and her nostrils flared. For a flickering instant, her face showed fear, and she cast her eyes to the open doorway where no one could overhear their conversation. Her face contorted in fury and her eyes bored into Jack’s. She stepped closer. “Tell me! Where is the gateway? The crossroads? The way back to your world? Tell me what you know!”

  Jack felt something else sweep through his insides, like another dose of ice water. He shook his head. “Lady, I already know you are planning on having me killed. Why would I tell you something like that?”

  Queen Taliel reached forward. Jack flinched as she caught hold of the used-up amulet around his neck. Her lips curled into a vicious smile, and she held the amulet like a noose and stared into his eyes. From somewhere in her clothing, she produced a tiny knife and sliced the leather cord. Casting the amulet into the corner, she touched the knife tip just under his chin. “Now, Jack, tell me how to find the crossroads you came through.”

  Jack didn’t dare move his head. He didn’t even want to speak, for fear of the blade. He tried not to swallow. The queen grew more infuriated. She withdrew the knife. “You are impressively resistant to magic,” she said.

  Jack’s heart beat a drum solo. He didn’t say anything.

  The queen’s smile had no warmth in it. “Very well. You win. If you cannot be compelled by my magic, I must negotiate with you. You truly are sweet on Delcina, aren’t you? Here is my offer. Tell me how to get to the crossroads, and I will let the two of you free. Resist, and you will watch her slowly tortured to death. Very painfully. I will make you watch and listen to her every scream, her every shriek, make you smell her burning flesh, and set the pieces of her that we tear off one by one in front of you so you can see her beauty die a piece at a time. We will spare her tongue, so you can hear her curse you as she begs for mercy, knowing that you could have saved her. And then, when Zainus finds the crossroads somewhere near that village where he found you, my offer will be completely withdrawn. We will capture anyone standing in our way, and you will witness their painful executions, one by one. You will be the last to die, knowing you completely failed your friends and allies in every respect.”

  Jack gulped.

  Taliel called for the guards and then turned her attention back to Jack. “I’ve been patient long enough. Unless you have something to tell me right now, let’s find you a comfortable chair in the torture chamber.”

  The guards took their sweet time opening the bars on their doorway and sliding a metal-reinforced bridge across the pit. By the time they let Jessabelle over the bridge, Jessabelle expected to hear the Coven behind her. The way behind was silent, but two more guardsmen had joined the original three. One picked up her glow-stick while the others cast strange glances at it.

  They escorted her down another set of stairs into a walled courtyard. Two of the men walked behind her, rifles with affixed bayonets trained on her the entire time. Two others walked beside her with short swords drawn. The man with her glow-stick walked in front of them all. He was younger and wasn’t one of the three original voices she’d heard. He all but ignored her, walking with almost a bounce to his step.

  She was his prize, like a hunting trophy. Jessabelle was getting really tired of being that.

  An older man, unarmored but wearing a more ornate uniform, greeted them in the courtyard. He looked to be in his early thirties, with a hawk-like nose and thick brown sideburns under what looked like a cross between a top hat and a cowboy hat.

  The guard who led their party said, “This is the woman we caught sneaking through the gateway, sir!”

  Jessabelle stuck out her chin. “I wasn’t sneaking.”

  The officer looked her up and
down. “Are you a witch?”

  The young lead guard said, “Of course she is! See her wand!” He held out the glow stick to his superior. The sky had darkened while she’d waited for the guards, so the glow was visible, but not dramatic.

  The officer accepted the glow-stick and examined it. He nodded to the guard and said, “Good work, Johnston. So who did you leave guarding the gateway against the likelihood of reinforcements?”

  The guard blanched. “Uh...” he began. “We thought it best to bring her to you under maximum guard, sir. She’s dangerous.”

  The officer said, “Your decision is noted. Everyone but Chesterton is dismissed. Return to your posts immediately.”

  Everyone in the group but one rifleman saluted and moved hastily back into the bunker. The officer turned back to Jessabelle. “I am Lieutenant Aubrey. And you are?”

  “Jessabelle Rose. I done told them.”

  He nodded. “Thank you, Jessabelle. So, to repeat my question, are you a witch?”

  “No.”

  “And the wand?” He held the yellow-green illuminated stick up for emphasis.

  “It’s just a glow-stick. It’s got chemicals inside it that glow. It will die out in a few hours.”

  He examined the stick, shaking it slightly, and gave it back to her. “Very well. So will you please explain why you came through the gateway?”

  “I came to warn y’all. There is another crossroads open, and Thadeus and the Coven are trying to get through.”

  The officer shook his head. “Who? Thadeus? A coven?”

  “Thadeus is the name of the man my family calls the man in the white suit. He’s the one exiled from ‘Round the Bend. This side of the crossroads. They are coming to try and get his daughter.”

  “Ah, you mean Lilah, the daughter of the ancient devil, Hothlurian the Undying. Of course they are coming for her. That has been their goal for generations. They will fail. My men are well-trained, and as you saw, the blockhouse is designed to be the death of any who would dare come through the gateway. As to Hothlurian’s spawn, Lilah is all but dead herself, entombed within a fortress, guarded by an army.”

  The name was new, but it sounded like they were talking about the same guy. “What do you mean she is all but dead?”

  “Like her father, we cannot slay her. Not permanently. But almost fifty years ago, she fell into a deep slumber from which she has never awakened. Perhaps she never will.” His face darkened and his eyes pierced hers. “Is this the intelligence you were seeking for your allies?”

  “Allies? I done told you I ain’t with them. I was running from them not twenty minutes ago, and I came here to warn you. Not only are they behind me, they are also trying to break in through a crossroads near my house.”

  He raised a bushy eyebrow. “Your house?”

  “Yes. Y’all need to send soldiers and witches or whatever else you got out there to help my grandma and make sure none of those witches get through to ‘Round the Bend.”

  The officer chuckled. “Your grandma?”

  “I ain’t lying! Look, the whole reason I came here was to make sure y’all were warned. It’s the only thing I could think of doing that might stop Thadeus or Hoth-whatever you call him. If y’all do something about it, then we might be safe.”

  “From his daughter?”

  “Right!”

  “And so where are we to send our soldiers?”

  “Maple Bend! I guess it used to be called Blood Creek. If y’all can show me a map, I’ll show you where it is.”

  Lieutenant Aubrey shook his head. “A map? Let me see if I understand you correctly. I am supposed to tell my superiors to send out the remainder of our forces to some location because some young woman pointed it out on a map? I’m afraid I will need more than this.”

  Jessabelle exhaled in frustration. “I know it sounds stupid, but this is important. Look, if y’all go there, y’all will have all the proof you need.”

  He waved to a small house inside the wall. “Come, join me.”

  She followed him with Chesterton the guard behind her. A soldier opened the door for all three of them. Aubrey motioned to an uncomfortable-looking wooden chair in front of a desk. Jessabelle sat. Aubrey slid a similar chair out from behind the desk and took a seat. Behind him, the fortress surrounding the crossroads gleamed red against the dark, hilly horizon as the last rays of the sun struck it. Chesterton took a more relaxed position behind her, setting the butt of his weapon on the floor with a solid “thunk” of wood-on-wood.

  Aubrey called for an aide to light the two lamps in the office as the light from Jessabelle’s glow stick overwhelmed the remaining light of dusk. After the aide finished the errand and departed the room, Aubrey filled two tumblers on the desk from the liquid from a decanter beside them. “Drink?” he asked.

  Jessabelle absently nodded her head, and he handed her a tumbler with only a small amount of liquid in the bottom. She took a swallow and the burning liquid made her choke.

  He took the glass from Jessabelle’s hand as she coughed and set it back on the desk. “Not much of a drinker, are you?” he said.

  Jessabelle blinked away the embryonic tears in her eyes. “I didn’t realize it was alcoholic.”

  Aubrey grunted and downed the contents of his glass, then put it down. “I find it helps lubricate discussions. All discussions, really.” He turned toward the window and waved at the growing darkness beyond. “You know, you are not the first girl to come through that gateway.”

  “I’m not? Who else came? I hope you caught her!”

  He nodded his head. “It was a long time ago—well over forty years, as a matter of fact. A predecessor of mine handled it, Lucas Zellan. They renamed this place after him—Fort Zellan. As I heard the story, the poor girl was even more confused than you.”

  “What did they do to her?”

  He shrugged. “They questioned her and then set her free. There’s no going back that way, and all the other gateways are sealed. I don’t know where she went. Probably married off to a local merchant and had a family. She may still be around.”

  “Why do you think she married a merchant and had a family?”

  “Why wouldn’t she?” His logic baffled Jessabelle.

  “Do you remember her name?”

  He shook his head. “Maybe it will come to me before morning. I’ll let you know if it does.”

  “What happens in the morning?”

  “We’ll send you off to headquarters. You can tell my superior what you told me, and then she can decide whether or not you are not a threat.”

  “And if I am?”

  The lieutenant looked like he was about to answer, but instead picked up the decanter and poured more drink into his glass. “Would you like some more?”

  She shook her head vehemently. “No. I want to talk to your superior. I want to talk to someone willing to...” She hesitated at the muffled popping noises outside. The window in the office looked over the bunker, but nothing seemed to have changed. “What was that?”

  The lieutenant put the drink down and crossed to the window. “That almost sounded like gunfire,” he said. Another popping sound came from the bunker, much deeper and louder.

  Jessabelle stood. “They followed me through the crossroads!”

  “Perhaps. Stay here, young lady. Chesterton, rouse the troops and meet me at the entrance to the blockhouse.”

  The officer, his aide, and the guard left the building, and Jessabelle watched them from the window. At the moment, everything seemed calm and normal. The stars above framed the blockhouse, and except for some soldiers converging on the entrance, nothing seemed to have changed. Lieutenant Aubrey ran forward and called orders to the men. They arranged themselves into lines outside the entrance to the blockhouse with the front line down on one knee.

  For several minutes, nothing happened. Then men began falling over, accompanied by the somewhat less muffled popping sounds. Aubrey shouted as flashes and thunder exploded from the soldier’s rifl
es, splitting the night. More soldiers fell, and the others stumbled back, and then ran. Lieutenant Aubrey shouted “Hold the line! Hold the line! Return fire!” Suddenly, he grabbed at his throat with both hands, stumbled, and fell to the ground.

  Figures appeared from the entrance to the blockhouse, carefully positioning themselves as they exited and dispersed, seeking cover as they moved under the lamp light. Wearing the black vests Jessabelle had found in the shed, and armed with modern semi-automatic rifles, they fired at the retreating soldiers. A group of a dozen reinforcements burst out of a nearby building to rush the intruders, shouting battle cries and firing at their half-seen opponents. The Coven’s forces mowed the entire group down in a hail of gunfire.

  Jessabelle counted how many of the paramilitary types issued out of the blockhouse. She’d counted eight when a bullet shattered the window in front of her. She reeled away from the broken glass before realizing the round had shattered her, too. She stumbled and fell to the floor as blood leaked down her shirt and stained her daddy’s leather jacket.

  Jessabelle lay on the floor for several seconds, life draining out of her, as she tried to decide what to do. She could transform. That often healed minor wounds, but in the last month she’d learned her limitations. Still, she had to try it while she had the strength to do so...

  The effort darkened her vision into a tunnel and pain stabbed deep into her shoulder. Deep inside her and far away, the cat and the panther shrieked. The girl screamed. She blinked at the tears, taking shallow breaths. She’d try again. She just had to gather her strength and be prepared for the pain.

  In her haze of desperation, she thought of the potion from the shed. It had smelled a little like Hattie’s healing potion, hadn’t it?

  Her right hand still worked. Her left arm hurt to move. The muscles all over the left side of her body hurt to move. She reached into the pocket of the jacket. Next to the revolver was the vial with the earthy-smelling liquid. The seal had already been broken, so she just had to unscrew the lid. She tried to make her left hand move across her body, crawling its way to assist so she didn’t have to use any muscles in her shoulder, but her hand was slick with blood. After many tries, her hands shaking, she finally undid the lid. The room slewed around her. She slurped at the liquid and coughed, but choked it down.